Shweta Basu Prasad is an Indian actress. She has acted predominantly in
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
films and television. She won the
National Film Award for Best Child Artist
The National Film Award for Best Child Artist is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of several awards pr ...
for her role in ''
Makdee
''Makdee'' ( en, Spider), promoted as ''The Web Of The Witch'', in English, is a 2002 Indian comedy horror film written and directed by Vishal Bhardwaj. It stars Shabana Azmi, Makrand Deshpande, Shweta Basu Prasad and Alaap Mazgaonkar. The film ...
''.
Personal life
Shweta Basu Prasad was born in
Jamshedpur
Jamshedpur (, ) or Tatanagar is the largest and most populous city in Jharkhand and the first planned industrial city in India. It is a Notified Area Council and Municipal Corporation and also the headquarter of the East Singhbhum district. It ...
, in
Bihar
Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...
(Now in
Jharkhand
Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...
) and later migrated to
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
with her family when she was still a child.
Shweta studied commerce in the R. N. Podar High School,
Santacruz, Mumbai
Santacruz or Santa Cruz (Pronunciation: aːn̪t̪akɾuːz is a neighbourhood of Mumbai. The Santacruz railway station on the Mumbai Suburban Railway, the domestic terminal (T1) of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, and one ...
and completed her graduation in mass media and journalism. She wrote columns for ''
The Indian Express
''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...
''.
She added her mother's maiden name Basu to her
screen name, and she married filmmaker Rohit Mittal on 13 December 2018. She announced their separation on Instagram on 10 December 2019.
Career
Shweta began her career at a very tender age. She started in television but soon moved to Bollywood. Her film debut in 2002 was with a double role in ''
Makdee
''Makdee'' ( en, Spider), promoted as ''The Web Of The Witch'', in English, is a 2002 Indian comedy horror film written and directed by Vishal Bhardwaj. It stars Shabana Azmi, Makrand Deshpande, Shweta Basu Prasad and Alaap Mazgaonkar. The film ...
'' for which she got the National Award for Best Child Actress. After her success on the silver screen, she got offers from television series such as ''
Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii
''Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii'' ( The story of each house) is a Hindi-language Indian soap opera on Indian television which ran on Star Plus from 16 October 2000 to 9 October 2008. The soap opera was created by Ekta Kapoor and was produced by her pro ...
'' and ''
Karishma Kaa Karishma
''Karishma Kaa Karishma'' (English: ''The Magic of Karishma'') is an Indian television series which is a remake of the 1980s American TV series ''Small Wonder''. The series premiered on Star Plus on 24 January 2003. It is produced by Sunil Do ...
''. In 2005, her talent was again recognized by director
Nagesh Kukunoor
Nagesh Kukunoor (born 30 March 1967) is an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter and actor known for his works predominantly in Hindi cinema, and few Telugu language films. He is known for his works in parallel cinema, such as ''Hyderab ...
and he offered her the film ''
Iqbal Iqbal, Eqbal, Ikbal, or Eghbal may refer to:
Geography Iran
* ''Eqbal, Iran'', a village in West Azerbaijan Province
*''Eqbaliyeh'', rural district in Iran
* ''Eqbal-e Gharbi Rural District'', western provincial district in Qazvin, Iran
* ''Eqbal- ...
'', and she became a household name with the role of “Khadija” in the film. She won the Best Supporting Actress Award at the 5th Karachi International Film Festival for ''Iqbal''.
Shweta took a break after ''Iqbal'' and continued her studies. She is a graduate in Journalism and Mass Media, and after her studies, she made a documentary on Indian Classical Music featuring the legends of the music industry. Shweta spent four years between 2012 and 2016 researching and making this documentary film, which features music giants like
Shubha Mudgal
Shubha Mudgal (born 1 January 1959) is an Indian singer of Hindustani classical music. Her repertoire includes the genres of khyal, thumri, dadra, and Indian pop. She has received the Padma Shri in 2000.
Early life
Shubha was born in Allahabad ...
,
A R Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in int ...
, Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, Pandit
Hari Prasad Chaurasia
Hariprasad Chaurasia (born 1 July 1938) is an Indian music director and classical flautist, who plays the bansuri, in the Hindustani classical tradition.
Early life
Chaurasia was born in Allahabad (1938) (officially called Prayagraj) in th ...
, Vishal Bhardwaj,
Amit Trivedi
Amit Trivedi (born 8 April 1979) is an Indian music director, singer and a lyricist who works primarily in Hindi films. After working as a theatre and jingle composer and composing for non-film albums, he debuted as a film composer in the 2008 ...
and
Ustad Amjad Ali Khan
Ustad Amjad Ali Khan (born 9 October 1945) is an Indian classical ''sarod'' player, best known for his clear and fast ekhara taans. Khan was born into a classical musical family and has performed internationally since the 1960s. He was award ...
among many other legends. The film also has a ten-minute animation bit showing a 5000-year history of Indian music. Shweta, who is herself trained in playing the Sitar, is a classical music enthusiast and made this project from her own pocket out of passion, and this documentary film, ''Roots'', is now available on Netflix.
Shweta made her debut in Telugu cinema in 2008, with the film ''
Kotha Bangaru Lokam
''Kotha Bangaru Lokam'' () is a 2008 Indian Telugu-language romantic drama film directed by debutant Srikanth Addala, and produced by Dil Raju. The film stars Varun Sandesh and Shweta Basu Prasad with Prakash Raj, Jayasudha, Brahmanandam, and Ra ...
''. She has made eight movies in
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, nati ...
,
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 ...
, and
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 ...
.
Apart from films and television, Shweta has explored behind-the-camera work and worked as a script consultant at
Phantom Films
Phantom Films was an Indian film production and distribution company established by Anurag Kashyap, director Vikramaditya Motwane, producer Madhu Mantena and the former head of UTV Spotboy, Vikas Bahl. It was founded in 2011 by all four of the ...
.
In September 2014, Shweta was arrested from a hotel in Hyderabad after a police raid. She was detained by the police on charges of prostitution, and sent to a rescue home,
where she was held for two months.
In December, the Metropolitan Sessions Court, Nampally, Hyderabad, withdrew all charges against her. After her release, she issued an open letter to the media clarifying as false and misleading, a statement attributed to her by a journalist at the time of the arrest.
In the letter, she said during the time of the arrest, she was attending the
Santosham Film Awards
Santosham Film Awards, currently known as Santosham South Indian Film Awards are one of the most popular awards given for Tollywood films and Telugu Music Artistes.
Background
The awards first began in 2004 by the annual ''Santosham'' magazine ...
event, and staying at the hotel arranged by the organizers.
Shweta made her grand comeback with the
Balaji Telefilms
Balaji Telefilms is an Indian company that produces Indian soap operas, reality TV, comedy, game shows, entertainment, and factual programming in several Indian languages. Balaji Telefilms is promoted by Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor and is a ...
television series
Chandra Nandni
''Chandra Nandini'' is an Indian Hindi-language Historical fictional drama television series which aired on Star Plus from 10 October 2016 until 10 November 2017. It was produced by Ekta Kapoor under her banner Balaji Telefilms and is directed b ...
as leading actress Nandni, and her next Hindi film outing was ''
Badrinath Ki Dulhania
''Badrinath Ki Dulhania'' () is a 2017 Indian romantic comedy film written and directed by Shashank Khaitan and produced by Dharma Productions. A spiritual successor to ''Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania'' (2014), the film stars Varun Dhawan and Alia ...
'' by
Dharma Productions
Dharma Productions Pvt. Ltd., commonly known and doing business as Dharma Productions, is an Indian film production and distribution company established by Yash Johar in 1979. It was taken over in 2004, after his death, by his son, Karan Johar ...
.
Shweta played a rookie journalist and central protagonist in ''
The Tashkent Files
''The Tashkent Files – Who Killed Shastri?'' is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language thriller film about the death of former Prime Minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri; written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri. The film stars Shweta Basu Prasad, Na ...
'', a suspense drama thriller based on the death of India's Second Prime Minister
Lal Bahadur Shastri
Lal Bahadur Shastri (; 2 October 1904 – 11 January 1966) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the 2nd Prime Minister of India from 1964 to 1966 and 6th Home Minister of India from 1961 to 1963. He promoted the White Re ...
. She received critical praise and acclaim from critics and audiences alike. The film was received well commercially and has been hailed as a surprise box office success of 2019,
after successfully making a 50-day Box Office run.
Filmography
Films
Television and web series
Awards
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prasad, Shweta Basu
Living people
Indian film actresses
Actresses from Jharkhand
21st-century Indian actresses
Actresses in Tamil cinema
Actresses from Bihar
People from Jamshedpur
21st-century Indian child actresses
Actresses in Telugu cinema
Actresses in Bengali cinema
Actresses in Hindi cinema
Actresses in Hindi television
Child actresses in Hindi cinema
Best Child Artist National Film Award winners
Screen Awards winners
Zee Cine Awards winners
Actresses in Telugu television
Santosham Film Awards winners
Year of birth missing (living people)