Priyanka Upendra

Priyanka was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata). Her mother is from West Bengal and father from Uttar Pradesh. She spent ten years of her schooling life in the US and about three years in Singapore, before graduating with a commerce degree from a college in Kolkata. She described herself as "little introverted, pretty flexible as a person, a good listener and overtly sensitive." She appeared in television commercials for brands such as Britannia, Orient Electric and Pillsbury in the late 1990s. During this time, she was cast by director Basu Chatterjee in his first Bengali film, Hothat Brishti (1998). She went on to make two more films with him, Chupi Chupi (2001) and Tak Jhal Mishti (2002).