Nandita Das was born on November 7 in New Delhi. Her father, Jatin Das, a renowned painter is from Odisha and her mother Varsha Das is a writer. Nandita has acted in films in ten different languages till date English, Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Marathi, Odia and Kannada.

As an actress, she is known for her performances in Fire (1996), Earth (1998), Bawandar (2000) and Aamaar Bhuvan (2002). As a director, she is known for her directorial debut Firaaq (2008), which has won a number of national and international awards. 2001 to 2005 In Bawandar (2000), her portrayal of Sanwari, a woman who is raped and tries to battle it out in court, won her the Best Actress Award at the Santa Monica Film Festival.

Nandita Das directorial debut ‘Firaaq’ is about the aftermath of the Gujarat riots scanning the lives of different people in one day. At the Asian First Film Festival, it won two awards for Best Film and Best Screenplay.