Rachna Banerjee


Rachna Banerjee, also known as Rachana Banerjee, is an Indian film actress who has appeared predominantly in Bengali and Odia films along with several films in Telugu, Tamil and Kannada films. She was 1990 Miss Kolkata and has won five beauty contests in India. She won Miss Beautiful Smile at the Miss India contest.

Early life

Banerjee was born in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, and was her parents' only child. Her father was Upamanyu Banerjee. Her original name was Jhumjhum Banerjee, her name was changed to Rachna by Sukhen Das, the director of her debut film Daan Pratidaan.

Career

Banerjee won the Miss Calcutta contest in 1990 when she was still in her 2nd year of graduation course from South City College. She entered several beauty pageants before starting her acting career and was often declared 'Miss Beautiful Smile'. In 1992 she missed out of the Miss India contest grand finale where Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was crowned the coveted title. Her fame led her into films and she was spotted by Chidananda Dasgupta for his second Bengali feature film Amodini. Banerjee's breakthrough role was with director Sukhen Das who changed her name to Rachana. Later she acted successfully opposite superstars of Indian cinema including Amitabh Bachchan, Chiranjeevi, Upendra Rao, Mithun Chakraborty, Siddhanta Mahapatra, Prosenjit Chatterjee and Tapas Paul. She appeared in 35 Bengali films with Prosenjit Chatterjee, of which 32 were declared 'Superhits'. She is regarded as the first and biggest superstar of Odia film industry. Her biggest success in film career comes when she played the female lead opposite veteran megastar Prosenjit Chatterjee in about 35 movies. She was greatly influenced by Prosenjit Chatterjee and she admired Prosenjit Chatterjee, the most.

Hosting Didi No. 1

Apart from acting, Banerjee has also hosted the popular Bengali
non-fiction TV show, Didi No. 1, which is aired on Zee Bangla on weekdays. On 5 April 2013 a fire broke out in the studio of Didi No. 1 at Tollygunge, and she fainted following a panic attack and was rushed to a city hospital immediately.

Personal life

Rachna Banerjee is married to Probal Basu since 2007. They have a son named Proneel Basu.

Filmography

List of reality shows

Awards