Neetu Chandra

Early life and education

Neetu Chandra was born in Patna, Bihar, India. A resident of Patliputra Colony, Neetu graduated from the Notre Dame Academy, Patna in 1997 [1], and dreamt of entering the modelling world. Neetu’s father, a businessman, was initially reluctant to let her pursue a career in showbiz but her mother, Neera, stood by her. Not surprisingly, Neetu attributes her success to her mother, a native of East Champaran in Bihar. She has done dozens of ads and videos for reputed firms since her graduation days in Delhi’s IP College, University of Delhi.

Before entering the Hindi film Industry, Neetu was an avid sportsperson. She is a black belt holder in Taekwondo. She has represented India in two different games, which is very rare. She has represented India in International Taekwondo Championship at Hong Kong in 1996 and represented India in World Korfball Championship in 1995 at New Delhi. She is a national games Silver Medal winner in Taek-won-do. After completing her basic education, she started her work with small print ad campaigns in Delhi. But her hard work and persevarance took her to the Hindi film Industry.

Career
She entered film in 2005 in Garam Masala in which she portrayed Sweety, an airhostess.

In 2007 she appeared in Madhur Bhandarkar’s film,Traffic Signal. In preparation Chandra in order to enter her character spent a whole week living on the streets of Mumbai and living by a traffic light

Neetu Chandra also danced gracefully in a video album Rasiya Saajan for music director Ismail Darbar along with Zubeen Garg. The video was directed by noted video director S Ramachandran.

In the year 2008, she had four releases by Directors, Dibakar Banerjee, Rahul Dholakia, Ashwini Dheer and Vikram. Her Tamil film.Yavarum Nalam with Madhavan released this year and was declared a major hit.

Currently, Neetu is doing two major projects, one is Rann with Ram Gopal Varma and another one is Jag Mundhra’s Apartment.

On 20 March, 2008, a company named 7Seas Technologies announced that they will develop a 3D mobile game with Neetu Chandra playing the lead character. The game titled on her name Neetu (The Alien Killer), is based on a unique game story and revolves around the lead character killing different aliens. Neetu The Alien Killer Game Story: 3000 AD when more than half of the world was destroyed due to greenhouse effect. Atlanto City was captured by the Aliens, who came from the inner solar systems of the Andromeda galaxy. Thousands of Atlanto citizens were killed brutally. The Atlanto Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (ASETI) sends Neetu, a valiant and intelligent female and the only hope of the Atlantians, to redeem the Earth from the alien regime.

Neetu Chandra is the Life Member of International Film And Television Club of Asian Academy of Film & Television. Neetu was on the cover of Maxim India on the January 2009 issue of the magazine.

In a recent interview with Delhi Times, she was quoted as saying “I’m ready to go nude for a James Cameron movie”

Her moment of fame, or notoriety if you will, came when she posed intimately with another female model for the cover of ‘The Man’ magazine, a leading men’s lifestyle magazine in India. The shoot was objected by bystanders at Juhu beach in Mumbai where it was progressing, some of whom were said to belong to the right wing MNS, who raised slogans and said the shoot was ‘promoting lesbianism’ and ‘against Indian culture’.

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Rituparna Sengupta

Bengali actress Rituparna Sengupta rues she hasn’t got enough opportunities in Bollywood to showcase her talent despite being around for four years. But the National Award winner is excited about sharing screen space with none other than Shah Rukh Khan – in an ad film.

Yes, Bollywood couldn’t recognise my talent to the extent expected, Rituparna, who forayed into the Hindi film industry with Main, Meri Patni Aur Who in 2005, told IANS on phone from Kolkata She was then seen in box office duds like Unns – Love…Forever, Gauri – The Unborn and Sirf – Life Looks Greener on the Other Side. Rituparna believes she could have made a mark in the Hindi film industry if she had had the advantage of Bollywood lineage or contacts.

It’s difficult to make a mark in Bollywood if you do not belong to a film family or have proper contacts. Talent speaks when you get proper opportunity, said Rituparna. Her consolation is that she got a chance to share screen space with superstar Shah Rukh in an ad film for Sona Chandi Chyawanprash. She plays his wife in it.

It was an amazing experience to work with Shah Rukh. He is cordial and the kind of person who values time, she said. Asked if she was nervous about working with the actor, she said: I was very nervous when I got to know that I would be opposite Shah Rukh. I have a huge fan following, but personally I am a great fan of his

Rituparna shared her first National Award for Best Actress with Bengali peer Indrani Haldar for her role in Rituparno Ghosh’s Dahan in 1998 and recently won the same for Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s Bengali film Anuranan. Right now she is looking forward to her forthcoming Hindi movie Paroksh. It is Anup Das’ directorial debut and the filmmaker has woven a captivating story around a surrogate mother.

It’s a very women-oriented film. The story is so contemporary that a woman can easily relate herself with the characters, added Rituparna, who recently did the dialogue promotion for director David Dhawan’s Do Knot Disturb along with actor Riteish Deshmukh. When David Dhawan approached me for it, I happily agreed. Riteish is a nice guy and a fantastic person to work with, she said.

Asked if she had taken Hindi lessons during her initial days in Bollywood, she said: No, I knew the language and I do my own dubbing. Rituparna has also proved her talent as a playback singer in a song featured on her in Anuranan.

I sung it only to sync sound as my director said he would get it professionally sung later. But he liked it so much that he kept it as it is. Thus I made my debut as a playback singer, said Rituparna. The actress has finished shooting for two more Hindi films – Ajay Varma’s S.R.K and Faisal Saif’s Osama. She will also be seen in Priyadarshan’s Hindi version of Iranian film Children of Heaven.

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