Rachna Banerjee (born Jhumjhum Rakesh Banerjee; 2 October 1974) also known as Rachana, is an Indian actress, entrepreneur and television presenter. She is known for her works in

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

and

Odia Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to: * Odia people in Odisha, India * Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family * Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...

film industries and has also appeared in several

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

and

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

films. Being crowned the 1994 Miss

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, she has also won five beauty contests in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

including Miss Beautiful

Smile A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile. Among humans, a smile expresses ...

at the Miss India contest.

Early life

Banerjee was born in

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

, India, and was her parents' only child. Her father was Upamanyu Banerjee. Her original name was Jhumjhum Banerjee, and was changed to Rachana by Sukhen Das, the director of her debut film Daan Pratidaan (1993).

Career

Banerjee won the Miss

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

contest in 1994 when she was still in her second year of graduation course from South City College. She entered several beauty pageants before starting her acting career and was often declared 'Miss Beautiful Smile'. In 1994 she missed out of the Miss India contest grand finale where

Madhu Sapre Madhu Sapre (born 14 July 1971) is an Indian supermodel from Maharashtra. She won Femina Miss India pageant in 1992. Career In the 1990s, Sapre was an athlete who rose to fame when she started modeling at a very young age. As Miss India she ...

was crowned the title. Banerjee's breakthrough role was with director Sukhen Das who changed her name to Rachana (which Das found in 'Rabindra Rachanabali').. Her biggest success in film career comes when she played the female lead opposite Siddhant Mahapatra in about 40 movies.she appeared against Amitabh Bachchan in the movie Sooryavansham one of the cult movies of its era. She has appeared in 35 Bengali films with her favorite actor

Prosenjit Chatterjee Prosenjit Chatterjee (born 30 September 1962) is an Indian actor and producer. He is widely regarded as one of the leading actors in modern Bengali cinema. He predominantly works in Bengali cinema . He is the son of veteran Bollywood actor Bisw ...

Hosting Didi No. 1

Apart from acting, Banerjee is also hosting the popular Bengali

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...

TV show A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed betw ...

, ''

Didi No. 1 ''Didi No. 1'' () is a Bengali television game show for women launched in 2010. The show airs on Zee Bangla six days a week and also available on ZEE5 digitally. It is the second longest-running Bengali television series by episode count. Bac ...

'', which is aired on

Zee Bangla Zee Bangla is an Indian general entertainment pay television channel broadcasting in the Bengali language. It is owned by the Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It is the first Bengali-language satellite television channel in India, officially com ...

on weekdays. On 5 April 2013 a fire broke out in the

studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...

of ''

'' at

Tollygunge Tollygunge (Bengali: টালিগঞ্জ; nicknamed 'Mini Mumbai' or 'Mini Bombay') is a locality of South Kolkata, in West Bengal, India. It is famed as the centre of the Indian film industry, known as Tollywood, Marathi Cinema, South Indi ...

, and she

fainted Syncope, commonly known as fainting, or passing out, is a loss of consciousness and muscle strength characterized by a fast onset, short duration, and spontaneous recovery. It is caused by a decrease in blood flow to the brain, typically from ...

following a

panic attack Panic attacks are sudden periods of intense fear and discomfort that may include palpitations, sweating, chest pain or chest discomfort, shortness of breath, trembling, dizziness, numbness, confusion, or a feeling of impending doom or of losing ...

and was rushed to a city

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...

(Aurobindo Seva Sadan) immediately.

Personal life

Rachna Banerjee married Probal Basu in 2007. They have a son named Pronil Basu.

Filmography

List of reality shows

Awards

* Kalakar Awards, Bharat Nirman Award, Odia State Film Award, Special Film Award by West Bengal State Govt, Tele Samman Award, ETV Bangla Film Award, Zee Bangla Sonar Songsar Award 2015 for ''

'' & ''Tumi Je Amar'' * Odisha State Film Award (Special Jury) – ''

Suna Harini ''Suna Harini'' is a 1999 Oriya film directed by Himanshu Parija. The film's music director was Manmath Misra. The film starring Rachana Banerjee and Siddhanta Mahapatra in the lead roles. The film was a box office success. Cast * Suresh Ba ...

'' (1999) * Odisha State Film Award for Best Actress – ''Mo Kola To Jhulana'' (2001)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Banerjee, Rachna Living people Actresses in Bengali cinema Actresses in Odia cinema Actresses in Tamil cinema Actresses in Kannada cinema Indian film actresses Actresses from Kolkata Kalakar Awards winners 20th-century Indian actresses 21st-century Indian actresses Actresses in Telugu cinema 1974 births