Tanushree Dutta – Bollywood actress & Femina Miss India Universe 2004

Tanushree Dutta is a very successful model turned actress of Hindi cinema. After winning beauty pageant Femina Miss India Universe in 2004, she marked her screen debut with Aashiq Banaya Aapne in 2005. Though she appeared in several movies in Bollywood, she was not successful. She was among the top ten finalists at Miss Universe 2004 at the age of 20.

She worked with Emraan Hashmi in her first two releases – Aashiq Banaya Aapne and Chocolate, and also worked with him in Good Boy, Bad Boy. She appeared in Saas Bahu Aur Sensex, Dhol, Bhagam Bhag etc which fared average at box office. In 2018 she revealed in an interview about sexual harassment of her co-star Nana Patekar in 2008 in the film sets of Horn ‘Ok’ Pleassss, which acted as the catalyst for the “Me Too” movement in India, and shocked the whole cine world in the country. She has not been in limelight for a few years before she accused of Nana Patekar of sexual misconduct.

Tanushree Dutta belongs to a Bengali family in Jamshedpur

She was born in Jamshedpur, then a part of Bihar in 1984. Her younger sister Ishita Dutta has appeared in a few Bollywood movies and TV soaps. Tanushree started her career through modelling. She won the Femina Miss India pageant held in Mumbai in 2003 and subsequently won Femina Miss India title same year. She represented India at Miss Universe Contest which took place in Quito, Ecuador, and was finished as 6^th runner-up.

Her success in modelling career opened her direct door to Bollywood. She was paired with Emraan Hashmi and Sonu Sood in the musical love triangle, Aashiq Banaya Aapne. Her screen chemistry with Emraan Hashmi in the title song created a lot of buzz because of its hot scenes. Apart from the title track and its remixed version, all the songs including Aap Ki Kashish, Mar Jaawan and Dil Nashin became huge chartbusters. But the movie was a commercial failure.

Aashiq Banaya Aapne gave her more film offers

Though Aashiq Banaya Aapne was a flop, she received nomination for best female debut at Filmfare awards, Star Screen Awards, Stardust Awards and IFFA. Her appearance in Chocolate released same year a nomination for best debutant at Zee Cine Awards. She also marked her south Indian debut with Telugu movie, Veerabhadra (2005) same year opposite Nandamuri Balakrishna. When she started getting more offers from Bollywood, she concentrated her career in Hindi cine world.

She worked with top actors and directors. However most of her movies were commercial failure.  Most of them were action masala entertainers, where she played almost less-significant roles. Raqeeb, Risk, Ramaa: The Saviour, Apartment, Speed, Good Boy, Bad Boy, Rokkk etc became flops, which comedy remakes – Dhol and Bhagam Bhag, fared average at box office. She appeared around 15 movies belonging to different languages. Apartment in 2010 was her last release. Same year she marked her Tamil debut through Theeradha Vilaiyattu Pillai.

Tanushree Dutta – Torchbearer of #MeToo Movement in India

After Apartment in 2010 she took a break from films. Later it revealed that she faced sexual harassment from Nana Patekar in 2008 in a film set. Actress claimed that Nana touched her inappropriately while shooting for a special song. Though she filed a complaint with the Cine & TV Artists Association, no action was taken against the actor. In an interview she gave in 2013 she raised her voice once again which went unnoticed. She revealed that she was traumatized on the sets of “Horn OK” in 2008, and she took a break from spotlight. She went through deep depression and tried different methods including spirituality and yoga to get out of the trauma of the incident.

The incident received huge publicity in 2018, 10 years after the incident when she gave interview to Zoom TV. She lived an anonymous life for nearly 8 years before she came to limelight once again. People from different corners praised her for her courageous step. Very soon more women related to cine world and other professions started sharing their unpleasant experiments, which took shape of a great revolution in India – #MeToo Movement.

She also accused Vivek Agnihotri, director of her second movie, Chocolate, that he asked her to remove clothes and dance with Irrfan Khan to act on the sets of the movie. She also revealed that both Irrfan Khan and Sunil Shetty stood up for her. However the director refuted all allegations.

Tanushree Dutta – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. She was featured aside Emraan Hashmi in the title track of Aashique Banaya Aapne, which marked her screen debut. The song is widely known as one of the most sensuous and hot songs ever filmed on Bollywood screen, because of its steamy scenes.

2. She was featured in the song ‘Jab Kabhie’ from the film 36 China Town.

3. She dropped out of college to pursue her career in modelling.

4. Before she turned a successful model she has worked with Oracle for three months in event management and market survey field.  

5. She dated Aashiq Banaya Aapne director Aditya Datt (grandson of lyricist Anand Bakshi) for some time and got engaged too. However they broke up. She is still unmarried.

Tanushree and Aditya Datt during a party

6. She has now moved to US and has a green card.

7. Her younger sister and actress Ishita Dutta is married to noted actor Vatsal Sheth of ‘Taarzan: The Wonder Car’ fame.

8. She anchored Bengali TV show, Hoi Hullad.