Person Biography:
Shweta Basu Prasad is an Indian film actress born on January 11th, 1994, in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. She is a renowned actress in the Hindi movie and television industry, starting her career in television series and then transitioning to the silver screen with her debut in the National Award-winning film, Makdee, in 2002.
Shweta was born to parents from Bihar and West Bengal. Her father, Anuj, was from Bihar, and her mother, Sarmishta, was from West Bengal (Basu is her mother's maiden name). The family relocated from their native city Jamshedpur to Mumbai when Shweta was five years old. She studied Commerce at Mumbai's R.N. Podar High School and later completed her graduation in correspondence in mass media and journalism.
At the age of 11, Shweta began her career as a child artist in the movie Makdee, performing in dual roles named Chunni and Munni. The director of the film was Vishal Bhardwaj. Shweta's acting secured the National Film Award for Best Child Artist.
Shweta's stardom was triggered by her second film, Iqbal, in 2005, which ensured her future film offers in abundance. Shweta's character in the film fetched many accolades, including the Karachi International Film Festival's Best Supporting Actress Award. Shweta also won the Best Supporting Actress Star Screen award, Best Actress Critics' Choice at Zee Cine Awards, and several other nominations.
Her career took a turn in 2008 with her Telugu debut film, Kotha Bangaru Lokam. The film was an instant hit and commercial success. Shweta, along with Varun Sandesh as co-star, received many awards in Tollywood. Her other Telugu movies include Kalavar King, Kasko, Ride, etc.
Shweta after tasting success as an actress researched, produced, and directed a documentary film called ROOTS, about the dying visibility of Indian classical music among Indian youth. She interviewed A R Rahman, Vishal Bhardwaj, Shiv Kumar Sharma, Shubha Mudgal, Gulzar, HariPrasad Chaurasia, Amit Trivedi, among others. Shweta spent four years between 2012 to 2015 working on this passion project. The documentary is now available on Netflix.
Shweta also produced, acted, and did the casting for 2015's hit short film sensation "Interior Cafe Night" in which she co-starred with her Iqbal co-star Naseeruddin Shah along with Shernaz Patel and Naveen Kasturia. The short film was directed by Shweta's school friend writer-director Adhiraj Bose.
Shweta is back to the big screen in 2019 with the year's surprise hit The Tashkent Files by Vivek Agnihotri. Shweta plays a journalist unraveling the mystery of India's second prime minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri.
