Shonali Bose
Shonali Bose is an Indian film director, writer and film producer. Having made her feature film debut in 2005, she has since won such accolades as a National Film Award, a Bridgestone Narrative Award, and a Sundance Mahindra Global Filmmaker Award.
Bose earned her breakthrough with her first feature film, the 2005 biographical drama Amu, which was based on her own novel of the same name. The film which chronicles the attacks on Sikhs in Delhi in 1984, garnered critical acclaim and the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English. Bose then worked as the assistant director for the 2012 war film Chittagong, which she also co-wrote.
Bose's status as a filmmaker grew following the critical and commercial success of the dramas Margarita with a Straw and The Sky Is Pink. Inspired from the life of Malini Chib—her cousin and a disability rights activist, the former earned Bose a Sundance Mahindra Global Filmmaker Award and a NETPAC Award.
Bose is also an active philanthropist and supports various charitable organisations. She was married to filmmaker Bedabrata Pain, but the couple separated following the death of their son.
Early life
Shonali Bose was born on 3 June 1965 in Calcutta, West Bengal and spent most of her young adult life in Mumbai and New Delhi. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Delhi University and master's degree in Political Science from Columbia University, New York. She has been an activist since her time at Miranda House in Delhi University. Bose was also involved in theatre as an actor throughout school and college. Bose did not originally plan to be involved in film, however she saw it as a better outlet for activism after realizing how far removed her Ph.D studies were from activism. On her film work she says, "Film is the means with which I want to communicate ideas about social and political change."Career
Early career and breakthrough with ''Amu'' (1999-2010)
Bose worked as an organizer for the National Lawyers Guild for about a year. She directed live community television in Manhattan before joining the MFA Directing Program at UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Early in her career, Bose directed such short films as The Gendarme Is Here and Undocumented, and the feature-length documentary Lifting the Veil; the productions were screened at numerous film festivals.Bose made her feature film debut with the 2005 drama Amu; she had also written the production's screenplay. The film released in India in January to critical acclaim and positive response from the audience. Amu was screened at international film festivals in Berlin and Toronto. Bose won several national and international awards for the film, including the FIPRESCI Critics Award, the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English and the Gollapudi Srinivas Award for Best Debut Director. Bose wrote the novel Amu, which based on the screenplay which released simultaneously with the film.
Continued critical success (2010- present)
Bose co-wrote the Bedabrata Pain directed film Chittagong, a period drama that chronicles the 1930 Chittagong armoury raid. Her 2014 production, Margarita, with a Straw, starring Kalki Koechlin as a girl with cerebral palsy, premiered at 2014 Toronto International Film Festival to critical acclaim. The film won the NETPAC Award for Best Asian Film at the event. She had begun working on the script a year after the death of her son; the film's initial draft won the Sundance Mahindra Global Filmmaker Award, at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Bose was inspired to make the film by her real life experiences of studying in New York, her relationship with her cousin Malini Chib who has cerebral palsy, and her and Chib's sexuality as queer and disabled people respectively. The film was originally rejected by the censor board in India, but won an appeal and was released shortly after the ban on homosexuality in India was lifted.In 2019, Bose has written and directed The Sky Is Pink, a film based on the motivational speaker Aisha Chaudhary, starring Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar and Zaira Wasim. The film was theatrically released on 11 October 2019 and was critically acclaimed.
Upcoming project
Bose has committed to write the pilot episode for an untitled television series based on Diksha Basu's debut novel The Windfall.Personal life
She was married to Bedabrata Pain but is now separated. The couple's son Ishan Bose-Pain died on 13 September 2010 at age 16. Bose identifies as bisexual.Filmography
Awards
| Film | Year | Category | Award/Film Festival | Notes | - |
| Amu | 2005 | Best Feature Film in English | National Film Awards | ||
| Amu | 2005 | FIPRESCI Critics Award. | International Federation of Film Critics | - | |
| Amu | 2005 | Best English Language Film | Star Screen Award | - | |
| Amu | 2005 | Sundance Global Filmmaker Award | - | ||
| Margarita with a Straw | 2015 | NETPAC Jury award for Best Asian Film | Toronto International Film Festival | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2015 | Audience Award | Filmfest DC – Washington DC International Film Festival | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2016 | Audience Award - Best Feature | Frameline San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2015 | Youth Jury Award | Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2015 | Audience Award for Best Feature Film | Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2015 | Feature Film Award - Best International Film | Galway Film Fleadh | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2015 | Best International Feature | Gaze International LGBT Film Festival - Spirit of GAZE Award | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2015 | Audience Award | Montclair Film Festival | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2015 | Audience Award for Best Feature Film | Brussels Extraordinary Film Festival | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2015 | Best Film | Grand Prix Jury Award for Best Film | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2015 | Best Film | Image Out. Rochester LGBT Film Festival | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2015 | Jury Award – Best Narrative Fiction | MIX Copenhagen | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2015 | Best Feature Film | Lili Award | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2015 | Best Feature Film | Casa Asia Film Week, Spain | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2015 | Audience Award for Best Feature Film | North Carolina Gay & Lesbian Film Festival | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2015 | Best Film | Utah Film Center – Damn These Heels | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2015 | Audience Award for Best Feature Film | Teaneck International Film Festival - Best Feature Award | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2015 | Best Screenplay | Nashville Film Festival – Bridgestone Narrative Competition | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2015 | Audience Choice Award | Hamburg Gay and Lesbian Film Festival | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2015 | Best Film, Best Script, Best Direction - Filmmaker of the Year | Stardust COLORS | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2015 | VIWIFF Award | Vancouver International Women in Film Festival | - | |
| Margarita with a Straw | 2014 | NETPAC Award | Toronto International Film Festival | - |