Roopa Ganguly

Roopa Ganguly

Birth : 1966-11-25, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

History

Roopa Ganguly (born 25 November 1966) is an Indian actress, playback singer and politician. She is best known for her rendition of Draupadi in B R Chopra's hit television series Mahabharat (1988). Often promoted as the Bengali Film Industry's answer to Bollywood's Shabana Azmi, she is known for her versatility and accent adaptation. She worked with directors such as Mrinal Sen, Aparna Sen, Goutam Ghose and Rituparno Ghosh. She is a trained Rabindra Sangeet vocalist and a classical dancer. She received several awards including a National Award and two BFJA Awards. In October, 2015, she was nominated as a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, by the President of India. She served as the President of BJP Mahila Morcha in West Bengal. She served as the General Secretary and the Vice President for the West Bengal Motion Picture Artistes' Forum, a body representing cine artistes.

Profile

Roopa Ganguly

Movies

Arshinagar
Tayyab's mother
Arshinagar is a Bengali musical romance drama film directed by Aparna Sen. The screenplay is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
Aro Ekbar
"Aro ekbar" is the film about women empowerment, middle age obsession, single motherhood, marriage or live-in relationship which one is acceptable in Indian society, friendship and bonding ...
Natoker Moto: Like a Play
Kheya's mother
Kheya, a theatre artist, faces challenges in her personal and professional life spanning from 1950 to 1970s in a world dominated by misogynistic men.
Gurudakshina
An orphaned boy Dev is adopted by Guruji and brought to his dance academy in Kolkata, owing to his dancing skills. Impressed by his talent, guruji takes him under his wings. However, Dev's one-sided love for Guruji's daughter Sanjukta changes their lives forever. Sanjukta finds herself seduced by Chhau dancer Gambhira instead, who seems like a man of dubious intent. Turns out he is a Naxalite, on a secret mission.
NayanChampar Dinratri
Nayanchampa, Champi and Malati are housemaids and work tirelessly to make their ends meet. However, despite the struggles they face, they find it hard to escape the reality of their lives.
Punascha
Punascha is a serious film about the relationship between an elderly author and his old flame which hits the headlines one fine day when things goes all wrong.
Aashbo Aarek Din
Chandana's sister in law is in love with a dashing Punjabi who has business interests.
Namte Namte
The film revolves around a typical middle-class family of Bengal. Ananda (Rajatava Dutta) is a very meek guy and is scared of confronting people. He is a peace-loving man and very shy in nature. He works as a clerk in a government office. His wife Seema (Roopa Ganguly) is however a spirited woman and remains tense about him and her family.
Dutta Vs Dutta
Runu
Dutta Vs Dutta is a 2012 Bengali film directed by Anjan Dutt. This is Anjan Dutt's semi-autobiographical film. Most of the film has been shot in a house of Amherst Street in Kolkata. Anjan has described this house resonated feel of his old house of Beniapukur.
Na Hannyate
Jui
Inspired by Zhang Ling's essay, The Great Tangshan Earthquake, Riingo's latest offering, Na Hanaytte, which means it never dies, is a poignant tale of a woman, Jui, who is caught in a situation where she could save only one of her kids and leave the other to die. Being a mother, Jui could never forgive herself for having to choose between her two children Ratan and Shiuli. But life goes on... years go by... The film is about relationships and how they gradually change in times of crisis.
Barfi!
Shruti's mother
Three young people learn that love can neither be defined nor contained by society's definition of normal and abnormal.
Hemlock Society
Niharika Basu
Hemlock Society is a school that teaches aspirants how to successfully commit suicide. Meghna, one of the aspirants, has a near-death experience, turning everybody's lives upside-down.
Mayabazaar
Three different stories Smriti (Memories), Satwa (Soul) and Bhobiswot (Future) get interwoven in one complex plot, creating a world of illusion.
Abosheshey
Soumyo (Khanna), returns from San Francisco to Kolkata, the city of his birth at the behest of his estranged mother, the enigmatic and vivacious Suchismita (Ganguly). What should have been a quick journey turns into a voyage of self-discovery and an exploration of the great metropolis that is Kolkata, a living, breathing character in the film. In the ravishing Nandini (Sen), Suchismita's protégé, Soumyo finds answers to his past and perhaps the future.
Jaani Dekha Hobe
A young musician and a fatso model have the same dream together, and they meet and fall in love at a bookstore. When their relationship starts to fall apart, an out-of-work magician steps in.
Nobel Chor
Diya
The Nobel Medal of great Indian Poet Rabindra Nath Tagore was stolen in 2004 and it was never found. This film is a fictional account of what might have happened to the medal. A poor farmer...
Rehmat Ali
A man evolves from seeking retributive justice to wanting peace for himself and his family.
Piyali's Password
Piyali Ray
A young woman comes to the United States from India to complete the legal formalities of her scientist sister's accidental death. However, as she tries to wrap things up, to her horror she discovers that perhaps her sister's death was not accidental. Caught in a web of conspiracy in a foreign land she struggles to get behind the truth, determined to unravel the mystery behind her sister's untimely death.
Luck
Special appearance
Born lucky, Karim Moussa takes to exploiting it instead of focusing on studies. Now a wealthy gambler, he decides to recruit about a dozen lucky people to participate in a deadly game of survival.
Chowrasta Crossroads of Love
the movie director ed by Anjan Dutt.
The Understudy
Adapted from "Dui nomberer asami" written by Nilanjan Chaterjee. 'Kaler Rakhal' ( The Understudy), is a musical depicting the lives of colorful 'Bahurupis' ( The itinerant performers ) in rural India, mainly in Bengal region. The story also focuses on contemporary social and political issues.
Khela
Special appearance
Kolkata-based Sheela Bhowmik feels isolated and neglected, and decides to leave her busy film-maker husband, Raja, to spend sometime with her friend, Renu, her mom, and then subsequently travels to Kashmir to spend some time by herself. Raja gets involved in a new movie depicting the life of Gautam Buddh, and is on the look-out for a male child to play the character. He does find one, a young school-going lad, Abhirup Mitra; introduces him to the Producer, Vikram; as well as other crew including beautiful Anjali, who has a crush on Raja. Neither Vikram, Anjali nor any of the crew are aware that Raja is the prime suspect in the abduction of Abhirup.
Bidhatar Lekha
Shubho's mother
The film explores two lovers and their relationship in their last life that had come to a tragic end, and in 2007 the pair confronts each other again in the current incarnation.
Chaurahen
Mrs Bose
Chaurahen (Crossroads), a film directed by Rajshree Ojha, who previously directed Aisha, in addition to two other popular specialty projects, boasts an impressive ensemble cast that includes Soha Ali Khan, Victor Banerjee, veteran Bollywood actress Zeenat Aman, and Kiera Chaplin, granddaughter of the silent film superstar Charlie Chaplin. The film is an adaptation of short stories by celebrated author Nirmal Verma. Ojha describes the three vignettes that comprise Chaurahen as “snippets of collected photographs, bringing together similar disconnected people trying to find their path.”
Jara Bristite Bhijechhilo
Jara Brishtite Bhijechhilo, is a Bengali film based on Joy Goswami's story Jara Brishtite Bhijechhilo, released in 2007. The film directed by Anjan Das stars Indrani Halder, Sudip Mukherjee, Aloknanda Ray. Indrani Haldar has bagged the best actress award at the Madrid International Film Festival (Spain) for her role in this film, plays a woman, who walks out of marriage after being subjected to repeated marital rape and starts living her life on her own terms with her poet-lover
Antarmahal
Zamindar's wife
In late 19th Century, Bengal Bhubaneswar Chowdhury (Jackie Shroff) is a wealthy and tyrannical Zamidar (Squire). He has two main obsessions: his desperate attempts for an heir, which even his new second wife Jashomati seems unable to deliver; and competing with his regional rivals to produce the most magnificent effigy of a goddess for the annual Durga Puja ceremony. This year he concocts a master plan - why not change the face of the goddess for the most powerful woman on Earth - Queen Victoria. Meantime his two wives Mahomaya and Jashomati try to look out for one another especially as Bhubeneshwar begins to sexually assault his younger wife each night. Traumatised and lonely, Jashomati is dangerously drawn towards the youthful sculptor who has been employed to create the great effigy of Durga, Goddess of destruction.
Ek Mutho Chabi
Producer
Ek Mutho Chabi is a Bengali feature-film released in September 2005. As the name suggests, the movie does not tell one continuous story over 90 minutes; rather it's a compilation of six different stories combined together, all of around 20–25 minutes duration. All directed by different directors. The movie is a kind of experiment with short stories after success of telefilm industry.Argyakamal Mitra’s Janmodin, Partha Sen’s Pakshiraj, Indranil Roychowdhury’s Tapan Babu, Prabhat Roy’s Ragun Babur Galpo, Anjan Dutt’s Tarpor Bhalobasha and Kaushik Ganguly’s ProgressReport make up the package of six.
Ek Mutho Chabi
Ek Mutho Chabi is a Bengali feature-film released in September 2005. As the name suggests, the movie does not tell one continuous story over 90 minutes; rather it's a compilation of six different stories combined together, all of around 20–25 minutes duration. All directed by different directors. The movie is a kind of experiment with short stories after success of telefilm industry.Argyakamal Mitra’s Janmodin, Partha Sen’s Pakshiraj, Indranil Roychowdhury’s Tapan Babu, Prabhat Roy’s Ragun Babur Galpo, Anjan Dutt’s Tarpor Bhalobasha and Kaushik Ganguly’s ProgressReport make up the package of six.
Nagordola
A dysfunctional family endures chronic illness, unplanned pregnancy, emotional instability, inappropriate affairs, and a host of other issues.
Shunyo é Bukey - Empty Canvas
Sharmishtha Sen, manager
Saumitra, a narrow minded brilliant painter and sculptor, visits Khajuraho Group of Monuments to draw inspiration and meets Teesta there through a common friend, Arijit who is an artiste, too. Love blossoms between them in Kolkata and though their family background and economic standards are poles apart, they decide to marry. Teesta breaks away from her rich, blue blood family. After getting in the nuptial bed, hypocrite Saumitra, to his shock, discovers that without padded bra Teesta is flat-chested. The shock develops into sense of being cheated, anger and finally hatred. Teesta goes and seeks solution from Sharmistha Sen, her manager. Will Arijit marry flat-chested Teesta?
Critical Encounter
The story is of terrorism that’s plaguing different parts of the Northeast as the backdrop. Shilajeet Majumdar, a militant on the run, takes refuge in a dilapidated mansion. Rupa Ganguly stays there with her father-in-law Soumitra Chatterjee and his father Haradhan Bandopadhyay who’s confined to bed and is unable to speak. This film focuses on the friction and undercurrent of tension between the lady of the house and the terrorist.
Mayer Raja
Raja, an orphan adopted by a wealthy couple, is given love and vain respect but is deprived of education. He falls in love with Tithi but things take a bad turn when she learns that he is illiterate.
Bow Barracks Forever
As the modern world hustles toward never-ending changes, the residents of a small Anglo-Indian community in the lively metropolis of Kolkata try to preserve their unique identity in this moving drama from India. A host of characters, including Emily (Lillete Dubey), her son Bradly (Clayton Rodgers) and the woman he loves, Anne (Neha Dubey) -- who's stuck in an abusive marriage -- deal with personal struggles and pressure to give up their homes.
Mahulbanir Sereng
The story of Mahulbanir Sereng is a narrative revolving around the triangular love story of Aghore (Pijush Ganguly), with his wife Saheli (Chandrayee Ghosh) and Dr. Alaktak Roy (Shilajeet Majumdar). Aghore is a police constable who works in a different place so he often stays out of hometown, in the mean time his wife Saheli gets closer with the new young doctor of their village.
In the Forest... Again
The film features the characters from Satyajit Ray's Aranyer Din Ratri, returning to the forest over thirty years later. Ashim, Sanjoy, Harinath and Aparna have grown old in this film; Shekhar has died. They set out on a journey to break off every link with civilisation for a few days. However, the trip turns sour when Ashim and Aparna's daughter, Amrita, goes missing. It transpires that she is being held for ransom by local tribespeople. Police intervene and the kidnapped girl is returned to her parents, albeit against her own wishes.
Dekha
A journey through the life of an aged Bengali poet, Shashibhushan. Shashbhushan, now blind, reflects on his past. Stimulated by sounds - songs, crows, traffic, and an electronic lighter - he recalls the now-vanished arts and literature scene of post independence Calcutta. The old man lives in a crumbling aristocratic mansion in the heart of town, which he shares with his teacher's daughter, Sarama, and her young son Shumon. During a vacation in the country another man enters their lives. Gangan was born blind and is a talented singer. Gangan and Sarama engage in a secret affair as Shashibhushan recalls his own wife, who he lost because of his uncontrollable sexual appetite.
Bastir Meye Radha
Radha's life takes a downward spiral after her mother is killed. Fate brings her to the city and she gets a job as a house help. Things change when she falls in love with the handsome owner.
The Lady of the House
Sudeshna
A quiet drama about a lonely, sad, middle-aged woman, Banalata, who has lived a solitary existence since her husband-to-be died the night before their wedding from a snake bite. Never having quite gotten over the tragedy, she rarely ventures out and is clearly very lonely. This changes when she agrees to allow a film production to shoot in a wing in her sprawling estate.
Yugant
Anasuya
Deepak and Anasuya are an estranged couple, now leading separate lives in Cuttack and Bombay. They meet again after 18 months of separation, at a small fishing village where they had once honeymooned.
Rajar Raja
Raja takes to alcohol after the death of his parents. However, his life takes a turn when his childhood friends reconnect with him.
Janani
The film narrates the life of a little boy and his ostracized mother who is isolated from him as she is believed to be a witch in the village she lives in. It is based on a Bengali short story named Baen written by the renowned Indian author Mahasweta Devi.
The Padma Boatman
Kopila
Based on the timeless literary work by Manik Bandyopadhyay, Padma Nadir Majhi was directed by Gautam Ghosh. The movie illustrates the tumultuous lives of the fishermen and their families, living by the river Padma. Beautiful shots of the river, Ghosh's flair for realism and brilliant display of acting skills by noted actors of Bangladesh and West Bengal, including Utpal Dutt, Robi Ghosh, Abul Khayer, Raisul Islam Asad, Champa, and Rupa Ganguli, fetched the movie local and international honours.
Prithibir Sesh Station
Samaresh must find a way to clear his former lover Jayati's name from a murder case where she is accused of killing a man who is suspected to be behind her younger brother's disappearance.
Nishchaiy
Vidya
The story of two brothers, Ravi and Rohan Yadav, separated due to unforeseen circumstances created by Ravi's employer.
Naa Ille Naa Swargam
Krishna wife
Saugandh
Rajha
Story of love and war
Sadharan Meye
Ranjit, an honest policeman, works hard on taking down Ranita's gang but fails each time. An arrangement brings him to get to know about Ranita's real self Sarbani, his childhood sweetheart. Ranita's hands are tied for money, and commitments complicate their lives. Will they be able to reunite and get back on track?
Bahaar Aane Tak
Rama
The lives of two friends are turned upside-down when someone from their past returns.
Pyar Ka Devta
Shardha Kumar
Film starring Mithun Chakraborty and Madhuri Dixit
Suddenly, One Day
Seema
Shasanka is a retired teacher who lives with his wife and two daughters. The family is thrown into an uproar after he goes out for a walk and disappears from their lives. Each member of the family reviews her final hours and days with him to try and discover what, if anything led to his disappearance.
Toofan
An earthquake tears a businessman's family apart. Years later, they reunite in a courtroom trial where the father meets his sons under unprecedented circumstances.
Kamla Ki Maut
The film is set in a lower middle class chawl, an apartment building in Mumbai, a 20-year-old and unmarried Kamla, unable to handle the news of her pregnancy commits suicide. This makes her neighbourhood examine their own secrets and the choices they have made in their own lives.