Riya Sen was born in Kolkata, India on January 24, 1981 is an Indian film actress and model. She is often regarded as a sex symbol.
Riya Sen is the grand daughter of Suchitra Sen, a legend in Bengali cinema, and daughter of Moonmoon Sen, a former actress. Before moving to Mumbai, she lived with her parents and sister Raima Sen, also an actress, in Kolkata. Her father Bharat Dev Varma belongs to the illustrious royal family of Tripura. Her paternal grandmother Ila Devi, was the princess of Cooch Behar, whose younger sister Gayatri Devi is the Maharani of Jaipur.
Riya Sen first appeared as a child artist in the film Vishkanya, where she played the role of the young Pooja Bedi. At the age of 15 she was cast in a major role in Bharathiraaja’s Tamil film Tajmahal. Her Bollywood film debut was supposed to have been in Love You Hamesha, opposite Akshaye Khanna, but the film was stalled and she ultimately made her debut in N. Chandra’s low-budget comedy Style.
Riya became a popular model when she appeared in numerous music videos for songs by popular singers, including poets-and-dancers/asha-bhonsle" href="/great-musicians-dancers/asha-bhonsle" >Asha Bhonsle, Falguni Pathak, Jagjit Singh and poets-and-dancers/sonu-nigam" href="/great-musicians-dancers/sonu-nigam" >Sonu Nigam. She was one of many Bollywood stars who appeared in Haath Se Haath Mila an anti-HIV/AIDS music video.
She is also an advertising model. A high point of her modeling career was when she replaced Lisa Ray as the Lakmé Girl, but she has since been replaced by Yana Gupta. Her other notable assignments include Colgate, Limca, Vatika, Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate, and Margarita King.