She hails from Kolkata and now lives in Mumbai. But her professional calling has led her to Chennai. Meet, Jayati Guha, the heroine of Angusam, who studied fashion in London but ended up pursuing an acting career instead.
Jayati completed a three-year course in fashion design and spent a year studying fashion management at the prestigious London College of Fashion in the UK. After she moved back to India, life took a different turn. “I began getting lot of modeling offers and took them up,” Jayati recalls. As luck would have it, most of the 40 sari, shampoo and jewellery ads were for companies based in the South. “Perhaps that was an indication of things to come. The ads I did opened the avenue to the South. I want to make my base here.” she says. Jayati’s debut film Angusam, directed by Manukannan, has her playing Shakti, a village girl, opposite hero Skanda Ashok. “When I got this offer I liked the concept of the film which is based on the RTI Act. I was keen to work in Kollywood since I was already familiar with Chennai and impressed with the working atmosphere here.” she says. In preparation, she did a course at Anupam Kher’s acting school and went to theatre workshops to hone her skills.
Her looks and talent seem to have got her noticed. She has already bagged a Malayalam film titled Ente Satyanweshana Pareekshangal with Suraj and Rahman, directed by Subil. A second untitled Tamil film opposite co-star Mithun Tejaswi is in her kitty too. Jayati feels at home in Chennai. She says, “We Bengalis too are very traditional like the people here. We too love rice and whenever I’m here, I gorge on fish, sampling the local style.” When she’s not shooting, Jayati is busy brushing up her Tamil, or catching up on her reading list of books on spirituality and crime fiction. About the future she says, “I like Angusam because it’s a film with a message. I want to strike a balance between glam roles and meaningful ones. An actor should have no limits.My biggest desire is to do stunts in an action flick, Jackie Chan style!” she says.