Mamata Shankar is a renowned Bengali actress who has acted in films directed by Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Rituparno Ghosh, Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Gautam Ghose. In addition to being an actress, she is a dancer and choreographer. She has also received several awards, recognitions and noteworthy reviews of dance critics from abroad. She has received many awards for her movies also.

Early Life of Mamata Shankar
Mamata Shankar was born on 7 January, 1955 to legendary dancers Uday Shankar and Amala Shankar. She is the niece of famous musician Ravi Shankar. Ananda Shankar, brother of Mamata Shankar was a pioneer of Indo-Western music. She is trained in dance and choreography at the Uday Shankar Culture Centre under the guidance of her mother Amala Shankar.

Dancing Career of Mamata Shankar
Mamata Shankar runs her own academy called “Udayan” which imparts dance and choreography lessons among students. She always had dream of opening an institute where students can learn, grow and prosper. She wanted the children to learn about the traditional norms and values and be socially responsible citizens. This institute also provides training to the underprivileged students. She travels around the world with her Mamata Shankar Ballet Troupe which was founded in 1978. She had presented her first choreographic performance of Tagore"s "Chandalika" in 1979 in Calcutta. Following this, she has also choreographed many other contemporary themes like "Horikhela", "Aajker Ekalabya", "Milap", "Shikar", "Vasantotsav", "Prakriti", "Kalmrigaya" and "Mother Earth", "Amritasya Putra".

Acting Career of Mamata Shankar
She made her first film debut in "Mrigaya" directed by Mrinal Sen in 1976. The film has also won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film for the year. She emerged as a veteran actress through different roles in Bengali films by eminent directors like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Buddhadev Dasgupta and others. She has also acted in the movies by young filmmakers such Srijit Mukjerji"s "Jaatiswar" (2014) and Pratim D Gupta"s "Macher Jhol" (2017).

Filmography of Mamata Shankar
Selective films of Mamata Shankar are as follows:

Films	Year
Mrigayaa	1976
Dooratwa	1978
Ek Din Pratidin	1979
Kharij	1982
Grihajuddha	1982
Ganashatru	1989
Agantuk	1991
Sunya Theke Suru	1993
Prajapati	1993
Dahan	1997
Utsab	2000
Shesher Golpo	2019

Achievements of Mamata Shankar
Recognitions received by Mamata Shankar in her acting career are as follows:

In 1992 she won the National Film Award - Special Jury Award (Feature Film) for the film Agantuk.
In 1993 she was awarded BFJA Award – Best Supporting Actress Award for "Shakha Prashakha."
In 2000 she won the BFJA Award – Best Supporting Actress Award for “Utsab.""

She has also received several noteworthy reviews from dance critics in UK, USA, Germany, Paris, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Australia, China, Mongolia, Japan, Holland, Egypt, Greece, Qatar, West Indies and Muscat.

Personal life of Mamata Shankar
She was married to Chandrodoy Ghosh and has two sons, Ratul Shankar and Rajeet Shankar. She is the sister-in-law of Tanushree Shankar and aunt of Sreenanda Shankar. Norah Jones, an American musician is her first cousin.