Riya Sen was born in Kolkata , India on January 24, 1981 is an Indian film actress and model. Riya, who hails from a family of actors
including her grandmother Suchitra Sen, mother Moon Moon Sen and sister Raima Sen , began her acting career in 1991 as a child artiste in the film Vishkanya. Her first commercial success in her film career was with Style, a 2001 Hindi low-budget sex comedy directed by N.Chandra. Some of her other films include producer Pritish Nandy's musical film, Jhankaar Beats (2001) in Hinglish, director David Dhawan's comedy film, Shaadi No. 1 (2005) and director-cinematographer Santhosh Sivan's Malayalam horror film Ananthabhadram(2005).
Riya was first recognised as a model when she performed in Falguni Pathak's music video Yaad Piya Ki Aane Lagi at the age of sixteen. Since then, she has appeared in music videos, television commercials, fashion shows, and on magazine covers.
Riya has worked as an activist and appeared in an AIDS awareness music video with the aim of dispelling popular myths about the disease. She also helped raise funds for pediatric eye-care. Riya has faced controversies such as a MMS clip with actor Ashmit Patel, her semi-nude photograph on photographer Dabboo Ratnani's annual calendar and she on-screen kisses in a conservative Indian film industry.
Born on January 24, 1981 in Kolkata, West Bengal, Riya is the daughter of Moon Moon Sen, a former actress, and granddaughter of Suchitra Sen, a legend in Bengali cinema before moving to Mumbai, she lived in
Kolkata with her parents and Sister Raima Sen, also an actress. Her father Bharat Dev Varma is a member of the royal family of Tripura Her paternal grandmother, Ila Devi, was the princess of Cooch Behar, whose
younger sister Gayatri Devi is the Maharani of JaipurHer paternal grandmother Indira was the only daughter of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda. Riya's maternal great-grandfather Adinath Sen was a prominent Kolkata businessman, whose father Dinanath Sen was the Diwan or a Minister of the Maharaja of Tripura. The sisters are credited on-screen under their grandmother's maiden name, although their official papers carry the surname Dev Varma.
Riya completed her schooling at Loreto House and Rani Birla College, both in Kolkata. Thereafter, she studied at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, and she took up jewellery-designing as a hobby. She designs most of the clothes that she wears in films and commercials. Riya is trained in Kathak and is still pursuing it under Vijayshree Chaudhury and kickboxing taking lessons (has completed the Level I of the 5 levels in belly dancing. Riya entered the film industry through small-time modeling assignments, commuting between Mumbai and Kolkata and traveling by public transport during the her early career. After breaking into the film industry, she shifted from
her mother's house in Ballygunge Circular Road in south Kolkata to Mumbai. There she moved into the family house in Juhu, where she stays with her sister. During her stay in Mumbai, the media romantically linked her to model and actor John Abraham.
Riya has suffered a number of untimely incidents. During the filming of Shaadi No. 1 in France, she was knocked unconscious after being accidentally run over by a stuntman's motorbike, but she was not seriously injured. Shortly before the release of Silsiilay, in which she starred opposite her boyfriend Ashmit Patel, a 90-second video clip was circulated through Multimedia Messaging Services and the internet, showing the pair in compromising situations. This was one of a number of controversies that erupted when celebrities were caught in similar situations using cameraphones. Following this incident, the couple split up, although Riya denied that she was the girl in the MMS clip.One commentator claimed that the footage was an orchestrated publicity stunt. In 2007, she underwent a brief detoxification session in Bangkok for addiction to chocolate.