06/08/2026
Wide Lens: Nandita Das on Courage in Art and Being an “Accidental” Actor and Filmmaker
https://casi.sas.upenn.edu/iit/wide-lens-rohan-venkat-nandita-das
Nandita Das insists she stumbled into cinema. “It was definitely accidental, in the sense that I had no aspiration of being an actor. I always enjoyed the performing arts, but I never thought of it as a full-time professional career.” Das came from the world of street theatre & social work, where she focused on improving the lives of women & children in slums & rural schools. But an early acting role catapulted Das to fame and a lifelong attachment to cinema, including three celebrated directorial ventures.
Three decades after her first film, with acting credits in more than 40 films across 10 different languages and having written and directed three movies, Das says her relationship with the film industry is still complicated.
“The film industry largely thinks of me as a social activist. The NGO world, from where I came, often thinks of me as a film person,” Das said. “I don’t think they made too much space for me in the [film] industry, but not in a bad way. They just didn’t think I was fully part of the industry and that was a fact.”
CASI Managing Editor Rohan Venkat spoke to Das about her “accidental” entry into cinema, whether she feels the industry has made more space for her over the decades, where courage fits into art, and what she is working on next.
