Konkona Sen Sharma: From Mrs Iyer to Mrs Talwar

It is hard to believe Konkona Sen Sharma when she tells you she never wanted to be an actor and imagined herself to be in the media or perhaps in advertising. Growing up with a mother like Aparna Sen, an acclaimed actor and one of the few female directors of her time, Konkona says filming was like household activity. The acting bug never really bit until she went to college.

"There was always something going on at home; my mother's friends would be there on most days, rehearsals would take place and screenplays were discussed. Otherwise, I would find her in her office working onSananda (the magazine she helmed for years)," says Konkona. What she remembers fondly are the various film festivals her mother would take her along to. "Either she would be on the jury or was showing one of her films... my mother would take me to a lot of film festivals " to Moscow, Cairo or Tehran," she remembers.

Konkona's early forays into film were when she was a child. Both were films directed by her mother; when she was four in 1983, she played the role of a young boy in Indira, a Bengali film, and at nine, she was in Picnic, a tele-movie starring Shabana Azmi. Her first movie as an adult was Ek Je Aachche Kanya, a Bengali movie directed by Subrata Sen, where she plays an obsessive teenager. Konkona followed this up with Rituparno Ghosh's Titli in 2002, where she shared screen space with Mithun Chakraborty and her mother.

Her Bollywood debut came with the 2002 critically-acclaimed Mr and Mrs Iyer. Directed by her mother and cast opposite Rahul Bose, Konkona's portrayal of a conservative Tamil housewife earned her a National Film Award for Best Actress. In the following decade, Konkona's filmography included Page Three,Omkara (which got her a second National Film Award for supporting actress) and 15 Park Avenue.

Over the years, Konkona has created a comfortable space for herself in Bollywood with a slew of mixed releases. While there were 'serious' acting gigs, there was also Wake Up Sid, Luck by Chance and Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge.Her latest, Meghna Gulzar's Talvar, is a thriller based on the Aarushi-Hemraj double murder mystery. Konkona plays the role of Nutan Tandon, based on Aarushi's mother Nupur Talwar, who has been convicted of her murder.

What drew her to the role was the various possibilities it presented. "I was drawn by the character. There was no black or white attached to it. Nutan Tandon's role had its fair shades of grey," she says. The film, she reveals, approaches the case with three different possibilities, and in one she is shown guilty of murder. Aarushi's aunt, a journalist in the US, has recently written that Konkona's portrayal "captures the essence" of her cousin Nupur. And at the ongoing Toronto International Film Festival, Talvar was met with a packed auditorium.

Konkona is back on the Hindi screen after a hiatus of sorts. Her last commercial outing, Ek Thi Dayan, was in 2013. There was also Gour Hari Dastan earlier this year. Is that because Bengali movies allow for a better space to perform. "Bengali movies these days aspire to be like Bollywood," she laughs. "But yes, there is more creativity, and better roles to perform."

Being a mother is not easy in Bollywood, but Konkona is thankful for the roles that have come her way. "So far, I haven't had to worry about a meaty part. And, I remain hopeful." She's worked with some of the best directors, and says that she looks forward to working with directors Gauri Shinde and Anurag Kashyap.

Following in her mother's footsteps, Konkona plans to turn director some day. Her script forDeath in the Ganj, part of NFDC's National Script Lab Programme last year, is set in the hills. "I wrote it under the mentorship of Marten Rabarts, and would love to direct it some day. But without a big star, funding is my main concern," she says. Konkona had earlier co-written and directed a short film, Naamkoron(The Christening) for the Kala Ghoda Film Festival.

Konkona is usually quite guarded about her personal life. So, when two weeks ago, she took to Twitter to announced her separation from husband Ranvir Shorey, it created quite a flutter. She says that she wanted to put the rumours to rest for good. "There were too many stories doing the rounds, and I wanted to say what I had to on Twitter," she says. They have a four-year-old son, Harun.

Konkona will be seen next in A.R. Murugadoss's Akira. She has also been signed up for Prakash Jha's next and has Saari Raat coming up, a movie directed by mother Aparna, which released at the London Film Festival earlier this year.

http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report-konkona-sen-sharma-from-mrs-iyer-to-mrs-talwar-2128996