Rachna Banerjee (born Jhumjhum Banerjee; 2 October 1974 ) also known as Rachana, is an Indian actress, entrepreneur and television presenter.
She is known primarily for her works in Bengali and Odia films, besides a few Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada films.
1993
Her original name was Jhumjhum Banerjee, and was changed to Rachana by Sukhen Das, the director of her debut film Daan Pratidaan (1993).
1994
Being crowned the 1994 Miss Kolkata, she has also won five beauty contests in India including Miss Beautiful Smile at the Miss India contest.
Banerjee was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), West Bengal, India, and was her parents' only child.
Her father was Rabindranath Banerjee.
Banerjee won the Miss Kolkata contest in 1994 when she was still in her second year of graduation course from South City College.
She entered several beauty pageants before starting her acting career and was often declared 'Miss Beautiful Smile'.
In 1994 she missed out of the Miss India contest grand finale where Madhu Sapre was crowned the title.
Banerjee's breakthrough role was with director Sukhen Das who changed her name to Rachana (which Das found in 'Rabindra Rachanabali').
Her biggest success in film career comes when she played the female lead opposite Siddhant Mahapatra in about 40 movies.
She appeared alongside Amitabh Bachchan in the film Sooryavansham, one of the cult movies of its era.
She has appeared in 35 Bengali films with her favourite actor Prosenjit Chatterjee.
Apart from acting, Banerjee is also hosting the popular Bengali non-fiction TV show, Didi No. 1, which is aired on Zee Bangla on weekdays.
2004
Rachna Banerjee married her co-star Sidhant Mohapatra and divorced him in 2004.
2007
She married Probal Basu in 2007 and separated from him in 2016.
They have a son.
Banerjee will be contesting as All India Trinamool Congress candidate from the Hooghly Lok Sabha constituency seat against Bharatiya Janata Party's sitting MP Locket Chatterjee in the upcoming 2024 Indian general election.
2013
On 5 April 2013 a fire broke out in the studio of Didi No. 1 at Tollygunge, and she fainted following a panic attack and was rushed to a city hospital (Aurobindo Seva Sadan) immediately.
