DAMINEE BENNY BASU, 35 Actor, Singer and Performance Artist

A singer-actor, an

academic, an acting coach and a performance artist—Daminee Basu wears many hats with ease. Born to theatre personalities Asit and Bhadra Basu, Daminee quite literally learnt to walk on stage. Having acted throughout her school years and college, she does not remember her stage debut but remembers the first time she branched away from her parents’ theatre group for thespian Usha Ganguly’s play Mukti back in 1999. In the theatre world, she was known by her pet name “Benny”, which would often lead to much confusion. “It was Rituparno Ghosh who suggested that I make it Daminee Benny,” she says.

Finding her Footing

Ghosh’s death came as a massive blow for Basu. “It was not only his loss which was hearbreaking but also the fact that a lot of his projects would not see the light of day. I was in the middle of a custody battle for my daughter and

I badly needed work,” she says. It was then that she received a call from commercial Bengali filmmaker Raj Chakraborty who asked her to join his team as a consultant. This paved the way for more commercial acting coaching offers for her. Basu has worked with Srijit Mukherjee, Parambrata Chattopadhyay as well as regional TV channels such as Star Jalsha, Zee TV and production houses like Venkatesh and Acropolis.

Going Strong

Project Stereotype:

Motherhood 2015, a piece she presented as part of her performance studies course at the Centre For Studies In Social Sciences Calcutta was such a hit that she was later invited to stage it at performance arts festival at Range Gallery in Ballygunge in 2016. Part II of the piece was staged in Gem Cinema as part of the Pickle Factory festival this year.