Interesting and lesser-known facts about Swastika Mukherjee

Swastika Mukherjee is a presence that you would hardly miss. You just can’t move to any of Kolkata’s streets without her adorable face and blue eyes gazing back at you. Be it a billboard advertising, a mobile phone or a film poster, Swastika is undoubtedly one of the city’s most favourite silver-screen divas. Here are some interesting facts about the beautiful actress. Have a look.

People who are close to Swastika Mukherjee often call her as ‘Bhebli’, a nickname given by her father popular actor Santu Mukherjee. Many believe because of her simplicity and cuteness this unique name was given to her. Despite the strict disciplines in her early days in schools like Carmel School, Kolkata, St. Teresa's Secondary School and Gokhale Memorial School, a young Swastika grew up with enough freedom at home which later made her one of the most daredevil names in Bengali film industry.

In 1998 at the age of only 18, she married singer Pramit Sen, son of famous Rabindra Sangeet singer Sagar Sen but their married life did not go well, lasting two years before the couple got separated. The only blessing she had from this unhappy marriage is her daughter with whom the actress shares a great bond of love and friendship. The mother-daughter duo can often be spotted hanging out together and having fun.

Swastika made her acting debut with the TV serial 'Devdasi' when she was still studying at Jadavpur University and her brilliant acting led to other serials like 'Akasher Niche' and 'Protibimbo'. Her brush with celluloid happened quite accidentally when Tanushree Shankar, who was Swastika’s dance teacher once, wanted her to do a role in 'Devdasi' and since then she never looked back.

Swastika launched her big screen career in critically acclaimed 2002 film 'Hemanter Pakhi', which co-starred Parambrata Chatterjee and some of the popular Bengali stars like Soumitra Chatterjee, Tanushree Shankar, Mamata Shankar and Swastika's father Santu Mukherjee. The next year, Swastika was the leading lady in 'Mastan', opposite superstar Jeet. She went on to make her way to the top in the industry with a steady series of releases.

2012 hit 'Bhooter Bhabishyat' cast Swastika as Kadalibala Dasi, an actress ghost from the 1940s and she earned accolades for her outstanding performance in this horror-comedy. Word is that she literally dubbed for the film by holding her nose to get that nasal tone! The Anik Dutta directorial was a rib-tickling comedy revolving around a bunch of spirits who save their resting place when some unscrupulous builders plan to break it down to build a shopping mall.

Swastika made her Bollywood debut in 2010 anthology 'Mumbai Cutting'. It had eleven short films, telling eleven different stories based on life in Mumbai, which were directed by a host of eleven renowned directors. Her next Bollywood film 'Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!' opposite Sushant Singh Rajput proved to be a breakthrough film for her career.

In 2014, the alleged suicide attempt by Swastika fuelled widespread speculation that she inflicted injuries on herself following a heated argument with her rumoured boyfriend and famous theatre personality-cum-filmmaker Suman Mukhopadhyay. Reports even claimed she had stayed in a Kolkata hotel for two days with Suman. Swastika was admitted to a private hospital in Kolkata on the morning of May 24 with deep wounds on her left wrist.

2014 was an embarrassing year for Swastika. In November, she was caught on CCTV cameras tucking in a gold earring in her handbag in an elite shopping mall in Singapore. The shop owner then filed a complaint against the actress to the organizer of the film festival where she was invited. However, no police complaint was lodged against her. Later Swastika denied the charge claiming that it was just an accident.

After her marriage with Pramit Sen fell apart, Swastika then allegedly dated some of the popular actors like Jeet, Parambrata Chatterjee and Dev. Interestingly she met all of them on the sets of her films. She met Jeet on the set of 'Mastan'. They went on to feature in several films together, including 'Kranti', 'Krishnakanter Will' and 'Partner'. She met Parambrata on the set of 'Brake Fail' and was in an alleged relationship with him till 2010 before the actor moved to Bristol. The beautiful actress was even said to be involved in a relationship with Tollywood heartthrob Dev for a brief period of time.