Nandita Das received her master’s in social work from Delhi University and was working for an NGO in the mid-1990s when she was approached to try out for a “bold film” about two women. This occurred 26 years ago. In Toronto last week, Deepa Mehta met up with Shabana Azmi, Das’ co-star in the film Fire, and the trio with the director. The two performers attended the Toronto International Film Festival for the world premieres of their respective movies, Zwigato, Das’ third work as a filmmaker, and What’s Love Got to Do with It?, a romantic comedy in which Azmi has a supp
Nandita Das describes herself as a tentative director and performer (despite helming three movies). She continued to play the game as she pleased even after her acting career took off. She claims that the decisions she took allowed her to work independently. Sometimes I worked on five films in a year, and other times I took a few years off. She appeared in movies made by a variety of legendary directors along the road, including Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Mrinal Sen, Rituparno Ghosh, and even Adoor Gopalakrishnan. The fact that not more people are aware of her work is her only regret.
