Sweet Riya Sen
Modeling career
Riya became a popular model when she appeared in numerous music videos for songs by popular singers, including Falguni Pathak's Yaad Piya Ki Aane Lagi (alternative title: Chudi Jo Khankayi), Asha Bhosle's Jhumka Gira Re, Jagjit Singh and Bhosle's Jab Samne Tum and Kahin Kahin Se, Lata Mangeshkar, Bhonsle and Singh's Dil Kahin Hosh Kahin, Sonu Nigam's Jeena Hai Tere Liye and Shaan's Sutta Maro. She shot for her first music video, Yaad Piya Ki Aane Lagi, at the age of sixteen. This led to her being identified primarily as a performer for music videos early in her career, an image she aimed to shed in 2005. Riya has appeared on several magazine covers, including Femina, Elaan,Man's World, Gladrags, Savvy and Indian versions of Elle, Maxim and Cosmopolitan, as well as on the ramp of major fashion shows like Lakmé Fashion Week (2005–07) and Wills Fashion Week (2006–2007). She participated in fashion shows along with her elder sister,Raima Sen. Besides modeling, Riya has ventured into the advertisement world as well. A high point of her modeling career came in 2006, when she became the soft drink, Limca's brand ambassador, replacing Deepika Padukone. Her other notable assignments include Colgate, Dabur Vatika, Reliance Industries, Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate, and Nirma.
In 2004, she was featured partially nude in leading Indian photographer Dabboo Ratnani's annual calendar, which is a major happening in the Indian glamor industry. According to Daboo, "Her mother saw it much later, after the calendar released. She thought it was too sexy, and Riya shouldn't have done it. But the response to the photograph was superb. Riya was so thrilled that for her next ad campaign, she asked me to light her up like I did in this." A career highlight for the model, it led to a three year contract with Ratnani to feature her on his annual calendar. She is the only female face to be featured on the calendar in five consecutive years (2003–07).
Personal life and family
Born on 24 January 1981 in Kolkata, West Bengal, Riya is the daughter of Moon Moon Sen, a former actress, and granddaughter of Suchitra Sen, a legend in Bengali cinema. Before moving to Mumbai, she lived in Kolkata with her parents and sister Raima Sen, also an actress. Her father Bharat Dev Varma is a member of the royal family of Tripura. Her paternal grandmother, Ila Devi, was the princess of Cooch Behar, whose younger sister Gayatri Devi was the Maharani of Jaipur. Her paternal grandmother Indira was the only daughter of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda. Riya's maternal great-grandfather Adinath Sen was a prominent Kolkata businessman, whose father Dinanath Sen - a relative of former Union Law Minister Ashoke Kumar Sen- was the Diwan or a Minister of the Maharaja of Tripura. The sisters are credited on-screen under their mother's maiden name, although their official papers carry the surname Dev Varma.
Riya completed her schooling at Loreto House and Rani Birla College, both in Kolkata.Thereafter, she studied at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, and she took up jewellery-designing as a hobby. She designs most of the clothes that she wears in films and commercials. Riya is trained in Kathak and is still pursuing it under Vijayshree Chaudhury. She is taking kickboxing lessons and has completed Level I of the 5 levels in belly dancing. Riya entered the film industry through small-time modeling assignments,commuting between Mumbai and Kolkata and traveling by public transport during the her early career. After breaking into the film industry, she shifted from her mother's house in Ballygunge Circular Road in south Kolkata to Mumbai. There she moved into the family house in Juhu, where she stays with her sister. During her stay in Mumbai, the media romantically linked her to model and actor John Abraham. In the Bollywood press, she was, in 2008, speculatively linked to the novelist Salman Rushdie, although both stated that they were simply good friends.
Riya
has suffered a number of untimely incidents. During the filming of Shaadi No. 1 in France, she was knocked unconscious after being accidentally run over by a stuntman's motorbike, but she was not seriously injured. Shortly before the release of Silsiilay, in which she starred opposite her boyfriend Ashmit Patel, a 90-second video clip was circulated through Multimedia Messaging Services and the internet, showing the pair in compromising situations. This was one of a number of controversies that erupted when celebrities were caught in similar situations using cameraphones. Following this incident, the couple split up, although Riya denied that she was the girl in the MMS clip. One commentator claimed that the footage was an orchestrated publicity stunt. In 2007, she underwent a brief detoxification session in Bangkok for addiction to chocolate.
Public persona
Riya's on-screen performances have established her as a sex symbol and youth icon in India. Since entering the film industry, she has gained attention for wearing a bikini in Shaadi No. 1 and sharing on-screen kisses with co-stars Ashmit Patel in Silsiilay and Sharman Joshi in Style, respectively. Such performances garnered attention because of the relatively conservative outlook of Indian cinema and her own statements about such
practises. Before becoming a film identity, she had a reputation for partying, which started at the age of fifteen. Riya's public persona is compared to her mother Moon Moon, who was seen as a sex symbol of her time, while her sister Raima is mostly compared their grandmother Suchitra.
Although her film career has yet to achieve large-scale success, Riya has generated considerable media attention. She was ranked ninth on Femina 50 Most Beautiful Women,published in the magazine's September 2007 issue. She was a jury member for the 2008 Final of the Mr. India contest. Along with Bollywood actors such as Waheeda Rehman,Shilpa Shetty, Dia Mirza, Raveena Tandon, Jackie Shroff, Naseeruddin Shah, Tabu and Lara Dutta, Riya appeared in Haath Se Haath Mila, an HIV/AIDS awareness music video.She made charity appearances at McDonald's India to raise money for paediatric eye-care during World Children's Week (November 14–20) in 2003.
List of movies of Riya Sen
Year
Film Name
Cast
2011
A STRANGE LOVE STORY
Riya Sen, Ashutosh Rana, Eddie Seth, Yashpal Sharma, Milind Gunaji
2011
KASHMAKASH
Prosenjit Chatterjee, Jisshu Sengupta, Raima Sen, Riya Sen, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Apratim Dhar, Apratim Dhar, Sumanta Mukherjee,Sagar Mukherjee, Ammu Chatterjee, Maria Chatterjee
2010
BENNY AND BABLOO
Kay Kay Menon, Rajpal Yadav, Riya Sen, Shweta Tiwari, Rukhsaar, Anita Hassanandani, Richa Chadda, Maushumi Udeshi
2009
ZOR LAGAA KE... HAIYA!
Mithun Chakraborty, Riya Sen, Sachin Khedekar, Gulshan Grover, Mahesh Manjrekar, Seema Biswas, Raj Zutshi, Ashwin Chitale, Ritwik Tyagi, Meghan Jadhav, Ayeshka Kaduskar, Hardik S. Thakkar
2009
HUM PHIRR MILEINGE...
Vikram Gokhale, Smita Jaykar, Riya Sen, Kiran Kumar, Rati Agnihotri, Sarvar Ahuja
2009
LOVE KHICHDI
Randeep Hooda, Kalpana Pandit, Saurabh Shukla, Riya Sen, Divya Dutta, Rituparna Sengupta, , Sonali Kulkarni, Jesse Randhawa, Sadam
2009
PAYING GUESTS
Shreyas Talpade, Celina Jaitley, Neha Dhupia, Javed Jaffrey, Aashish Chaudhary, Sayali Bhagat, Riya Sen, Vatsal Sheth, Johnny Lever, Chunkey Pandey, Asrani, Paintal, Delnaz Paul, Viju Khote, Vida Samadzai
2008
HEROES
Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Dino Morea, Riya Sen, Salman Khan, Mithun Chakraborty, Sohail Khan, Preity Zinta, Amrita Arora, Vatsal Sheth
2007
HEYY BABYY
Aarti Chabria, Akshay Kumar, Amisha Patel, Amrita Arora, Amrita Rao, Diya Mirza, Fardeen Khan, Hrishitaa Bhatt, Koena Mitra, Malaika Arora, Minissha Lamba, Neha Dhupia, Ritesh Deshmukh, Riya Sen, Shamita Shetty, Tara Sharma, Masumi Makhija, Vidya Balan, Boman Irani, Shahrukh Khan, Sophie Chaudhary
2006
APNA SAPNA MONEY MONEY
Ritesh Deshmukh, Jackie Shroff, Sunil Shetty, Shreyas Talpade, Anupam Kher, Koena Mitra, Celina Jaitley, Riya Sen, Rajpal Yadav, Gulshan Grover, Brijesh Hirji, Chunkey Pandey
2005
SILSIILAY
Tabbu, Riya Sen, Bhoomika Chawla, Kay Kay Menon, Rahul Bose, Jimmy Shergill, Ashmit Patel, Celina Jaitley, Natassha, Divya Dutta, Karan Panthaky, Shahrukh Khan, Uday Chandra
2005
SHAADI NO 1
Sanjay Dutt, Fardeen Khan, Zayed Khan, Sharman Joshi, Ayesha Takia, Esha Deol, Soha Ali Khan, Riya Sen, Sophie Chaudhary, Aarti Chabria
2003
JHANKAAR BEATS
Sanjay Suri, Juhi Chawla, Rahul Bose, Rinke Khanna, Riya Sen, Shayan Munshi
2002
STYLE
Sharman Joshi, Sahil Khan, Riya Sen, Shilpi Mudgal, Tara Deshpande
1999
LOVE YOU HAMESHA
Akshay Khanna, Sonali Brende, Riya Sen, Rohit Bal, Ketan Desai, Lillete Dubey, Vijayendra Ghatge, Seema Kelkarm Amitabh Nanda, Nirupa Roy, Dalip Tahil, Rishma Malik
Latest Movies of Riya Sen
Tere Mere Phere
Director: Deepa Sahi
Starring: Riya Sen, Vinay Pathak, Darshan Jariwala, Sushmita Mukherjee,
A Strange Love Story
Director: Tarique Khan
Starring: Riya Sen, Eddie Seth, Ashutosh Rana
Kashmakash
Director: Rituparno Ghosh
Starring: Prosenjit Chatterjee, Jishu Sengupta, Raima Sen, Riya Sen,
Benoo And Babloo
Director: Yunus Sajawal
Starring: Kay Kay Menon, Rajpal Yadav, Riya Sen
Kya Fool Hain Hum
Director: Ajay Chandhok
Starring: Govinda, Sohali Khan, Riya Sen, Ranvir Shorey,
Abohomaan
Director: Rituparno Ghosh
Starring: Riya Sen, Dipankar De, Jishu Sengupta and Mamata Shankar
Abohomaan
Director: Rituparno Ghosh
Starring: Dipankar De, Mamata Shankar, Jisshu Sengupta, Ananya Chatterjee,
Taara Sitara
Starring: Arjun Punj, Riya Sen
Rokda
Director: Ramesh Kotar
Starring: Arshad Warsi, Ashmit Patel, Ashish Chowdhry, Riya Sen,
The Bachelor
Director: Ajay Sinha
Starring: Sharman Joshi, Manish, Riya Sen, Raima Sen