Shonali Bose

Biography:

Shonali Bose is an Indian filmmaker, writer, and producer who was born on June 3, 1965. Since her 2005 feature film debut, she has received numerous honors, including a Sundance Mahindra Global Filmmaker Award, a Bridgestone Narrative Award, and a National Film Award.

Based on her own novel of the same name, Bose’s first feature film, the 2005 biographical drama Amu, won her a breakthrough. The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English and received critical acclaim for its portrayal of the 1984 attacks on Sikhs in Delhi. After that, Bose co-wrote and served as assistant director for the 2012 war movie Chittagong.

Following the critical and financial success of the dramas Margarita with a Straw (2015) and The Sky Is Pink (2019), Bose’s reputation as a filmmaker increased. Bose won a Sundance Mahindra Global Filmmaker Award and a NETPAC Award for the former, which was based on the life of her cousin and disability rights campaigner Malini Chib.

Born in Calcutta, West Bengal, on June 3, 1965, Shonali Bose lived in Mumbai and New Delhi for the most of her early adult life. She graduated from Delhi University with a bachelor’s degree in arts and Columbia University in New York with a master’s degree in political science. Since her days at Delhi University’s Miranda House, she has been an activist. During his time in school and college, Bose also participated in theater as an actor. When Bose saw how disconnected her Ph.D. studies were from activism, she decided to pursue a career in film, even though she had no intention of doing so at first.