Dabbled in Bollywood, TV shows, lauded for a play.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: India-born actress Nandita Chandra, who has dabbled in Bollywood and TV shows in the US, has won several awards for a one-woman play entitled “I-Pod.”
The play is about a young woman who has to struggle to live up to the legacy of her father. In order to do this, she decides to live on an eco-barge for two months as part of a competition to earn a grant from the Guggenheim museum.
Chandra has performed the play at the United Solo Theatre, the Network One Act Festival, and the Midtown International Theatre Festival. Debuted in 2011, the show was written by Natalie Menna and directed by Joan Kane. Chandra won the Outstanding Actress award at the Midtown Festival in 2011 and the Best Solo Show at the Network One festival in 2012.
Originally from New Delhi, Chandra made a name for herself in India as a television anchor on Channel V. She came to the US to pursue a career in acting and modeling, becoming the first Indian woman to be accepted into the Actors Studio Drama School’s Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) program in New York City.
She has appeared in a number of theatrical productions throughout her career. In 2003, she appeared in “Chehere” (the Hindi word for “face”) and “Red, Black and White.” She also starred in “The Blowup” in 2010. More recently, she became a member of the Off-Broadway Irish Repertory Theatre company, for which she has performed in plays like “Edible Woman,” which garnered her positive notices from theatre critics.
She also made a brief appearance in the 2010 Bollywood film Badmaash Company, sharing the screen with Hindi film star Shahid Kapoor, which can be seen below.
She has also been on television shows, including the USA hit “White Collar,” on which she played an FBI agent in the episode “Live Feed,” which aired last Thursday.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com