Anindita Banerjee Roy: Tollywood actress-dancer who dons many hats

Dancer, actress and producer Anindita Banerjee Roy wear many hats. Since her childhood, the Bankura-born has been culturally and spiritually inclined. Calling dance her passion and vision, Anindita won every dance competition she participated in as a child. And it was her mother, Nivedita Banerjee, who was her mentor, in the cultural arena. Today, Anindita is a popular face in the field of performing arts, courtesy of her tremendous hard work and meditation.

At the age of six, Anindita’s life underwent an unbelievable transformation. She was selected for Kumari Puja at Jairambati and Kamarpukur.

“As a child, I could understand how the perspective of the people changed towards me. It seemed that I was an incarnation of God. That feeling is completely different,” said Anindita.

Growing up in a family of police officers and politicians (her grandfather was a cop and her uncle, TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee), it wasn’t Anindita’s dream to become an actress. But the stories narrated by her grandfather fascinated her. For days, she used to stay in the characters.

“Given my grandfather was a police officer, he used to tell us real-life stories. I used to be enamored by those tales and characters. It was my mother who spotted my talent as an actress and encouraged me to pursue a career in Tollywood,” said Anindita, now a well-known actress and producer in the Bengali film industry. And for Anindita, her uncle is her ‘real-life hero’.

There’s a strong existence of women in every sphere of her life too. Therefore, Anindita has always wanted to empower women and girls. With ‘Infinity’, her women’s empowerment production, she cultivated a close network of female professionals and works for rape victims.

“I grew up in a household where women made it happen. My grandmother and mother taught me to work for women in crisis. We are doing a dance theatre production based on a true survival story of a woman,” she said. Meanwhile, her upcoming theatre production, titled, ‘Prisoners of Fate’, will be directed by Suprovo Thakur.

The road to becoming an actress wasn’t without hurdles for Anindita. After participating in the dance reality show, ‘Naach Dhoom Macha Le’, she tried her luck in ‘Fatafati Filmy Fight’. In fact, it was acclaimed Bengali film editor Rabiranjan Maitra who spotted the acting bug in Anindita and pushed her further. After winning the hearts of the audience with her strong character in the Bengali serial ‘Neel Pari’ alongside Saswata Chatterjee, Anindita went on to act in hit films like ‘Josh’ and ‘Romeo’.

Everything was on track for Anindita, with her serial ‘Mukosh Manush’ also faring well. But suddenly, her world went dark in 2011, when she met with a terrible accident. The actress suffered major injuries; her face was severely damaged and it took a long time for her to recover. However, even a grievous accident couldn’t stop Anindita from following her dreams. Soon after her recovery, she acted in Manoj Michigan’s ‘Damadol’ in 2013. It was at the music launch of ‘Damadol’ that she met Supratim Roy. Their common passion for films brought them together and they tied the knot. Today, the couple has a three-year-old daughter, Srinika Roy.

The actress-danseuse always felt strongly about physical, mental and spiritual health. So, it didn’t take her long to establish a club where the actress could teach how to take care of physical, mental and spiritual health through dance and acting. Her dance therapy has cured many patients.

“This cleans your past, enhances your presence and brightens up your future,” said Anindita, who recently completed shooting a Hindi music video where Prashant Samadhar has sung.

Come April 3 and she will start shooting for ‘Happy Budday’ directed by Samik Roy Choudhury. The actress also has a kitty full of projects, which include ‘Mono’ by Avirup, ‘The Story of Common Man’ by Papiya Adhikari and ‘Abar Ashbo Phirey’ by Debaprotim Das Gupta.