Kolkata-born Anasuya Sengupta has created history by grabbing the Best Actress award at the 77th Cannes Film Festival. She became the first Indian to win this award. She won the award in the Un Certain Regard section for her stellar performance in Bulgarian director Konstantin Bojanov’s ‘The Shameless’. Anasuya is a renowned actress who showcased the power of Indian women in film with this prestigious award.
Key highlights
- The Shameless is a story of a woman Renuka who runs away from a brothel in Delhi after killing a police officer. She takes refuge in a sex workers’ community in northern India and starts having an affair with a fellow sex worker Devika.
- The film is an engaging story of survival and freedom.
- Anasuya’s deep and empathetic performance showcased the strength of her character.
- Anasuya dedicated her award to the LGBTQ community and other underrepresented groups.
About Anasuya Sengupta
- She belongs to a Bengali family from Kolkata and has earned a BA degree in English literature from Jadavpur University.
- She also completed her Ph.D. from the University of California.
About the Cannes Film Festival
- Founded in 1946, Cannes Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Cannes city of France. Until 2003, it was known as the International Film Festival.
- The festival provides a platform for new films of all genres, including documentaries, from across the globe.
- It started with the idea to compete with the Venice Film Festival, which was the only international film festival at the time. The Venice Film Festival was blamed for its fascist bias during those years, lacking transparency and credibility. This was the key motivation for starting the Cannes Film Festival.
