Shweta Basu Prasad (born 11 January 1991) is an Indian actress.^[1][2] She is known for her works in television, Hindi cinema, Telugu cinema and Tamil cinema. She won the National Film Award for Best Child Artist for her role in Makdee (2002). After Iqbal (2005), she transitioned to adult roles and found success with Kotha Bangaru Lokam (2008), The Tashkent Files (2019), and OTT platform films and web series such as Serious Men (2020), Criminal Justice (Season 3, 2022), India Lockdown (2022), and Jubilee (2023).

Shweta has also worked in Telugu, Tamil and Bengali language films. She made a documentary on Indian classical music, and has produced and written for short films. She made her directoral debut with the short film Retake in 2023.

Shweta Prasad was born in Jamshedpur, in Bihar (now in Jharkhand). She migrated to Mumbai with her family while still a child.^[3] Basu is her mother's maiden name and Prasad is her father's surname.^[4] In her earlier films she was credited as Shweta Prasad; later, she added her mother's maiden name to her screen name.^[5]

Shweta studied commerce at the R. N. Podar High School, Santacruz, Mumbai, and completed her graduation in mass media and journalism. She has written columns for The Indian Express.^[6]

Shweta made her film debut in 2002 with a double role in Makdee for which she got the National Award for Best Child Actress. She then got offers from television series Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii and Karishma Kaa Karishma. In 2005, director Nagesh Kukunoor offered her the film Iqbal, and she became a household name with the role of “Khadija” in the film. She won the Best Supporting Actress Award at the 5th Karachi International Film Festival for Iqbal.^[7][1]

She took a break after Iqbal and continued her studies.^[8] She is a graduate in Journalism and Mass Media, and after her studies, she made a documentary Roots, on Indian classical music featuring the legends of the music industry. Shweta spent four years between 2012 and 2016 researching and making this documentary film, which features personalities like Shubha Mudgal, A R Rahman, Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Pandit Jasraj, Pandit Birju Maharaj, Vishal Bhardwaj, Amit Trivedi and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. The film also has a ten-minute animation bit showing a 5000-year history of Indian music. Shweta, who is herself trained in playing the Sitar, is a classical music enthusiast and made this project from her own pocket out of passion.^[9] During the time, she worked as a script consultant at Phantom Films for an year.^[10][11]

Shweta made her debut in Telugu cinema in 2008, with the film Kotha Bangaru Lokam.^[12] She has also done movies in Tamil and Bengali.^[2][1]

She played the leading role of Nandini, wife of Chandragupta Maurya, in the television series Chandra Nandni (2016-2017). She said that this marked her comeback to television.^[13]

Her next Hindi film outing was Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017) by Dharma Productions.^[14]

Shweta played a rookie journalist and central protagonist in The Tashkent Files (2019), a suspense drama thriller based on the death of India's second Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. She received critical praise and acclaim from critics and audiences alike.^[15] The film was received well commercially and was hailed as a surprise box office success of 2019,^[16] after successfully making a 50-day Box Office run.

Shweta has worked on OTT films and series, Serious Men,^[17] Comedy Couple,^[18] and High^[19] in 2020, Ray (2021),^[20] Jamun (2021),^[21] Criminal Justice: Adhura Sach (season 3, 2022),^[22] and Jubilee (2023).^[23]

Shweta has acted in short films Interior Café: Night, which she also produced,^[24] Visa, Chubhan, and The Lovers. She made her directorial debut with the short film Retake, that she wrote as well. The film has Anupam Kher in the lead, and made its American premiere in the short films category at the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) in May 2023.^[25][26]

In September 2014, Shweta was arrested from a hotel in Hyderabad after a police raid. She was detained by the police on charges of prostitution, and sent to a rescue home,^[31] where she was held for two months.^[32][33] In December 2014, the Metropolitan Sessions Court, Nampally, Hyderabad, withdrew all charges against her. After her release, she issued an open letter to the media clarifying as false and misleading, a statement attributed to her by a journalist at the time of the arrest.^[31] In the letter, she said during the time of the arrest, she was attending the Santosham Film Awards event and staying at the hotel arranged by the organizers.^[34]

She married filmmaker Rohit Mittal on 13 December 2018.^[35] She announced their separation on Instagram on 10 December 2019.^[36][37]