Jaya Ahsan On ‘Kadak Singh’: Wanted To Work With Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, Pankaj Tripathi Was Icing On The Cake

Jaya Ahsan, a renowned actress who works mostly in Bangladeshi and Indian Bengali films, has five National Awards and three Filmfare Awards to her credit. Now, she is all set to make her Bollywood debut with National Award winning director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s latest film ‘Kadak Singh’. 

At the recently concluded 54th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), the makers had launched the trailer of the film at the opening ceremony, along with the film’s world premiere under ‘Gala Premiere’ category ahead of its release on Zee5 on December 8. 

During an exclusive chat with Outlook India, Jaya Ahsan opened up on what made her say yes to the project. 

“I am always in search of different roles, which are not in my comfort zone. As I am not a Hindi speaking actor, it was certainly challenging for me. It was always my desire to work with Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury. If you notice, he has always been dealing with subjects, which are out of the ordinary yet captivating. When he approved me and got me on board, the script that was designed for me was challenging. So I could not let this go, and the icing on the cake was Pankaj Tripathi and his acting in the film has deeply impressed me. The plot is engrossing and it was a role I have not done before,” she told us. 

Talking about her Bollywood debut, the actress highly praised her cast members in the film, and called them “humble and accepting.” She said, “I was a newcomer from a different industry and I never felt that, in terms of language being any sort of a barrier. They all made me comfortable. Pankaj Tripathi made me so comfortable, and he is a fabulous artist.”

In ‘Kadak Singh’, the actress takes on the role of Nayna, Pankaj Tripathi's love interest in the film. Speaking about her role, she said, “About my character of Nayna, the script was engaging and I fell in love with it during the reading. I found Nayna to be a strong character with a lot of agency. I love that about her.”

For those unaware, the film deals with multiple issues, including amnesia, adultery and dysfunctional family issues. With a perfect mix of suspense, drama, emotional weight, violence and great thrills, the film’s trailer showcased Panjak Tripathi as AK Srivastav aka Kadak Singh, a man suffering from retrograde amnesia who gets caught in a web of lies as he tries to recover his memory.

When asked what has been her key takeaway from this project, she quipped, “My takeaway is rather personal. I loved working with all the cast members and I had the huge opportunity to learn, to exchange experiences in the new industry, which opened my gauge to a fresh culture and knowledge. The film is Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s vision and voice and I just did my part.”

Interestingly, apart from ‘Kadak Singh’, she travelled to IFFI 2023 with three of her other films, including ‘Fereshta’, which was chosen to contend in the 'Feature Films' category alongside other foreign movies. The screenplay of the film has been crafted by Mumit Al-Rashid from Bangladesh, in collaboration with Iranian director Morteza Atashzamzam.

Talking about the project, Jaya signed off by saying, “As for ‘Fereshta’, it is an Iranian-Bangladeshi joint-venture film. It is shot in Bengali. It is a very emotional story, and I am happy that this story, which needed a voice, got it through me. People all across the globe would be able to connect with it, and I am very proud of its beautiful journey.”

Coming to ‘Kadak Singh’, the film also stars Sanjana Sanghi, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Paresh Pahuja, and Varun Buddhadev.