NEW DELHI: Actor Roopa Ganguly, who rose to fame as Draupadi in the popular television series 'Mahabharat' in the late eighties and later won the National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer in the Bengali film 'Abhosheyshey', has become a member of the Rajya Sabha.

Ganguly has been nominated by the President under Article 80(1)(a) of the Constitution.

She takes the place of Navjot Singh Sidhu, who had been nominated but had had quit later following differences with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Earlier this year, she had lost in a bye-election from Howrah North to a candidate of the Trinamool Congress.

Roopa Ganguly made her debut in the Anil Kapoor starrer ‘Saaheb’ (1985), after her graduation from Calcutta. Her second role was in Malayalam film ‘Ithile Iniyum Varu’ (1986) with Mammootty as lead. But her first role a lead actress was the pivotal role of Draupadi, in B R Chopra's mythological TV series ‘Mahabharat’ (1988), which immediately got her attention, and also lead to a role in Mrinal Sen's, ‘Ek Din Achanak’ (1989).

Her other notable works are in award-winning Indo-Bangladesh co-production ‘Padma Nadir Majhi’ (1993) by Goutam Ghose, ‘Yugant’ (1995) by Aparna Sen, ‘Abar Aranye’ (2003) by Goutam Ghose, and ‘Antarmahal’ (2006) by Rituparno Ghosh.

Apart from these film appearances she has done, numerous television series, both in Bengali and Hindi, including ‘Sukanya’ (1998) etc. She also appeared in the films ‘Dekha’ and ‘Hemlock Society’.

After working in a few Hindi films, she shifted to Kolkata, and after appearing in numerous Bengali films through the 1990s, shifted base to Mumbai in 2007, with an English film called ‘Bow Barracks Forever’ (2004) directed by Anjan Dutt, and continued to act in Bengali films. She started working in Hindi TV series with ‘Karam Apnaa Apnaa’ (2007), moving on to Love Story (SAB TV series) (2007), and more recently in ‘Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo’ (2009). She has also performed opposite the south super star Dr. Vishnuvardhan in two films ‘Inspector Dhanush’ (Hindi) and ‘Police Mathu Daadda’ (Kannada).