Nandita Das wears many hats and her fiery passion to make a difference is evident in the choices she has made in her life and work. She is known to never shy away from controversial issues and unconventional roles and has chosen to be part of stories that she feels need to be told.
Nandita Das did her Masters in Social Work from University of Delhi and worked with various NGOs, before she made forays into films. She continues to advocate issues of social justice, especially those of women, children and the marginalized communities, through various platforms. She has been a featured speaker at many reputed universities and social forums, both in India and abroad.
Nandita Das was the Chairperson of the Children’s Film Society and wrote a monthly column for 8 years in the Indian magazine, The Week. She was conferred the ‘Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters’ by the French Government and was the first Indian to be inducted into the Hall of Fame at the International Women’s Forum. She was nominated, in 2010, by the World Economic Forum to be a Youth Global Leader. Nandita Das was among the 16 emerging global leaders, chosen from close to 4000 applicants, to be a Yale World Fellow in 2014. She has been the face of the colour bias campaign called, ‘Dark Is Beautiful’, and recently, ‘India’s Got Colour’.
Nandita’s second directorial venture, Manto, based on the life and works of the short story writer, Saadat Hasan Manto, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. It was the only official Indian film to be selected. It then travelled to various festivals around the world. Nandita also screened the film and shared the journey of making it at top US universities including Stanford, Yale, Harvard, MIT and Columbia. Manto continues to stream on Netflix.
Nandita Das has acted in over 30 feature films in ten different languages with many eminent directors like Mrinal Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shyam Benegal, Deepa Mehta, Mani Ratnam and others.
She has been a prominent speaker at many reputed universities and social forums, both in India and abroad; and advocates issues of social justice, especially for women, children and marginalized communities.
She writes a monthly column called the Last Word, for the magazine, The Week. She was the Chairperson of the Children’s Film Society, India, where she made many big and small changes to revamp the organization. Nandita has written, directed and acted in the play, Between the Lines that deals with gender inequalities. The play has garnered a lot of praise from both, critics and audiences and has been traveling to many cities across the country.
