Nusrat Jahan has often forgot to make a wish and blow the candles on her birthday cake because she has been busy salivating! The beautiful actress-MP who turns a year younger today laughs out loud while narrating this story to us. She doesn’t work or gym on this special day and likes to celebrate it with her family. This year will be spent at home. In a chat, Nusrat tells us why birthdays are special and why it is her first birthday!
This is a special birthday, right?
This is my first birthday! I am one year old. They say you are reborn when you become a mother.
This will also be your first birthday with Yishaan (son)...
This ought to be special. And after going through the horrible pandemic times that we are going through, the fact that I am alive makes it a special birthday. There is immense gratitude that God has kept me alive and I can celebrate with my family.
What are your plans? What do you want to feast on?
I have no plans! My team had scheduled work on that day too! Such selfish people. (Laughs) All of that has been thankfully cancelled by someone who is supposed to plan things and not me. I believe someone else is planning. Birthdays are always very special, but gone are the days when I want to celebrate and go partying and cut 10 cakes. I think I am done with all of that. People sending me good wishes is something I look forward to and that is what matters. Rest, I want to be with my family.
I enjoy eating with someone who enjoys his food and I think I have found that person. Both of us bond over food. So, my family and friends know what I like.
Any birthday rituals?
I don’t work on my birthdays! (Laughs) I still have that stupid young girlwala feeling that birthdays are special and though I am turning older every year, I am not being able to let go of that feeling that birthdays are special. Aamar mone hoi, aami buri boyesho nijeke bolbo, ‘Happy birthday! Birthdays are special!’ It is my day. And on birthdays you want to be loved, pampered a bit more and eat your favourite things and you have your favourite people around. That’s what birthdays are about. You do good and think good.
I don’t rush on my birthday. I was off phone last year. I get back to them after a while. Before I became an actor, only friends and family would wish me and I could have replied to everyone. Now everyone wishes, which is very sweet but you often can’t reply immediately. So, maybe a phone-free day. It’s been a lot of work and balancing home and work these few days. I am hoping someone will help me calm down on the 8th! (Laughs) And, no gymming!
Do you like cutting your midnight cake?
I like that. That’s sweet. One birthday, I came rushing home from work and my friends thought I’d be late. So, I came back to an empty home. I was so upset and fought with all my friends. (Laughs) That’s a stupid me! I turn into a kid and I don’t have to think like a mature person. I allow myself to do that and my family bears with it. Those who know me, know what I like. Last year also Yash (Dasgupta) gave me a cute birthday cake with a teddy bear on top. Probably not many know but that’s how I like it. I like cartoon characters, Disney and I am going to be in my late 30s now... I am going to 32...
That’s definitely not late 30s...
Thirty two toh late e lagchhe aamar! (Laughs) I still enjoy doing things that I used to as a little girl. I still want to be that little girl who did not have any chaap in life or did not have to follow protocols or think about duties and rights. Very simple lives that we had long back. It is no longer 100 per cent achievable, but on your birthday, you should feel a little laid-back.
Have you grown wiser, especially in the last one year?
I don’t know. People who’ve known me closely would be able to say it better. I don’t know about being wiser, but you never repeat the same mistakes.
What did 2021 teach you, personally and professionally?
That it is just the people who love you, your family, are the only ones who will stick around. They are the only ones who will have your back. God always gives you the opportunity to look at the brighter side of life and for me, it was with a lot of love and my baby coming in, I made a new family. I have learnt to focus on the good bit.
You have this uncanny ability to laugh at yourself...
While some people have called me fearless, I feel I did nothing.... I just did what I felt like doing. So, if 100 people are praising me, there are 100 more who, forget about calling me a good actor, bhalo kathai bole na about me. So, it doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me at the end of the day is that I can peacefully sleep at night and I can be at peace that I have not wronged anyone and I don’t want to remember who wronged me. Forgive and forget.
You have multiple films releasing this year...
There is Swastik Sanket, Mastermoshai Aapni Kichu Dekhenni and Jai Kali Kalkattawali and if at all I do another one, then I won’t know when they’ll release. Jai Kali Kalkattawali is a happy-go-lucky film.
One morning I woke up and I was telling Yash that I suddenly don’t feel like doing many films because it is becoming difficult for me to manage time. There are political duties too and then there is home. Trust me the job of a homemaker is the most difficult job possible. There’s my baby, my pet, keeping a tab on my better half’s schedule, what are we eating... are we eating healthy! Every goddam thing! I have realised bairer kaj kora shohoj, but doing my mother’s job which she has been doing for years, is a far more difficult one. So, I want to do films which provide me with a character and challenge me as an actor and give me a space to perform.
Some of the stories are superb. Onyorokom concept. There’s novelty. We are spoilt for choices on the OTT platform. So, you need great content yet something larger than life so that people hit the big screen. I am still a cinema person, unless someone gives me a kick-ass project on OTT. I am a movie-date-night or a family’s-day-out-at-the movies kind of person. I am old-school and love watching films at the theatre.
Swastik Sanket had such a kick-ass script that I couldn’t say no. Mastermoshai Aapni Kichu Dekhenni with Yash is a political drama.
2022 will be like...
We need to live mask-free lives in a few months time and not live in fear that we can lose a loved one anytime. Life of course doesn’t come with a guarantee and anything may happen, but still we can’t be losing people to Covid any more. At the end of the day, when you hit the bed, you do take back a lot of experiences.
If you could be a certain age for the rest of your life, you would be...
I wouldn’t like to get stuck at any one age! The word ‘forever’ charms me when it comes with new experiences with the same people.
Not 18?!
Eighteen is special because you feel you have become an adult, but aamra actually boro hoini! (Laughs) I feel good on my birthday every year. A lot of people will say what’s special about a birthday, you are getting nearer to your expiration date, but for me, it is another year of experiences and craziness and being alive.
BLURB
One morning I woke up and I was telling Yash that I suddenly don’t feel like doing many films because it is becoming difficult for me to manage time. There are political duties too and then there is home. Trust me the job of a homemaker is the most difficult job possible. So, I want to do films which provide me with a character and challenge me as an actor and give me a space to perform
— Nusrat
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