Riya Sen

Name: Riya Sen

Birthdate: 24th January, 1981

Zodiac: Aquarius

Marital Status: Unmarried

Trivia:

1) Riya Sen used to take jewellery designing as a hobby and she designs most of the outfits which she wears in her films and other television commercials.

2) In the year 2007, at Bangkok Riya had to undergo a detoxifying session to get rid of her chocolate addiction.

3) In the year 2004, Riya Sen was featured semi nude in Dabboo Ratnani’s annual calendar for which she gained a great response.

Biography: Riya Sen is a well-known Indian model as well as a film actress. She hails from a family where her grandmother, mother and sister, all are distinguished names in the film industry. The evergreen Suchitra Sen is her grandmother while Moon Moon Sen, her mother and Raima Sen, her sister are also known faces in the industry.

Riya Sen was born on the 24th of January in the year 1981 in the City of Joy, Kolkata. Her mother Moon Moon Sen is a former actress in the Bengali film industry while Bharat Dev Verma, her father is a distinguished personality belonging to one of the royal families of Tripura. Ila Devi, the Coochbehar princess was her paternal grand mother. Gayatri Devi was Ila Devi’s younger sister and she used to hold the tile of the Maharani of Jaipur. Indira, the daughter of Baroda’s Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III was Riya’s paternal great grandmother. Adinath Sen was Riya’s paternal great grand father and he was a well-known businessman in Kolkata.

Riya Sen did her schooling from the prestigious Loreto House, Kolkata and she later on graduated from the Rani Birla Girls’ College, also situated in Kolkata. Soon after her graduation she enrolled herself for a course in fashion designing at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi. She got a considerable amount of training in Kathak under Vijayshree Chaudhury. After from Kathak, RIya Sen is also well trained in kick boxing as well as belly dancing.

Riya Sen made her entry into the glamour and glitz filled film industry through small modeling assignments which she had to do by travelling to and fro from Kolkata to Mumbai. Soon after she got her breakthrough in the industry, she shifted moved to the City of Dreams, Mumbai in order to pursue her career in the Bollywood film industry. Later on Riya moved in with her sister, Raima in the family house at Juhu.

Raima Sen has also been on the receiving end of the stick numerous times. During the shooting of ‘Shaadi No. 1′, she got injured after she was accidentally run over by a stuntman’s bike. Next up, prior to the release date of the film, ‘Silsiilay’ where Riya Sen starred along with Ashmit Patel, her boyfriend, a video clip went viral through MMS which showed both of them in a compromising situation. Soon after this episode, both of them split up with Riya denying her presence in that video clip. In the month of December in 2012, Riya Sen again faced a controversial situation when she was caught kissing some girl at some nightclub in Mumbai.

She gained popularity as a model when she started appearing in various music videos such as Falguni Pathak’s ‘Yaad Piya Ki Aane Lagi’ (‘Chudi Jo Khankayi’), Asha Bhosle and Jagjit Singh’s ‘Kahin Kahin Se’ and ‘Jab Samne Tum’, ‘Jhumka Gira Re’ by Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle and Jagjit Singh’s ‘Dil Kahin Hosh Kahin’, ‘Sutta Maro’ by Shann and Sonu Nigam’s ‘Jeena Hai Tere Liye’.

When Riya was just sixteen years of age, she appeared in her very first music video, ‘Yaad Piya Ki Aane Lagi’. She earned a considerable amount of recognition thanks to her performance in this music video. Apart from music videos, she has also made her place on the covers of various magazines such as Elaan, Femina, Man’s World, Savvy, Gladrags and in the Indian copies of Cosmopolitan, Elle and Maxim. She has also appeared as a model on the ramp of fashion shows such as Wills Fashion Week (2006 – 2007) and Lakme Fashion Week (2005 – 2007).

She used to appear in these fashion shows along with Raima Sen, her sister.

Apart from modeling, Riya Sen has also been into numerous advertisements for brands such as Nirma, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Dabur Vatika, Colgate and Reliance Industries. In the year 2006, she replaced actress Deepika Padukone as the brand ambassador of Limca, the soft drinks company.

Riya Sen’s very first film was in the year 1991 when she appeared in ‘Vishkanya’. In this film she enacted the child role of the character of Pooja Bedi. When she was eighteen years of age, she starred in Bharathiraja’s Tamil flick titled ‘Taj Mahal’. ‘Love You Hamesa’ was supposed to be Riya’s very first Bollywood film but this film got stalled and eventually she debuted in the N. Chandra directed sex comedy called ‘Style’, starring Sharman Joshi, Shilpi Mudgal and Sahil Khan. This film was a success and Riya Sen received lots of appreciation for her perfromance in this low budgeted sex comedy.

Riya’s next successful film was the Sujoy Ghosh directed ‘Jhankar Beats’. This movie which is a tribute to the R.D Burman, the legendary music composer, is a story about music, love and friendship. Here Riya donned the role of a pretty girl by the name of Preeti. She starred along with Shayan Munshi, Sanjay Suri, Rahul Bose, Juhi Chawla and Rinke Khanna. This Pritish Nandy produced film was released under the banner of PNC (Pritish Nandy Communications) and it was made in Hinglish which is a mix of English and Hindi languages.

Next up in the year 2005, she appeared in David Dhawan’s ‘Shaadi No. 1’, starring Fardeen Khan, Zayed Khan, Aarti Chhabria, Sharman Joshi, Soha Ali Khan, Esha Deol, Ayesha Takia, Sohia Chaudhary and Sanjay Dutt.

Riya Sen mostly appears in films for small item numbers or for playing small cameos and most of the successful films where she played a leading role are mainly small budgeted films. For instance, she enacted minor roles in films such as ‘Plan’ (2004), ‘Qayamat’ (2003) and ‘Dil Vil Pyar Vyar’ (2002). More attention was paid on the item numbers in these three films, especially the scene in Qayamat which showed her taking a bubble bath. Later on she also did some item numbers for James (2005) and ‘Heyy Babyy’ (2007).

Apart from Bollywood flicks, Riya Sen appeared in several English, Bengali, Malayalam, Telegu and Tamil films. Her very first English film was the one titled ‘It Was Raining That Night’. This film was a remake of ‘Shei Brishtir Raat’ which is a Mahesh Manjrekar directed and Sudeshna Roy scripted Bengali film. In this film Riya starred alongside Moon Moon Sen.

Initially Riya was signed up for Anjan Dutt’s ‘The Bong Connection’, but later on she was dropped and Peeya Rai Chaudhary was signed in her place. Riya Sen and Raima Sen were casted together in the Ajai Sinha directed Bengali flick titled ‘The Bachelor’.

‘Ananthabhadram’ (2005), directed by Santosh Sivan, is Riya Sen’s most successful Malayalam movie. This film was a great success at the box office and it won 5 Kerala State Film Awards.

Riya Sen’s very first Telegu flick was ‘Nenu Meeku Telusa… ?’ where she starred opposite Manoj Manchu.

Her filmography includes ‘Vishkanya’ (1991), ‘Taj Mahal’ (1999), ‘Good Luck’ (2000), ‘Style’ (2001), ‘Mone Pore Tomake’ (2001), ‘Dil Vil Pyar Vyar’ (2002), ‘Saazish’ (2003), ‘Qayamat: City Under Threat’ (2003), ‘Jhankaar Beats’ (2003), ‘Dil Ne Jise Apna Kahaa’ (2004), ‘Plan’ (2004), ‘Arasatchi’ (2004), ‘Ananthabhadram’ (2005), ‘Shaadi No. 1’ (2005), ‘Tum… Ho Na!’ (2005), ‘James’ (2005), ‘Silsiilay’ (2005), ‘It Was Raining That Night’ (2005), ‘Apna Sapna Money Money’ (2006), ‘Rokda’ (2006), ‘Love You Hamesha’ (2006), ‘Heyy Babyy’ (2007), ‘Nenu Meeku Telusa… ?’ (2008), ‘Heroes’ (2008), ‘Zor Lagaa ke… Hayya’ (2008), ‘Love Khichdi’ (2008), ‘Paying Guests’ (2009), ‘Benny and Babloo’ (2010), ‘Abohoman’ (2010), ‘Noukadubi’ (2011), ‘Tere Mere Phere’ (2011), ‘3 Bachelors’ (2012), ‘Zindagi 50-50’ (2013) and Krrish 3 (2013).