Aparna Sen is a renowned name in Bengali as well as Indian cinema. She has excelled both as an actor in film and theatre and as a director of parallel cinema.Aparna was born in 1945 in Kolkata. Her father is film critic and film maker Late Chidananda Das Gupta. She studied at Modern High School and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Presidency College, Kolkata. Her first film appearance happened in Satyajit Ray's Trois femmes (1961) when she was sixteen. Since then, Aparna has acted in many films in lead roles.In 1981, Aparna made her debut as a film director with 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981) which won national and international awards. Since then, Aparna has directed series of films on a wide variety of subjects. Most of her films have been well acclaimed nationally and internationally. Aparna moved to Mumbai and continues to make films in Hindi and English.Aparna acted in little theatre groups and commercial theatres for a period of time. She was also editor of a popular Bengali magazine (Sananda) for long time.