From Amul celebrating Anasuya Sengupta’s win at the prestigious Festival De Cannes with an adorable doodle to Anand Mahindra praising her for bringing India in the limelight, the actress has been relishing all for the last few days.
Anasuya Sengupta has made history at the 77th Cannes Film Festival by receiving the Best Actress Award in the Un Certain Regard segment. This achievement makes Sengupta the first Indian actress to win this award.
She received the honour for her role in the film The Shameless, where she portrays a sex worker. The film, directed by Bulgarian filmmaker Constantin Bojanov, tells the story of two sex workers.
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Anasuya Sengupta was born in Bengal and studied English Literature at Jadavpur University. Initially, she aspired to advance her career as a journalist, but her plans took a different direction. She landed a supporting role in the film “Madly Bengali,” which was released in 2009. Later that same year, Anasuya moved to Mumbai to pursue further opportunities in acting.
Her brother, Abhishek Sengupta, worked in the film industry, and Anasuya sought acting opportunities for herself. Eventually, she began working in the art department of films and later transitioned to working as a production designer. She has also done production design for the Netflix show Masaba Masaba. Currently, the Cannes 2024 Best Actress Award winner resides in Goa.
While Anasuya was raised in the City of Joy—studying at La Martiniere for Girls School and Jadavpur University—she now resides in North Goa with her friend, actor Tanmay Dhanania, who is also from Kolkata.
Tanmay accompanied her to Cannes, and they both shared an emotional post on their social media accounts, which read: “Two people from a city called Calcutta live in a house called Thomsuli in a village called Marna in Goa. They have been friends for half their lives and have a cat called Mowgli. These two people are in a town called Cannes with a film called The Shameless that’s premiering in a few hours. Some things are unbelievable. And some things are inevitable. Oddly enough, this is both.”
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While receiving the award, Anasuya Sengupta said from the Cannes stage, “This award is dedicated to the queer community and other marginalised communities around the world. People from all these communities are fighting bravely. Which they should also fight. They have to fight this battle to get equal rights in the society.”
Speaking after the win to a leading publication, Anasuya shared, “I couldn’t believe it was happening! But as I shakily walked to the stage and stood with artists I have admired, my heroes, it felt oddly natural to be welcomed with so much authenticity and love by them. I am so grateful to the jury for seeing my hard work.”
