Jaya Ahsan on Dear Maa, OTT glory and why she’ll always choose depth over fame

It’s really a great feeling when my work gets appreciated on both sides of Bengal. Brinda in Dear Maa is one of the special characters I have done so far. I have experienced motherhood yet again through this film. After doing a film, there’s always an elevation and enrichment within an artiste and it will be heartening if the audience too accepts Brinda warmly.

In Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s films, workshop plays a pivotal role. Even before he gives us the script, he infuses the characters in us through workshops, which are basically fun sessions of chat over good food, where we, as a team, spend time with each other letting the characters get entrenched within us. Also, the script has been written by Sakyajit Bhattacharya, who’s a brilliant mind. The script was so good that it helped us to prepare to a great extent. I too don’t believe in formal preparation for any role, I play by my instincts and feelings. I never plan or guide the character I play; I let the character guide me.

Whatever we see around us, including the real-life characters, acts as an inspiration for me. Motherhood is such a universal thing and not restricted to any particular gender—it’s a feeling and a philosophy, and there’s a lot of maternal instinct in a male, too. I got a lot of maternal affection from my granny. Also, a variety of films that I have watched over the years often play in the sub-conscious to influence the characters I play.

I was always waiting to work with Aniruddha. He and his wife are like a family to me; it goes beyond the profession. Since he hasn’t made a Bengali film in the past 10 years, I had no scope to work with him. When he approached me for Kadak Singh, I agreed since in his films, more than the length, it’s the depth that matters. My role in Kadak Singh was an empowering, fulfilling and author-backed role, and I yearned to work with him.

Chandan doesn’t act. He behaves. We try to do that but can’t always achieve it. His approach is so flat, and I admire the way he adopts a non-acting format. Saswata does magic no matter what character he plays, elevating them to another level. He recently acted in a web series in Bangladesh and he earned a lot of appreciation for his act.

All of them have their own distinct and unique process and signature styles. Kaushik’s script will take you far as an actor and will help you blossom. When he first read out Padma’s character in Bisorjon, we both were crying incessantly, and that was the workshop. The understanding is very good with him. Atanu writes very complex characters with lots of layers that are in-built in the script. I sit for workshops with him and I ask him a lot of questions about the story and the scenes, and question the actions of the characters. With Aniruddha, too, it’s the same.

I hold Dear Maa’s Brinda, Bisorjon’s Padma, and Binisutoy’s character close to my heart.

The story of Jimmi is inspired by the six frailties of life, like anger, greed, among others, that we experience at any time in life. The director started the story from a crucial point in the life of Runa Laila, a government employee, who accidentally stumbles upon a pile of cash, which changes her lifestyle and how she gets sucked into the trappings of the good life. It’s a well-made and an engrossing dark comedy with so many cliff-hangers. And I would love to see Runa back in the second season.

In Bangladesh, I have worked in several important projects, and if I may say, my first significant web series, Jimmi, is Bangladeshi content. I think in terms of OTT content, I will keep Bangladesh a little ahead of Tollywood because of the style of storytelling and versatility. But here too in Tollywood, it is very satisfying to get a chance to work in films. The kind of schooling in terms of filmmaking, gives me that scope to satisfy the actor in me. But of late, Dhaka too is coming up with good films that appeal to the middle-class aesthetes, and my recent blockbusters like Tandab and Utsab are cases in point.

There are many, including Nurul Alam Atiq, Mostafa Sarwar Farooki, Piplu, Mejbaur Rahman Sumon, and Amitabh Reza Chowdhury, among others.

Oh yes, I would love to work with Anik Dutta and Anjan Dutt. I would also love to collaborate with new directors, and I want to work with Abhinandan Banerjee who made Manikbabur Megh.

I don’t like to glorify that I work for animal rights or that I am an animal lover, since I feel that’s the way to be. The world and society are for all species, not for sapiens alone, and we are interdependent. Can you imagine a society without the strays? All living beings are important, but we have become so selfish and self-centric that we often do not care about that. Here in Bengal, people are sensitive towards animals, and that’s another reason why I respect people here so much. In Bangladesh too, the youth are sensitive and committed towards animals and their safety. I work not only for the stray dogs but for other animals as well. It pains me to see any animal in distress.

I am a nature lover, a little more than others perhaps, and I love when people call me a farm girl. My mother and I grow vegetables and all kinds of fruits and flowers. I love to stay close to the earth and farming is therapeutic for me. We artistes go through a lot of stress and being close to nature helps.

Of course, humans can’t stay alone.

He’s not a mystery man and definitely not someone from the acting fraternity. But we both love to keep our lives and relationship private. He is a private person, like me, and we have been in a relationship for years now. What’s more important is that in any relationship, it’s essential to become good friends before being partners. He is very patient, calm and tolerates all my artistic idiosyncrasies, and the fact that I am so pre-occupied and busy has never come in the way of our relationship.

I don’t think I ever will, though I have respect for the institution of marriage. But for now, I’m fine with this phase of being together because I think I am a bit scared of getting married.