Actress Sheena Chohan is celebrating the 10th year anniversary of being nominated Best Actress at the Dubai and Shanghai Film Festivals by reminiscing on the words of Oscar Nominated Director, Shekhar Kapur.
Sheena says: “At the Dubai International Film Festival, where my film and story premiered, Shekhar Kapur, the esteemed jury head, congratulated me and expressed his admiration for my work. He has always remembered my performance in ‘Ant Story,’ frequently commending me for it whenever we meet at various film festivals. Shekhar Kapoor’s continuous words of encouragement have been immensely motivating. He specifically praised ‘Ant Story,’ describing it as a well-made film, and lauded my portrayal of Reema, stating that I performed brilliantly and truly lived the role.”
Sheena was launched by playing the female lead opposite Malayalam megastar Mammootty in an action film called The Train, which was directed by seven time National Award Winner Jayaraj. Jayaraj said: “Sheena acted with Mammootty in my film ‘The Train’. I am amazed while working with her because of her natural ability to portray the lead character Mammootty’s wife. Sheena’s commitment as an actor and her professionalism during shooting is admirable. I have directed 45 movies in Malayalam language and I worked with so many actors from India. So I can proudly say that the experience while working with actor Sheena was remarkable.”
After playing the lead in seven feature films, three with National Award Winning Directors, Sheena Chohan is excited for her Hindi Debut, playing the female lead in Sant Tukaram, alongside Subodh Bhave, directed by Aditya Om. Sheena had to use all of her acting skill from her five years in theatre, to understand and fit into the character Avalai Jija Bai – visiting village women at 5am to learn their mannerisms and having 15th century Marathi manuscripts translated to her.
Sheena recently returned to India after finishing her shoot for Nomad, a Hollywood film directed by Taron Lexton, and while she was in the US her film Amar Prem was launched in the official Bharat Pavilion at Cannes, the world’s most prestigious film festival, by the Joint Minister for Information and broadcasting, Mr. Sanjiv Shankar. Also while in the US, Sheena was presented with the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award, signed by President Biden, for her work spreading awareness of basic rights and equality as the South Asia Ambassador of humanrights.com
Sheena returned to India on US Independence Day, July 4th, and went straight into action shooting the final action scenes for her web-series where she plays the negative lead – a She-Devil. Sheena was dressed in a Hollywood quality costume, underwent 4 hours of make-up and prosthetics and was attached to a high wire for acrobatic stunts in front of a 30 foot green screen.
Sheena says: “My life is about character – both playing them, and developing my own. In acting I care deeply about understanding my director’s vision and being a blank page for them, so I can bring all of my research and work to understand the character to life. In life, I care about spreading the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Indian Constitution – it’s my mission in life to ensure that human rights education is mandatory in all Indian schools, and taught in a way that is not just able to be repeated, but really understood.
