Riya Sen

 ( Indian Film Actresses ) 

Her next success was Jhankaar Beats, comedy revolving around the music of legendary composer R D Burman, which saw her playing a small and glamorous role alongside Shayan Munshi, Juhi Chawla, Rahul Bose, Rinke Khanna and Sanjay Suri. Produced by Pritish Nandy, publishing director of The Times of India, the film was made on a budget of Indian rupee 25 million (US$525,000), marking the sixth in a row of small to medium budget films made by Pritish Nandy Communications (PNC). Despite being part of a wave of offbeat films that mostly failed to make an impact at the box office, it drew public attention upon its release, which led to a commercial success among a restricted audience targeted by a selective release in twenty cities. It was one of the first films made in Hinglish, a mixture of Hindi and English.

Her films Style and Jhankar Beats have done wonders commercially. Her latter films Harry Baweja's Qayamat and Subhash Ghai's Apna Sapna Money Money were also box office hits and that ran for 150 days. These films were 4 consecutive hits in a row. While many of her appearances have been and Cameo appearance, few of her leading roles have been in . Though she had small roles in Dil Vil Pyar Vyar (2002), (2003) and Plan (2004), attention was drawn to her item numbers in all three, especially the one in Qayamat that featured her in a bubble-bath. Besides this, she performed another item number in James (2005) on director-producer Ram Gopal Varma's behest, who has a history of casting aspirant actress-models like Sameera Reddy, Isha Koppikar and Koena Mitra in similar roles. Furthermore, she took part in a dance number for Sajid Khan's Heyy Babyy (2007) that featured several mainstream Bollywood actresses.

Her first English language movie was It Was Raining That Night, a remake of the Bengali film Hei Brishtir Raat, scripted by Sudeshna Roy and directed by Mahesh Manjrekar. In the film, she collaborated with her mother Moon Moon Sen. Riya was slated to appear in Anjan Dutt's Bengali-English bilingual film The Bong Connection with her sister, but she was eventually dropped from the project and replaced by Peeya Rai Chaudhary. The two sisters were later cast together in director Ajai Sinha's 3 Bachelors, a Bengali film that started as The Bachelor in 2002 and was released in 2012.Shakti Shetty, " Films That Saw A Release After A Long Wait ", Mid-day, 5 August 2013

Her most successful non-Hindi film has been director Santhosh Sivan's Ananthabhadram (2005). The first Malayalam venture for both Riya and Sivan, was both a critical and commercial success. It won five Kerala State Film Awards and surfaced as one of the biggest Malayalam successes that year. She played the role of Bhama in the film, a village girl who is lured by Digambaran, the evil magician portrayed by Manoj K. Jayan. In a song-and-dance sequence showing Digambaran turning Bhama into a medium for demonic rituals, the choreographer Aparna Sindoor made abundant use of Kathakali movements. The use of Kathakali has been a high point in the resurgence of the classical dance form in other major Indian films as well, including Shaji Karun's Vanaprastham (1999) and Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair (2005). She made her Telugu debut with Nenu Meeku Telusa?, in which she was paired opposite Manoj Manchu.

In 2012 Sen won the Star Guide Award as best actress for her performance in Noukadubi.

She was also featured in video song of Kamaal Khan album Suno To Deewana Dil in song Jaana.

In 2004, she was featured partially nude in leading Indian photographer Dabboo Ratnani's annual calendar, which is a major happening in the Indian glamour 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.Shoma A. Chatterji, " I want stronger roles ", The Tribune (Spectrum), 29 May 2011 She is the only female face to be featured on the calendar for five consecutive years (2003–2007).

Riya completed her schooling in ICSE from Loreto House in Kolkata. She went on to studying philosophy in a Bengali uccha madhyamik school Rani Birla Girls' College (a University of Calcutta affiliate). Riya had a degree from the National Institute of Fashion Technology NIFT Mumbai in fashion designing and information technology. She went to London to the Pinewood Actors Studio for acting course and simultaneously did voice and dubbing classes. She also did a couple of private acting workshops with renowned British teachers. She learnt the Queens English -British accent with renowned voice coach Barbara Berkeley. She studied in New York at the TV1 acting studio in Times Square. Riya has also done a course in Paris at the Institute Marangoni for fashion and image styling. Riya also did a course at the University of Arts in London in ‘branding' and a cooking course in Thailand at the blue elephant culinary school. Riya briefly practised kickboxing and karate. She is passionate about painting and has been painting since she was a baby. She's a certified yoga teacher. She did her 200 hours Teacher training course in Rishikesh for hatha vinyasa, Yin yoga teacher training course in dharamsala at the Trimurti school and Aerial yoga teacher training course from Ulu yoga in Bali.

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.

In August 2017, Sen married her boyfriend Shivam Tewari in a private Bengali Hindu ceremony.