90s Reinvented I From Miss Universe to Taali, Sushmita Sen is the face of change

Sushmita Sen

90s Reinvented I In 2020, Sushmita Sen stepped into the OTT space with a bang. Her screen name Aarya was a strong woman who is pushed into the underworld business when her husband is killed. In a year when the industry was still newly testing the waters of the long format storytelling, Sushmita Sen jumped in all guns blazing in one of her worst avatars on screen.

Sushmita Sen always had a surreal and charming presence on screen. It was not just Major Ram from 'Main Hoon Na' who would fall weak in their knees every time they saw Sushmita Sen (Miss Chandni) in the film. Such is her aura that even when she was away from the screen, she was not forgotten.

At the age of 18, Sushmita Sen made history by becoming the first Indian to win the Miss Universe title. Two years later, Sushmita jumped into the film industry. She made her acting debut with the Hindi film 'Dastak' in 1996. She played the role of a victim of stalker. She then proceeded to star in Tamil film opposite Nagarjuna. It was the most expensive Tamil film made in that year. However, it was the 1999 David Dhawan film 'Biwi No. 1' that gave her wide recognition as an actress. She essayed the role of Rupali Walia, a rich independent woman who falls for Salman Khan's character who is a married man. Karisma Kapoor plays Salman Khan's wife and mother to his two kids or as the title suggests 'Biwi No. 1'. Even though she played the second lead, her performance was not the one to be missed.

In the early 2000s, Sushmita Sen shone in films like 'Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya?', 'Main Hoon Na', 'Aankhen', among others. In 2002, she also starred in Meghna Gular's film Filhaal, centered around the theme of surrogacy. In the year 2010, she was last seen in the film 'No Problem', a wacky comedy. From there, Sen kept away from the screen apart from a Bengali film in 2015. While she was in news for her personal life and active social media presence, the actress did not sign any projects.

Come 2020, Sushmita Sen proved her versatility and strong screen presence to shoulder a subtle underworld drama titled 'Aarya'. The show has had two successful seasons so far and the actress is gearing up for the third.

Amid this, Sushmita also starred in the web series titled Taali where she played a transgender. She essayed the role of real-life activist Shreegauri Sawant. The show depicts Sawant's arduous journey of mobilizing for trans rights and parity of dignity and rallying for state recognition of the trans community under the 'third gender.'