When Konkona Sen Sharma revealed how Aparna Sen did not allow her to watch 'Ramayan' and 'Mahabharata': 'First exposure to these epics should be your own imagination'

Actor and filmmaker Aparna Sen shaped daughter Konkona Sensharma’s relationship with stories in a very specific way: by keeping her away from hit TV epics and glossy soaps so that books and world cinema could come first.

A childhood without TV epics

In a throwback conversation with Film Companion, Konkona recalled that her mother never allowed her to watch the hugely popular television versions of the Hindu epics. “I wasn’t allowed to watch Ramayan and Mahabharat either. She insisted that I read the epics first (before delving into the serialised versions),” she said.


Konkona explained that Sen believed “the first exposure to these epics should not be someone else’s imagination; it should be a product of your own imagination.” For Sen, already a Padma Shri recipient and a major figure in both Hindi and Bengali cinema, this was not just a house rule. It was a way of defending a child’s inner world from being crowded out by ready-made images.

Sen, who has been a force in Bengali cinema for nearly 45 years, has long brought strong views on feminism and gender equality into her films and plays. Her daughter often points out that her mother’s way of seeing life was different, and that those differences quietly guided her own journey as an actor and filmmaker.

World cinema over soaps and blockbusters

Konkona also remembered that mainstream Hindi and Bengali entertainers were rarely on the menu. “I watched a few here and there, like ‘Mr India’ and ‘Masoom’,” she admitted, before adding that she “wasn’t allowed to watch American soap operas like ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ or ‘Santa Barbara’, either.” Instead, Sen steered her toward world and regional cinema, opening up a universe of unfamiliar narratives and forms.

“Even then, the way she conducted her life and brought me up… I was always given a certain space and agency of my own. So that, I think, helped me a lot,” Konkona noted.

Sen’s career spans acting turns in Satyajit Ray’s ‘Teen Kanya’, ‘Jana Aranya’ and ‘Pikoo’, popular films such as ‘Basanta Bilap’, ‘Memsaheb’, ‘Ek Din Achanak’, ‘Ghaath’ and ‘Basu Poribar’, and acclaimed direction credits including ‘Iti Mrinalini’, ‘Goynar Baksho’, ‘Arshinagar’, ‘The Rapist’, ‘Mr. and Mrs. Iyer’ and ‘15 Park Avenue’.