Jaya Ahsan on every director's wish list

She came from nowhere and she stole my soul. I don’t know who Enrique Iglesias was thinking about when he penned the lyrics of There goes my baby, but men in Bengal are surely thinking of that doe-eyed beauty from across the border, Jaya Ahsan. It has taken the three-time National Award-winning Bangladeshi actress only five years to conquer Tollywood, make its men dream of her and women go green in envy.Launched by Arindam Sil in Aborto (2012), Jaya went through the grind of Tollywood, shuttling between work and leisure, hope and despair, and is now on every director’s wish list. What worked in her favour is her rare combination of beauty with brains. Though her role in Srijit Mukherji’s Rajkahini was both praised and panned in Bangladesh, she made no bones about doing all that she could as an actress. This year, two back-to-back projects — Kaushik Ganguly’s Bishorjon and Indranil Roychowdhury’s short film Bhalobashar Shohor — saw her stepping into the big league. Jaya lives in a rented apartment in Kolkata and travels mostly in app cabs, but a few things about her are star-like. Though Jaya was once married and has been linked with many men, including some from Tollywood, she’s hinted at having a special someone in her life. Workwise too, there is a lot waiting for Jaya. Online reports suggest she’s doing Nandita Roy and Shiboprosad Mukherjee’s Kantho. I’ve also heard that she’ll pair up with a Tolly star — the one they call the industry — in Anjan Dutt’s next. Jaya is a thorough professional: well-read and well turned out. So it came as a shocker when I heard someone else has dubbed for her in Ami Joy Chatterjee. But then, some say her Bangladeshi diction is her only weakness.