Tista Das

Tista Das or simply Tista (born 20 December 1976) a noted transsexual, is an Indian actress who has acted in quite a few Hindi and Bengali film industry productions as lead actress along with playing other supporting roles.

Personal Life

Born Sushanto Das, Tista was diagnosed with gender identity disorder (GID) at an early stage of life and consequently underwent sex reassignment surgery with the help of Dr. Sheila Rohatgi, a prominent plastic surgeon from Kolkata who specializes in SRS procedures. Following this Tista went public with her identity and was a source of much controversy and social upheaval regarding stereotypes associated with the transsexual community. Her case played a pivotal role in changing the misconceptions in Indian society about transsexuality and went on to provoke a positive national debate in the press and the media on the ethics of sex change and transsexual rights in India. A social activist in transsexual issues and a vocal proponent of transsexual rights, Tista is also a prominent actress with a string of film and television soap appearances to her credit. A rare feat in India which is known for its ostracization of the transsexual community, Tista is regarded by many as an icon of empowerment and choice for the transsexual community in India.

Although she was rejected admission initially for undergraduate studies at Rabindra Bharati University, she graduated through correspondence from Bethune College of the University of Calcutta

Tista is an actor by profession and has quite a few films and various television roles and appearances to her credit. She has also worked as research assistant in Calcutta for a University of California, Berkeley fellow on gender identity disorder

She acted in Buddhadeb Dasgupta's, documentary - I could not be your son, mom,

She played a role in Subrata Dutta’s 45-minute film The Third Gender? which was screened at the Bulgaria film festival recently, in which ironically the transsexual role is played by someone else.

She also plays the lead role in Beyond Reflections, a movie about her life directed by Umesh Bist.

Right now, Tista is getting ready to act alongside June Maliah in Shankho Ghosh’s full-length feature film Ebong Fera and telefilm Naari, where she plays a college girl.

Having had positive responses from some of Calcutta's well-known theatre companies, Tista has finally decided to join Shaonli Mitra’s Panchambaidik.

Flush with excitement of having signed a contract for acting in Akash Bangla’s series Sahityer Sera Somoy, Tista is also getting ready with a book on her life, which she will call Shudhu Hridoyer Jonyo.