Since 1967, National Award for Best Direction has been presented 53 times to 34 acclaimed filmmakers. However, you would be astonished to know that there has been only one woman filmmaker to have won the coveted honour. It is none other than actress, director, and screenwriter Aparna Sen.
Sen has won the prestigious award twice - for her directorial debut '36 Chowringhee Lane' (1981) starring Jennifer Kendal, Shashi Kapoor's wife, in the leading role, and for 'Mr. and Mrs. Iyer' (2002) starring Aparna's own daughter Konkona Sen Sharma and Rahul Bose as the lead protagonists. The filmmaker has also been awarded the National Film Award for Best Screenplay for the 2002 English film.
Born in Calcutta in 1945 to veteran critic and filmmaker Chidananda Dasgupta and National Award-winning costume designer Supriya Dasgupta, Aparna made her acting debut at the age of 16 in Satyajit Ray's 'Teen Kanya' and established herself as the leading lady of the Bengali cinema. Since then, she has appeared in multiple Hindi and Bengali films such as 'Akash Kusum', 'Immaan Dharam', 'Ek Din Achanak', 'Antahaan', and 'Chotushkone'.
As a director, Aparna has directed films in Bengali, Hindi, and English languages. From '36 Chowringhee Lane', 'Paromitar Ek Din' to 'Mr. and Mrs. Iyer', '15 Park Avenue', her movies have been awarded a total of nine National Film Awards. Apart from her three individual honours listed above, Sen's directorial films have won Best Feature Film in Bengali thrice, Best Feature Film in English twice, and Best Feature Film on National Integration once. Her most recent film 'The Rapist' starring Konkona Sen Sharma and Arjun Rampal was premiered at the Busan International Film Festival in October 2021.
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In 1987, the Government of India awarded Aparna Sen with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour in the nation recognising her contribution to Indian cinema. Since then, she has been awarded several lifetime achievement awards and has served as the jury member at various international film festivals.
