Nandana Sen Age, Husband, Family, Biography & More

Some Lesser Known Facts About Nandana Sen

• Nandana Sen is an Indian-American actor, an advocate of child rights, author, filmmaker, and scriptwriter who has acted in many well-known Hindi and English films such as Black (2005), The War Within (2005), and Rang Rasiya (2008). Nandana is Amartya Sen’s daughter, who is a famous Indian economist and recipient of the Bharat Ratna award.

• Nandana spent her childhood in New Delhi and London.
  

  A childhood photo of Nandana (left) with her mother and sister

• In 1973, she relocated to Calcutta (now Kolkata) after her parents got divorced.

• Nanadana Sen finished her schooling in Kolkata. Although she studied at an English medium school, she used Bengali as her main language and took pleasure in reading traditional Bengali literature.

• After completing her schooling, Sen decided to shift to the United States of America (USA) to pursue higher education. During a media interaction, Sen explained the reasons for choosing the USA to move to and said,
  

  I did not want to choose a country that we had been colonized by. I wanted to choose a country toward which I felt no resentment. That’s how I ended up in America. I absolutely loved being at Harvard, I loved studying literature and learning with wonderful writers like Seamus Heaney and Toni Morrison, and [taking] film classes with Spike Lee, it was just great. It couldn’t have been more fun.”

• During her first year at Harvard, Nandana received the Detur Prize for being the top student in her class. She also earned the John Harvard Scholarship and the Elizabeth Cary Agassiz Award for her outstanding academic achievements. She also served as a member of the academic honour society Phi Beta Kappa at Harvard in her junior year.
  

  Nandana Sen’s photo taken during her graduation ceremony

• While studying at USC, her last project film, Arranged Marriage, was shown in numerous international film festivals.

• Nanadana Sen received a job offer from Ms Magazine, a feminism magazine based in New York, after completing her master’s degree in English Literature, but she refused the job offer to work as an editor with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts that focuses on education. There, she edited several books including The Riverside Shakespeare and The Best American Essays.

• Nandana has written many books, such as Kangaroo Kisses (2016), Talky Tumble of Jumble Farm (2017), Not Yet! (2017), The Monkey Who Wanted to Fly (2018), In My Heart (2019), Youthquake (a collection of books for adults), Make Up Your Mind (a translated collection of Bengali poetry by Nabaneeta Dev Sen), and Acrobat.
  

  Nandana Sen during the launch of her book Not Yet!

• In an interview, Nandana discussed her first movie Gudia (1997) and mentioned that at first, she turned down the opportunity to act in the film because she wanted to assist the director in directing it. However, the director agreed to her request on one condition – she had to act in the film as the main character. Nandana said,
  

  While studying, I got accidentally cast by Goutam Ghose in Gudia. I wanted to assist him, but was shocked when he said he wanted to cast me as his lead. He said, ‘I will let you assist me if you agree to be my lead heroine.’ And I made my film debut.”

• She appeared in Branchie, an Italian film, and Forever, a Canadian film; both films were released in 1999.

• Nandana got the part of Maarya in Seducing Maarya, a Canadian English drama movie that came out in 2000. Besides acting in the film, Nandana also worked as an associate producer for it.
  

  Nandana Sen in a snapshot from the Canadian film Seducing Maarya

• She wrote the script for and produced a short film titled Forever which was released in 2000.

• In 2005, she acted in a Hollywood film titled The War Within as Duri Choudhury. In the same year, she appeared in a Bollywood film titled My Wife’s Murder as Reena Wadhwa, and in another Bollywood film titled Tango Charlie as Shyamoli.

• She gained prominence after playing the role of Sarah McNally (Rani Mukerji’s character’s sister) in the Bollywood movie Black in 2005.
  

  Nandana Sen with Rani Mukerji in a still from the film Black

• In 2006, she appeared in The World Unseen, a British film, as Rehmat.

• She acted along with Randeep Hooda in the 2008 Bollywood film Rang Rasiya in which she essayed the role of a character named Sugandha.
  

  Nandana Sen in a still from the film Rang Rasiya

• She was seen in the Hindi films Prince and Jhootha Hi Sahi in 2010.

• In the same year, she landed a role in a Bengali film titled Autograph.

• She bagged the role of a character named Radha in The Forest, a film released in both Hindi and English in 2012.

• Nanadana Sen is not only an author and actor but also engages in child activism. While studying in Kolkata, Sen used to collect food and clothes for underprivileged children. At Harvard University, she took part in various marches against domestic abuse and support of abortion rights. She has held the post of ambassador for Child Protection for Save the Children, India. She has also worked in close juncture with various organizations that focus on child rights such as UNICEF, RAHI (India’s first organization for survivors of child sexual abuse), and Apne Aap (which aims to prevent intergenerational prostitution). Sen has worked as an expert on the child’s rights panel and as a juror with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).
  

  A collage of Nandana Sen’s photos taken during her various social activism events

• She appeared on the cover of FHM Active, a health magazine, in 2015.
  

  A photo of Nandana Sen on the cover of FHM Active

• Nandana Sen loves animals, and she owns a pet cat named Lekhika.
  

  A photo of Nandana Sen with her pet cat Lekhika

• She is a travel enthusiast, and she has been to many countries including China, Egypt, and Africa.

• She has been a member of the Jaipur Literature Festival’s expert panel.

• Nanadana Sen supports the LGBTQIA+ community. She, along with her family, frequently joins marches held in the United States to show her support for the community.

• In October 2023, reports about Nandana’s father’s death emerged on social media. She, however, denied these claims through a post on X and said that he was alive.

Friends, thanks for your concern but it’s fake news: Baba is totally fine. We just spent a wonderful week together w/ family in Cambridge—his hug as strong as always last night when we said bye! He is teaching 2 courses a week at Harvard, working on his gender book—busy as ever! pic.twitter.com/Fd84KVj1AT

— Nandana Sen (@nandanadevsen) October 10, 2023