5 min readKolkataJan 24, 2022 09:55 AM IST
Actor Nusrat Jahan says her life has changed completely since she welcomed her son, Yishaan. After ending her relationship with Nikhil Jain, she had moved in with partner, actor Yash Dasgupta and says her time is divided between work and home. The actor, however, jokes that she is invariably late everywhere thanks to her son.
“Earlier a lot of people used to tell me that ‘you come on time’. Now I am mostly late because the moment I am about to leave my house I see someone doe-eyed staring at me. That actually gets me delayed. I have to attend to him and then leave for work. I think every person’s life changes after motherhood,” she says.
The actor chose not to reveal the name of her child’s father initially, refusing to bow down to speculation and backlash, revealing it in her own time, “As per certain laws in India I am entitled to not answer certain questions,” she says about her decision.
Nusrat and partner Yash Dasgupta have been open about their relationship since, with him even appearing on her show. At the moment, Wikipedia describes Yash as her ‘domestic partner’, and the actor says that she has no plans to change that. “No, why would I? I mean we are a family,” she smiles, as she dismisses people’s questions about marriage. “Let’s not go into the marriage part. How do you know I am not married?” she smiles.
Nusrat stands tall today, having weathered months of finger-pointing on social media. She says she is at peace with herself and her decisions. “I have always been a very strong girl. I have always taken decisions for myself – good or bad, right or wrong. So, I have always been responsible for my own actions,” she explains.
How has this entire experience changed her as a woman? “I can answer that question in a gist: Why do we always have the woman coming out of torture and emerging as a winner? We, as human beings, have our ups and downs. Everybody emerges from such upheavals in their own way. We all are fighters. Otherwise, how do we survive? These are the instincts that we follow in life. Fight for yourself and move on in life. Nobody wants to sit back and sulk over things that cannot be helped. So, it is there in every situation. If you don’t bring about a change, nothing changes,” she says.
She recently had a release ‘Swastik Sanket’ where she co-stars with Saswata Chattopadhyay. “I am playing Rudrani, a normal Bengali girl. She is a banker by profession, and a cryptographer and an author by passion. She writes a book which does really well in India. They want to launch the book in London. She goes to London where her husband has been working for a few months. The plan is that following the book launch, they will spend some time together. It’s a very simple plan until they meet a man by the name of Shumacher. He says if Rudrani can help him out in decoding some cryptographic messages, it apparently can help humanity by eradicating a disease like cancer. She is a very emotional person and thinks it’s for a good cause, and helps him. However, that turns out to be a mistake, and humanity is threatened. Now, to solve this problem, they have to go back in time and fix it. But she has a cute side also. She is laidback, doesn’t like cooking and is loved by her husband. She breaks down like a normal girl, stands up, fights back. She likes taking challenges and risks,” says Nusrat.
Why did she agree to the film? “It is an amazing character that seemed challenging to me. It is adapted from Debarati’s novel, ‘Narak Sanket’. I have read a lot of Nancy Drew in my childhood so it’s fascinating to me. Certain changes have been made in the script so that it co-relates with the problem that we are going through – the pandemic and so on. The film has a background where there is Adolf Hitler, there is Netaji. Everything is spun together to give a nice story to the audience,” she says.
Nusrat is the sitting MP from West Bengal’s Basirhaat, would she stand for the 2024 elections? “It’s too early to comment on that. I don’t know. I am yet to do a lot of work on this front. Let’s see. It depends on what people want from me. Not what I want,” she says.
Nusrat Jahan and Yash Dasgupta welcomed their son last year. (Photo: Instagram/Nusrat Jahan)