Nandita Das (born 1969) is an Indian actor and director. She has acted in more than 40 feature films in ten different languages. Das has been acclaimed for numerous performances, including in Fire (1996), Earth (1998), Bawandar (2000), Kannathil Muthamittal (2002), Azhagi (2002), Kamli (2006), and Before The Rains (2007). Her directorial debut was with Firaaq (2008), which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, traveled to more than 50 festivals, and won more than 20 awards. In 2008, she completed filming her directorial debut, Firaaq. The film is a work of fiction "based on a thousand true stories" and is set a month after the 2002 Gujarat riots. It is an ensemble film that interweaves multiple stories over a 24-hour period, as the characters from different strata of society, grapple with the lingering effects of violence. Das said that the film "gave a voice to so much that remains silent". In 2018, Nandita directed the film Manto. Das decided to make a film on Manto after reading a translation of his stories in 2012. She always had Nawazuddin Siddiqui in mind for the role and approached him for the same. The film was premiered in Cannes film festival. The film was also screened at Toronto International film festival. Das has acted in over 40 feature films with directors including Mrinal Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shyam Benegal, Deepa Mehta, and Mani Ratnam. She began her acting career with the theatre group Jana Natya Manch. She has taught at the Rishi Valley School. She is best known for her performances in director Deepa Mehta films Fire (1996) and Earth (1998; alongside Aamir Khan), Bawander (directed by Jagmohan Mundhra), and Naalu Pennungal (directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan ). She has acted in films in ten different languages: English, Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Marathi, Odia, and Kannada. The movie star Sukanya provided Das's speaking voice in the Tamil classic Kannathil Muthamittal. Das co-wrote and directed a play called Between the Lines (2014). She has also acted in Khamosh! Adalat jaari hai (2017), a Cineplay production written by Vijay Tendulkar. In 2016, she gave a TEDx talk at TEDxWalledCity on "The Biggest Hypocrisy of Our Times: Our Attitude to Poverty." In 2011, she spoke at TEDxNarimanPoint, on "Transformation in Education".
