Karuna Banerjee

Karuna Banerjee Biography

Karuna Banerjee is a legendary actress associated with Bengali movies, best known for playing the role of long suffering mother in Satyajit Ray's The Apu Trilogy, consisting of Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956) and she was not seen in the concluding part - Apur Sansar. Aparajito (1956) is regarded as one of the finest roles of Karuna’s career and she bagged a nomination for Best Actress at the 1959 BAFTA Awards. Karuna later appeared in Ray’s films - Devi (1960) and Kanchenjungha (1962). She also worked with ace filmmakers of the industry like Ritwik Ghatak, Agragami and Mrinal Sen in many movies. She passed away on 13 November 2001 aged 81.

Also called Karuna Bandhyopadhyay, she was born on 25 December 1919 in Kolkata. She graduated from the Jogamaya Devi College, Kolkata. She started her acting career through theatre, where she spent for more than two decades. She was also active in the film scene for almost the same period since mid1950s. Though she worked with many directors of Bengali cinema, it was Satyajit Ray who explored her real acting talents. She was introduced to film scene by Satyajit Ray through his debut film - Pather Panchali, the movie regarded as a classic. She played Apu’s mother Sarbajaya in the first two parts of the trilogy. She even bagged a nomination at 1959 BAFTA Awards, and international acclamation through the second film – Aparajito.

She acted in 5 films of Ray. She also acted in an unfinished work of Ritwik Ghatak. She is known for essaying the character of village women or middle-class woman more seriously. Her eye expressions make her a unique actress. As less number of movies was made during that period, she got opportunity to work in only a few films. But she was quite active in theater.

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Updated: April 03, 2016