Jaya Ahsan is keen to do comedy in Bengali films

Be it ‘Bisorjon’, ‘Robibbar’, ‘Binisutoy’, ‘Dawshom Awbotaar’, ‘Putulnacher Itikatha’, ‘Dear Maa’ or now ‘OCD’, Tollywood audiences have mostly seen the ‘serious’ side of Bangladeshi actress Jaya Ahsan. And honestly, no one’s complaining.

Ever since she entered Tollywood, Jaya has carved a space for herself as a powerful performer. The fact that so many Bengali directors keep going back to her only shows the kind of trust she commands. That trust works both ways. Jaya believes in it too, which is why she has already teamed up with director Sourkarya Ghosal twice. Their first Bengali film together, ‘Bhootpori’ (2024), was a horror fantasy and even made it to the Indian Panorama section at the 55th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.

Their latest collaboration, ‘OCD’, is a far more intense psychological thriller. The film looks at how unresolved childhood abuse can follow a survivor well into adulthood. Jaya plays Shweta, a successful doctor whose past comes back to haunt her in the form of her former abuser.

For Jaya, subjects like child abuse and paedophilia need to be spoken about far more openly. She believes childhood trauma doesn’t just go away… it stays with you for life. “Sourkarya always thinks differently and that’s why I like working with him. We don’t talk enough about child abuse and childhood trauma. But these memories haunt an adult for a lifetime,” she said.

She also pointed out an uncomfortable truth that many times, women within families try to brush such incidents under the carpet, especially if the abuser is a relative. “We do this because we fear family stigma and end up thinking more about ourselves than the children. Often, we don’t even take kids seriously when they talk about abuse. Parents need to be extremely careful and really listen to their children. ‘OCD’ is an important film because it shows how childhood trauma can scar someone for life,” said the ‘Ek Je Chhilo Raja’ actress.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder or OCD is about the urge to repeat certain actions to deal with anxiety and many of us have it without even realising. The ‘Ardhangini’ actress admitted she discovered her own OCD tendencies during conversations around the film. “If I go to someone’s house for the first time and if I see the plants look messy, I start cleaning them, cutting branches, watering them and fixing the soil,” she said.

Despite doing so many intense roles, Jaya now wants to let loose. She’s keen to do a proper, full-on comedy in Tollywood. She has already done one comedy, ‘Utshob’, in Bangladesh and hopes filmmakers here will finally tap into her comic side. “Situational comedy works best. If I’m given a comic character, I know I can pull it off. I really want young directors here to take note,” she said.

Jaya has also turned producer. Ask her who she’d like to work with in Tollywood and she quickly reels off names like Anirban Bhattacharya, Swastika Mukherjee, Abir Chatterjee and others. And while current geopolitical tensions have put a pause on Indo-Bangladesh film collaborations, she’s hopeful about OTT platforms, which continue to create stories that resonate with Bengalis across the world. Post OCD, Jaya would be seen in Kaushik Ganguly’s much-anticipated sequel, ‘Ajo Ardhangini’.