When designer Arjun Saluja known for his experimental clothing met Anasuya Sengupta, who created history by becoming the first Indian actor to win the Best Actress Award in the Un Certain Regard category at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, he was blown away by her intelligence.

Sengupta received the award for her role in the film The Shameless, directed by Bulgarian filmmaker Konstantin Bojanov. The film was shot in Nepal. Sengupta played the character, Renuka, who is a sex worker, inspired loosely by a chapter in William Dalrymple’s 2009 travel book Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India.

Sengupta, 37, worked as a production designer and artist for 15 years.

Saluja says, “We had been checking out each other’s work on Instagram, and when she was going to Cannes, she reached out to me as she wanted an off-centre brand, wanting to wear something which has a voice and a distinct language.” Sengupta is a great conversationalist, he says, “a strong, passionate and an intense actress who has worked on her craft for a long time”. She wore Saluja’s artisanal jacket on the Cannes red carpet.

The actress lives in a village in Goa. She has worked on the sets of Sanjeev Sharma’s Saat Uchakkey, Srijit Mukherji’s Forget Me Not, and Masaba Masaba. She met Yashdeep Sharma, her husband, a Naval officer, online. He was an admirer of her art. They experienced Goa together – he on his Royal Enfield, and she on her scooter.

Her father supported her decision to leave Mumbai and move to Goa. Despite several offers coming her way, she decided to live off the grid.

If you ask her what style means to her, as a regular at the Hyundai India Couture Week 2024, at Gaurav Gupta and Tarun Tahiliani’s show, she admits, “Style for me is an extension of my personality; an attitude. It is so hard to pick from such a stunning array, but I loved Gupta’s metallic bodices; and from Tahiliani’s collection, the garments that were woven with intricate storytelling. I allow my taste to move and evolve. I enjoy comfort, fun silhouettes, and tend to pick things that feel free. I thoroughly enjoy and am inspired by fashion.”

Sengupta, from Lake Gardens, Kolkata, studied English literature at Jadavpur University, and hoped to be a journalist at one point of time. She admits, the award hasn’t changed anything. “It would have been too specific and a huge goal to set for myself! But now that I have received this recognition, it does demonstrate that there really need not be an upper limit for the dreams we dream.”

Being intrepid, she wore a flea market outfit for her Cannes win, though now every designer perhaps wants to dress her. “It’s a fun story actually. I didn’t have a specific outfit picked for that evening and kept thinking that I’d like to wear something golden. I spotted this dull gold dress in a shop window hours before the ceremony, and without a second thought picked it up,” she laughs.

There is a lot more to Sengupta than her acting skills. She attempts to read all kinds of books and enjoys them on the sandy beaches of Goa. However, Henry Miller is her all-time favorite writer. “I’ve been reading a bit of J. Krishnamurti lately, and am going to explore the world of Ursula Le Guin next,” she adds. She hopes to read Tropic of Cancer, American writer Miller’s semi-autobiographical novel, known for its “candid sexuality”, as well as The Left Hand of Darkness by Le Guin hailed as a masterpiece.

Had she been a journalist, what would she have written about? “Writing and speaking with marginalized groups, listening to them and carrying forward their words is something I think I would have done,” she says.

Moving away from the city of dreams, Mumbai, was a concerted choice. About Hindi cinema, she says, she is open to doing all kinds of films, playing a wide range of characters. “I hope to be part of telling stories that really need telling. Bollywood does stereotypes, and it would certainly be more fun to see the unexpected rather than the expected,” she explains.

Her father was the ex-head of the department of surgery, and professor, Vivekananda Institute of Medical Sciences, Kolkata. She considers him as a big inspiration – one who helped her achieve her dreams, and supported her unflinchingly.

She admires actors who took the path less travelled. Irrfan Khan will forever be a favourite. “My kind of cinema, and indeed all art is something that has the ability to move and inspire those that engage with it,” she says. “I don’t think one’s whole life would suffice to entirely crack the code of any art form. We explore, practice, learn, unlearn, and relearn. Life in Goa is closer to nature, something that helps me feel more inspired and grounded.” – Asmita is the Lifestyle Editor of NRI Focus. She is an award winning journalist who has been writing on fashion for the last 32 years