Tannishtha Chatterjee

Tannishtha Chatterjee
Chatterjee at the premiere of The Forest on 11 May 2012
Born	(1980-11-23) 23 November 1980 (age 36) Pune, Maharashtra, India
Residence	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Occupation	Film actress
Years active	2003–present

Tannishtha Chatterjee (born 23 November 1980) is an Indian film actress. She is best known in the West for her performance in the British film Brick Lane (2007), the film adaptation of Monica Ali's best selling novel of the same name. She was nominated for the British Independent Film Awards as the best actress for Brick Lane. Her other notable roles have been in Academy Award-winning German director Florian Gallenberger's film Shadows of Time,Road, Movie with Abhay Deol, Dekh Indian Circus, for which she won the National Film award and Marathi film Doctor Rakhmabai amongst many others.

Chatterjee was born in Pune, Maharashtra 23 November 1980, to a Bengali Hindu family. Her father was a business executive and her mother was a political science professor. Her family traveled and lived out of the country for some time and then moved to Delhi. She majored in Chemistry at Delhi University and then went to the National School of Drama. Thereafter she worked in India and Europe with well-known theatre directors.

Chatterjee's performance in the German film, Shadows of Time earned her critical acclaim. It took her to international film festivals like Toronto and Berlin. Thereafter she worked on an Indo-French coproduction Hava Aney Dey (Let the Wind Blow) directed by Partho Sen-Gupta which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and won the best film award at the Durban International Film Festival among others. Following these, Chatterjee acted in films like Strings, Kasturi and Bibar. The Bengali film Bibar won her critical acclaim and best actress awards. Her work in the British film Brick Lane directed by Sarah Gavron gave her international exposure and recognition. Chatterjee was nominated for the British independent film awards along with actresses like Judi Dench and Anne Hathaway.