Shonali Bose
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Shonali Bose (born 3 June 1965) is an Indian film director, writer and film producer. Having made her feature film debut in 2005, she has since won such accolades as a
National Film Award The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorate ...
, a Bridgestone Narrative Award, and a Sundance Mahindra Global Filmmaker Award. Bose earned her breakthrough with her first feature film, the 2005 biographical drama '' Amu'', which was based on her own novel of the same name. The film which chronicles the attacks on Sikhs in Delhi in 1984, garnered critical acclaim and the
National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English The National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English is one of the National Film Awards of India presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It is one of seve ...
. Bose then worked as the assistant director for the 2012 war film ''
Chittagong Chittagong ( /ˈtʃɪt əˌɡɒŋ/ ''chit-uh-gong''; ctg, চিটাং; bn, চিটাগং), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is the second-largest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and third largest city in B ...
'', which she also co-wrote. Bose's status as a filmmaker grew following the critical and commercial success of the dramas ''
Margarita with a Straw ''Margarita with a Straw'' is a 2014 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Shonali Bose. It stars Kalki Koechlin as an Indian teenager with cerebral palsy who relocates to America for her undergraduate education and comes of age follow ...
'' (2015) and ''
The Sky Is Pink ''The Sky Is Pink'' is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language biographical romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Shonali Bose and produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur, Ronnie Screwvala and Priyanka Chopra Jonas under their production companies ...
'' (2019). Inspired from the life of
Malini Chib Malini Chib (born 1966) is an Indian disability rights activist and author who has cerebral palsy.
, and spent most of her young adult life in
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- ...
and
New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...
. She earned her
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
degree from
Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...
and master's degree in
political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
from
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, New York. She has been an activist since her time at
Miranda House Miranda House is a constituent college for women at the University of Delhi in India. Established in 1948, it is one of the top ranked colleges of the country and ranked as number 1 for consecutively six years (as of 2022). History Miranda ...
in Delhi University. Bose was also involved in theatre as an actor throughout school and college. Bose did not originally plan to be involved in film, however she saw it as a better outlet for activism after realizing how far removed her Ph.D. studies were from activism. On her film work she says, "Film is the means with which I want to communicate ideas about social and political change."


Career


Early career and breakthrough with ''Amu'' (1999-2010)

Bose worked as an organizer for the
National Lawyers Guild The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is a progressive public interest association of lawyers, law students, paralegals, jailhouse lawyers, law collective members, and other activist legal workers, in the United States. The group was founded in 193 ...
for about a year. She directed live community television in
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
before joining the MFA Directing Program at
UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (UCLA TFT), is one of the 12 schools within the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) located in Los Angeles, California. Its creation was groundbreaking in that it was the first time a leadi ...
. Early in her career, Bose directed such short films as ''The Gendarme Is Here'' and ''Undocumented'', and the feature-length documentary ''Lifting the Veil''; the productions were screened at numerous film festivals. Bose made her feature film debut with the 2005 drama '' Amu''; she had also written the production's screenplay. The film released in India in January to critical acclaim and positive response from the audience. ''Amu'' was screened at international film festivals in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
and
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
. Bose won several national and international awards for the film, including the
FIPRESCI The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI, short for Fédération Internationale de la PRESse CInématographique) is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world fo ...
Critics Award, the
National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English The National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English is one of the National Film Awards of India presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It is one of seve ...
and the
Gollapudi Srinivas Award Gollapudi Srinivas Award is a national-level private award given to a first-time director in Indian Cinema every year. It is given out in the memory of Gollapudi Srinivas (3 March 1966 – 12 August 1992). He was the youngest son of veteran Telugu f ...
for Best Debut Director. Bose wrote the novel ''Amu'', which based on the screenplay which released simultaneously with the film.


Continued critical success (2010- present)

Bose co-wrote the
Bedabrata Pain Bedabrata Pain ( bn, বেদব্রত পাইন; born 27 March 1963) is an Indian scientist turned film director, producer and screenwriter. Bedabrata Pain was also a member of the team that invented the CMOS image sensor. Bedabrata Pain ...
directed film
Chittagong Chittagong ( /ˈtʃɪt əˌɡɒŋ/ ''chit-uh-gong''; ctg, চিটাং; bn, চিটাগং), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is the second-largest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and third largest city in B ...
, a period drama that chronicles the 1930
Chittagong armoury raid The Chittagong armoury raid, also known as the Chittagong uprising, was an attempt on 18 April 1930 to raid the armoury of police and auxiliary forces from the Chittagong armoury in the Bengal Presidency of British India (now in Bangladesh) b ...
. Her 2014 production, '' Margarita, with a Straw'', starring
Kalki Koechlin Kalki Koechlin (; born 10 January 1984) is a French actress and writer who works in Hindi films. Known for her unconventional body of work, she is the recipient of such accolades as a National Film Award, a Filmfare Award, and two Screen Awar ...
as a girl with cerebral palsy, premiered at
2014 Toronto International Film Festival The 39th annual Toronto International Film Festival, the 39th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held in Canada from 4–14 September 2014. David Dobkin's film '' The Judge'', starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duv ...
to critical acclaim. The film won the
NETPAC Award The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) is a worldwide organization of 29 member countries. It was created as the result of a conference on Asian cinema organized by Cinemaya, the Asian Film Quarterly, in New Delhi in 1990 at the inst ...
for Best Asian Film at the event. She had begun working on the script a year after the death of her son; the film's initial draft won the Sundance Mahindra Global Filmmaker Award, at the
2012 Sundance Film Festival The 2012 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 19 until January 29, 2012 in Park City, Utah. 64 short films were selected for the festival from 7,675 submissions, including 27 international shorts from 3,592 submissions. Non-competition ...
. Bose was inspired to make the film by her real life experiences of studying in New York, her relationship with her cousin Malini Chib who has cerebral palsy, and her and Chib's sexuality as queer and disabled people respectively. The film was originally rejected by the censor board in India, but won an appeal and was released shortly after the ban on homosexuality in India was lifted. In 2019, Bose has written and directed ''
The Sky Is Pink ''The Sky Is Pink'' is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language biographical romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Shonali Bose and produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur, Ronnie Screwvala and Priyanka Chopra Jonas under their production companies ...
'', a film based on the motivational speaker
Aisha Chaudhary Aisha Chaudhary (27 March 1996 24 January 2015) was an Indian author and motivational speaker. She is the author of the book ''My Little Epiphanies'', published one day before her death. The 2019 Hindi film ''The Sky Is Pink'' is based on her ...
, starring
Priyanka Chopra Priyanka Chopra Jonas (; ; born 18 July 1982) is an Indian actress and producer. The winner of the Miss World 2000 pageant, Chopra is one of India's highest-paid actresses and has received numerous accolades, including two National Film Awar ...
,
Farhan Akhtar Farhan Akhtar (born 9 January 1974) is an Indian actor, director, screenwriter, playback singer, producer, and television host who works in Hindi films. Born in Mumbai to screenwriters Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani, he grew up under the influen ...
and
Zaira Wasim Zaira Wasim (born 23 October 2000) is an Indian former actress who worked in Hindi films. The recipient of numerous accolades, including a Filmfare Award and a National Film Award, Wasim was honoured with the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puras ...
. The film was theatrically released on 11 October 2019 and was critically acclaimed. She directed the short ''Raat Rani'', featuring
Fatima Sana Shaikh Fatima Sana Shaikh (born 11 January 1992) is an Indian actress, who works in Hindi films. Shaikh appeared as a child artist in such films as ''Chachi 420'' (1997) and ''One 2 Ka 4'' (2001). In 2016, she portrayed wrestler Geeta Phogat in the top ...
, for the 2022 anthology '' Modern Love: Mumbai''.


Upcoming project

Bose has committed to write the pilot episode for an untitled television series based on
Diksha Basu Diksha Basu is an American writer and actress. She is the author of the critically acclaimed novel ''The Windfall'' which is under adaptation for a television series by Shonali Bose. Biography Diksha Basu was born in Delhi, to the sociologist ...
's novel ''The Windfall''.


Personal life

She was married to
Bedabrata Pain Bedabrata Pain ( bn, বেদব্রত পাইন; born 27 March 1963) is an Indian scientist turned film director, producer and screenwriter. Bedabrata Pain was also a member of the team that invented the CMOS image sensor. Bedabrata Pain ...
but is now separated. The couple's son Ishan Bose-Pain died on 13 September 2010 at age 16. Bose identifies as
bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...
.


Filmography


Awards


See also

*
List of female film and television directors This is a list of female film and television directors. Their works may include live action and/or animated features, shorts, documentaries, telemovies, TV programs, or videos. A * Jennifer Abbott (Canada) * Sarah Abbott (Canada * Jenni ...
*
List of LGBT-related films directed by women This is a list of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender-related films that were directed by women. LGBT-themed films directed by women – especially, but not exclusively, lesbian-themed movies – are an important and distinct subset of the gen ...


References


External links


Official Webpage and Bio of Shonali Bose
*
Images Film Festival for Women
Zimbabwe {{DEFAULTSORT:Bose, Shonali 1974 births Living people 20th-century Indian women writers 20th-century Indian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Indian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Indian film directors 21st-century Indian women writers 21st-century Indian writers Indian women film directors Indian women film producers Indian women screenwriters LGBT film directors LGBT film producers LGBT screenwriters Bisexual writers Bisexual women LGBT writers from India Bengali film directors Film directors from Kolkata Film producers from Kolkata Screenwriters from Kolkata Businesswomen from West Bengal Women writers from West Bengal Delhi University alumni Columbia University alumni UCLA Film School alumni