Riya Sen
Riya
Sen who born on 24 January 1981 is an Indian
film actress and model. Riya, who hails from a family of actors including her
grandmother Suchitra Sen, mother Moon Moon Sen and sister Raima Sen, began her
acting career in 1991 as a child artiste in the film Vishkanya. Her first commercial success in her film career was with Style, a 2001 Hindi low-budget comedy directed by N. Chandra. Some of her
other films include producer Pritish Nandy's musical film, Jhankaar Beats (2003) in Hinglish, Shaadi No. 1(2005)
Malayalam horror film Ananthabhadram (2005).
Riya
was first recognised as a model when she performed in Falguni Pathak's
music video Yaad Piya Ki Aane Lagi at the age of sixteen. Since then,
she has appeared in music videos,television commercials, fashion shows,
and on magazine cover. Riya has worked as an activist and appeared in an AIDS awareness music video with the aim
of dispelling popular myths about the disease. Riya has faced controversies such as a MMS clip with actor Ashmit Patel, her photograph on photographer Dabboo Ratnani's
annual calendar and her on-screen kisses in a conservative Indian filmindustry.
Career:-
Riya
first appeared as a child artist in the film Vishkanya in 1991, where she played the role
of the young Pooja Bedi. At the age of
18, she did National Film
Awards winning director Bharathiraja's Tamil film, Taj Mahal (2000), which did not achieve
commercial success. She was scheduled to make her Bollywood film debut in Love You Hamesha, opposite actor Akshaye Khanna;
however, the film was stalled, and she finally made her debut in N. Chandra's Style in 2001. This low-budget comedy was the first commercial success
in over a decade for the director. A launch pad for Riya, cast in the
female lead along with fellow-newcomers, Sharman Joshi,
Sahil Khan and Shilpi Mudgal, the film pioneered a trend of commercial success
for small budget films in India. Riya and the second female lead of
the film were replaced by aspirant actresses Sunali Joshi and Jaya Seal in Xc'.
Her
next success was Jhankaar Beats, a comedy revolving around the music of legendary composer R D Burman, which saw her
playing a small and glamorous role alongside Shayan Munshi, Juhi Chawla, Rahul Bose, Rinke Khanna and Sanjay Suri. Produced by Pritish Nandy,
publishing director of The Times of
India, the film was made on a budget of Rs. 25 million
(US$525,000), marking the sixth in a row of small to medium
budget films made by Pritish Nandy Communications (PNC). Despite being part of a wave of
offbeat films that mostly failed to make an impact at the box office, it drew public attention upon its
release, which led to a commercial success among a restricted audience targeted
by a selective release in twenty cities. It was one of the first films made
in Hinglish, a mixture of Hindiand English. In 2005, she starred in Shaadi No. 1,
which had no female lead. This comedy, based on the theme of modern marriage,
was directed by David Dhawan, a renowned film director from this genre.
Although
films like Style and Jhankar Beats succeeded commercially, most of
her later films have generated less revenue. A number of them remained
unfinished. While many of her appearances have been item numbers and cameos, few of her leading roles have been
in low-budget films. Though she had small roles in Dil Vil Pyar Vyar (2002), Qayamat (2003) and Plan (2004), attention was drawn to her
item numbers in all three, especially the one in Qayamat that featured her in a
bubble-bath. Besides this, she performed another item number in James (2005) on director-producer Ram Gopal Varma's
behest, who has a history of casting aspirant actress-models likeSameera Reddy, Isha Koppikar and Koena Mitra in similar roles. Furthermore, she took part in a
dance number for Sajid Khan's Heyy Babyy (2007) that featured several
mainstream Bollywood actresses.
Personal life and family:-
Born
on 24 January 1981 in Kolkata, West Bengal, Riya is the
daughter of Moon Moon Sen, a former actress, and granddaughter ofSuchitra Sen, a legend in Bengali cinema. Before moving to Mumbai, she lived in Kolkata
with her parents and sister Raima Sen, also an
actress. Her father Bharat Dev Varma is a member of the royal family of Tripura. Her paternal grandmother, Ila
Devi, was the princess of Cooch Behar, whose younger
sister Gayatri Devi was the Maharani of Jaipur. Her paternal great-grandmother Indira was the only daughter of Maharaja
Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda. Riya's maternal great-grandfather
Adinath Sen was a prominent Kolkata businessman, whose father Dinanath Sen - a
relative of former Union Law Minister Ashoke Kumar Sen-
was the Diwan or a Minister of the Maharaja of
Tripura. The sisters are credited on-screen under their mother's maiden
name, although their official papers carry the surname Dev Varma.
Riya
completed her schooling at Loreto House and Rani Birla College, both in
Kolkata. Thereafter, she studied at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, and she took up jewellery-designing as a hobby. She designs most of the clothes
that she wears in films and commercials Riya is trained in Kathak and is still pursuing it under
Vijayshree Chaudhury. She is taking kickboxing lessons and has completed Level I
of the 5 levels in belly dancing. Riya entered the film industry through small-time modeling
assignments, commuting between Mumbai and Kolkata and traveling by public transport
during her early career. After breaking into the film
industry, she shifted from her mother's house in Ballygunge
Circular Road in south Kolkata to Mumbai. There she moved into the family
house in Juhu, where she stays with
her sister. During her stay in Mumbai, the media romantically linked her to
model and actor John Abraham In the Bollywood press, she was, in 2008, speculatively linked to
the novelist Salman Rushdie, although both stated that they were simply good friends. Riya
has suffered a number of untimely incidents. During the filming of Shaadi No. 1 in France, she was knocked
unconscious after being accidentally run over by a stuntman's motorbike,
but she was not seriously injured. Shortly before the release of Silsiilay, in which she starred opposite her boyfriend Ashmit Patel, a
90-second video clip was circulated through Multimedia
Messaging Services and the internet, showing the pair
in compromising situations. This was one of a number of
controversies that erupted when celebrities were caught in similar situations
using cameraphones. Following this incident, the couple split up, although Riya denied that she was
the girl in the MMS clip. One commentator claimed that the
footage was an orchestrated publicity stunt. In 2007, she underwent a brief detoxification session in Bangkok for addiction to chocolate.
Public appearance:-
Riya's
on-screen performances have established her as a hot symbol and youth icon in
India. Since entering the film industry, she has gained attention for
wearing a bikini in Shaadi No. 1 and sharing on-screen kisses with
co-stars Ashmit Patel in Silsiilay andSharman Joshi in Style, respectively. Such performances garnered attention because of
the relatively conservative outlook of Indian cinema and her own statements
about such practises. Before becoming a film identity, she had a reputation for
partying, which started at the age of fifteen. Riya's public persona is compared
to her mother Moon Moon, who was seen as a hot symbol of her time, while her
sister Raima is mostly compared their grandmother Suchitra Sen.
