Shonali Bose Biography :
Born: June 3, 1965 (age 49), Kolkata
Children: Ishan Pain, Vivan Pain
Books: Amu: A Novel
Education: Columbia University, University of Delhi
Awards: National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English
Shonali Bose is a popular name in filmmaking. She is a known director, screenwriter and producer and best known for her movie Amu, which has exposed the suppressed history of genocidal attacks over the Sikh Community in 1984 after the assassination of Indira Gandhi. Shonali Bose is from Calcutta, while was brought up in cities like Delhi and Bombay. She did her graduation in humanities from the known Miranda House College followed by moving to the New York to get her masters in Political Science from the known Columbia University. During her college days, she was involved in activism and theaters as well and acted in a number of school/college plays and dramas.
Her career started with a role of an organizer at National Lawyers Guild wherein she directed live community TV in Manhattan in the US. This was soon recognized by the MFA Directing Program at UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Her short films like The Gendarme Is Here and Undocumented along with the feature documentary called Lifting the Veil were screened in a couple of prestigious festivals and several other venues of the world. She has produced limited number of films, which include Amu through which she started her directorial debut along with doing the writing of script and production as well.
This film was a big success in India getting positive reviews. She has won seven national and international awards for this film, which include FIPRESCICritics Award, Gollapudi Srinivas Award for best first-time director and National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English. The book called Amu was written by her only, which became the screenplay of the film. She brought both the movie and her book with same title at the same time. In the year 2012, she co-authored Chittangong, which was directed by her ex husband. It revolved around the Chittagong armory raid of 1930. The movie has Manoj Bajpai as Masterda Surya Sen. Next is her recently released movie Margarita with a Straw starring the talented Kalki Koechlin, which showcases a girl having cerebral palsy. As far as her personal life is concerned, she was married to filmmaker Bedabrata Pain, however, she has now separated.
