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Cannes
Anasuya Sengupta, one of the lead stars of Bulgarian director Konstantin Bojanov’s Hindi-language movie “The Shameless”, bagged the Best Actress award in the Un Certain Regard category at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. The Un Certain Regard, which runs parallel to the festival’s main competition, aims to highlight new trends, new paths and new countries of cinema.
Sengupta, who is originally from Kolkata, is the first Indian artiste to win the category’s top acting honor. Sengupta graduated with an English literature degree from Jadavpur University and initially aimed to explore journalism. Anasuya began her career with a supporting role in Anjan Dutta’s 2009 film ‘Madly Bangalee’. Later, she delved into theatre before moving to Mumbai in 2013, where she worked as a production designer. Even after a much successful stint in Mumbai, she moved to Goa where she received the audition request from her Facebook friend, director Konstantin Bojanov, invited her to audition for his film, The Shameless.
In an interview with The Kolkata, Anasuya recalled her reaction when she was informed her film was listed under the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes. She said, “I received the news when Konstantin sent me a link to the press conference announcing the Cannes official selections. When our film’s name was announced, I jumped out of the chair with ecstasy!”
In her acceptance speech on Friday night, Sengupta dedicated the award “to the queer community and other marginalised communities” for bravely fighting for their rights all around the world. “You don’t have to be queer to fight for equality, you don’t have to be colonised to know that colonising is pathetic — we just need to be very, very decent human beings,” the actor said.
“The Shameless”, which had its premiere at Cannes on May 17, forays into a dark, disturbing world of exploitation and misery in which two sex workers, one who bears the scars of her line of work, the other a young girl days away from ritual initiation, forge a bond and seek to throw off their shackles. Sengupta plays the central character of Renuka, who escapes from a Delhi brothel after stabbing a policeman to death and takes refuge in a community of sex workers in northern India, where she meets Devika (Omara), a young girl condemned to a life of prostitution.
“The Shameless” also stars Mita Vashisht, Tanmay Dhanania, Rohit Kokate and Auroshikha Dey in key roles.
The jury for the Un Certain Regard was chaired by Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan and including French-Senegalese director Maïmouna Doucouré, Moroccan director Asmae El Moudir, German-Luxembourg actor Vicky Krieps, and American writer Todd McCarthy.
