Jisshu Sengupta Indian Actor Born 1977 in Kolkata

Early life

Jisshu Sengupta, born Biswaroop Sengupta, was born on 15 March 1977 in Kolkata, then spelled Calcutta, in West Bengal, India. His father, Ujjwal Sengupta, also acted in Bengali films. He studied at Heramba Chandra College and the University of Calcutta. Cricket was a childhood interest, and he played the sport in junior-level games from an early age.

Career

Sengupta entered the industry through television. His first role was the younger Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the mythological serial Mahaprabhu, broadcast on Doordarshan in 1998. His film debut, Priyojon (1999), did not do well with audiences or critics. In 2002 he played the poet Rabindranath Tagore in Chelebela, and in the years after that he was cast in a series of films that struggled commercially. He also took a parallel lead in Moner Majhe Tumi, which became the highest-grossing film in Bangladesh in 2003, and he went on to appear as a second lead in a run of commercial Bengali productions. His first Hindi-language film was Shyam Benegal's Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero (2004), in which he played Sisir Kumar Bose.

The work that changed the direction of his career was his collaboration with the director Rituparno Ghosh. The association is generally described as making him more selective about his projects. Their films together included The Last Lear (2007), Shob Charitro Kalponik (2009), Abohoman (2010) and the Tagore adaptation Noukadubi. Reviewers singled out his performance in Chitrangada as a drug user as among his best work, and Shob Charitro Kalponik won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali.

He returned to Hindi cinema with a cameo in Barfi! (2012) and appeared in Mardaani (2014) and Piku (2015). In Bengali cinema he worked with the director Srijit Mukherji on Jaatishwar (2014) and Rajkahini (2015), both of which were commercial successes. He portrayed the detective Byomkesh Bakshi in Byomkesh Bakshi (2015) and its sequel, and he starred in the action drama Zulfiqar (2016), which proved to be one of his highest-grossing releases. Further Bengali roles followed in Posto (2017), Ek Je Chhilo Raja (2018) and Mahalaya (2019).

Sengupta has also worked in other Indian languages. He played Gangadhar Rao in the historical film Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi (2019) and Paritosh Banerji, the husband of the title character, in Shakuntala Devi (2020). In 2020 he appeared in Sadak 2 and in the horror thriller Durgamati, in which he played the police officer ACP Abhay Singh. His Telugu and Kannada credits include Bheeshma (2020), Shyam Singha Roy (2021, as Debendra Singha Roy) and Acharya (2022, as Rathod). In 2025 he came back to Bangladeshi cinema after about twenty-three years with Borbaad, opposite Shakib Khan. Later credits include Khadaan (2024) and Bhooth Bangla (2026). His credit list runs to roughly eighty-seven screen titles.

Public roles

Away from acting, Sengupta has been active as a producer and presenter. In 2011 he returned to television as producer of the fiction series Aparajito for Star Jalsha. He has hosted the Filmfare Awards East ceremony in 2017, three seasons of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa: Gaane Gaane Tomar Mone, the Bengali edition of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa and the show Egiye Bangla. In 2016 he was a judge on Dance Bangla Dance Junior on Zee Bangla. As of early 2020 he was hosting Super Singer and Super Singer Junior for Star Jalsha, and in October of that year he began presenting the stand-up comedy series Hasiwala and Company.

Sport is another strand of his public life. He captained the Bengal Tigers, the team representing West Bengal cinema in the Celebrity Cricket League, which won the 2024 edition. The Bengal Cricket League, which began on 26 December 2015, was his initiative. He also backed the Kolkata Marathon in 2014 and took part in a charity football match raising funds for the surgery of the footballer Kushumita Das.

Recognition

In 2004 he received the Best Actor award at the 12th Kalakar Awards for Abar Aranye. A Filmfare Awards East nomination in 2017 for Best Actor and another for Best Supporting Actor followed, and he won the Star Jalsha Award for Best Negative Role. Calcutta Times ranked him first in its list of Most Desirable Men in 2015.

Personal life

Sengupta married Nilanjana in 2004; she is the elder daughter of the actress Anjana Bhowmick.