Anasuya Sengupta became the first Indian to receive a top acting accolade at the Cannes Film Festival, securing the Best Actress award in the Un Certain Regard segment on Friday night.
Primarily known for her work as a production designer in Mumbai and currently residing in Goa, Sengupta earned the award for her compelling performance in Bulgarian director Constantin Bojanov’s film, ‘The Shameless’. The film, which also stars acclaimed actress Mita Vashist, was filmed over a month and a half in India and Nepal.
Bojanov, an award-winning director and Sengupta’s Facebook friend, unexpectedly asked her to submit an audition tape, marking the beginning of her acting career. Sengupta, a graduate of Jadavpur University, embraced this opportunity and delivered a standout performance.
Previously, the Kolkata-born actress worked as a production designer on projects such as Srijit Mukherjee’s ‘Forget Me Not’ from Netflix’s 2021 Satyajit Ray anthology and ‘Masaba Masaba’. In ‘The Shameless’, she portrays Renuka, a vagabond who seeks refuge in a northern Indian community of sex workers after fleeing Delhi following a murder charge.
The film’s narrative centers on Renuka’s illicit love affair with a teenager named Devika, played by Omara Shetty. Devika, initially shielded from entering sex work due to her physical ailments, eventually faces a different reality.
In her emotional acceptance speech, a visibly shaking Sengupta dedicated the award to “the queer community and other marginalized communities for so bravely fighting a fight they really shouldn’t have to”. She concluded with a powerful statement against colonialism, drawing repeated cheers and applause: “We don’t need to be colonized to know how very, very pathetic colonizers are.”
