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Coming from a humble background, she was fondly called Bulbul by those who knew her. While she acted on screen from a very young age, not many knew that her performance began when she was a child. Actress Jaya Bhattacharya, popularly known for her role as Payal in Kyunki Saas Bhi Bahu Thi, might have been a celebrated vamp on Indian television. But in real life, she was a victim of a bad marriage, which only affected her as she grew up.
Born in 1978 in Lucknow, into a Bengali family, Jaya Bhattacharya doesn’t have many happy memories. In fact, she carries trauma due to all that her mother went through. Life wasn’t typically easy for Jaya, as being a girl child turned out to be her biggest mistake. Talking about her traumatic childhood, the actress once said in an interview with Siddharth Kannan that, “Both my parents never wanted to marry each other, they didn’t get along, and that trickled down to the child. My mother wasn’t happy; her dreams never got fulfilled, so whatever she could give me was incomplete… I have been beaten with a whip, rolling pin, tong, shoes, and what not. I have been beaten a lot, and that made me stubborn. In the bargain, I have damaged myself a lot.”
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Recalling her humble background, the actress shared, “I was an only child, we didn’t come from a wealthy background. We lived in a small room right from the time I was in the third standard till the time I came to Mumbai.” While Jaya loved her father, she held a grudge against her mother until a few years ago. Even though she has healed from the scars of her childhood, she says, “I was not upset with my father, but with my mother. I learned everything that I shouldn’t do in life from my mother, like making relationships for her benefit and then discarding them, not to value people, not to judge people, and not to support your child in front of others. My mother never stood by me.”
She further added, “When they started to make me act, one of them would accompany me. I hardly had any friends because I wasn’t allowed to go to anyone’s house. So I didn’t speak much. Out of jealousy, people started saying wrong things about me, and my mother supported them, saying her daughter was bad. This hurt me the most; she doubted her own upbringing. Your child can go wrong, but you should trust your upbringing. If you degrade them in front of outsiders, what will the child do?”
Jaya recalled an incident where, due to her mother’s stress about having a girl child, she ran away from home to Haridwar. She recalled, “When I was in class 9, my father retired, my mother had made a big issue about how she would accumulated my dowry. How will I get married? So the day my father retired, I ran away from home with my classmate. We ran away to Haridwar, but we were so scared that we didn’t leave the aashram for a week.” Sharing how things never got better with her mom, Jaya added, “Even when my mother was hospitalized, she went through a very bad phase. Our last conversation was when she blamed me for spoiling her body by hospitalizing her. I used all my savings for her treatment, even though I actually hated her, and I told her this on her face. My mother would not eat food from my hands; she wanted a son.”
Talking about her father, Jaya said, “My father was stubborn, but he was a very correct and proud human being. He had a lot of self-respect. He faced a lot of abuse from people, even though he did the right things. That really hurt me, but I was proud of him.” Facing a great deal of abuse not only made Jaya stubborn but also angry. “I was an angry person from within due to various reasons. I had lost my femininity and would abuse normally. Once a co-star told me that directors were scared to work with me because of my abusive nature.”
Even though she never wanted to act, Jaya Bhattacharya was pushed in front of the camera by her parents. Recalling this, the actress said in an interview, “I was pushed towards acting. I used to dance, and was training in music. Once I got a chance to do a telefilm, the director spoke to my father and first made me dance as a woman, and then also asked me to enact the male part. The shoot was supposed to happen after three days, but my father woke me up the next day at 5 am and took me. I didn’t want to do it, but he took me there. That’s how it started…”
Jaya said that she also faced exploitation and casting couch. She shared, “After the telefilm, the director came with one of his friends, saying he wanted to take me out, but my mother kept dodging him. But he was adamant, so they gave in. He took me to a restaurant, and I was 17-18 at that time. Later, we came home, and the director disappeared after that, but his friend started coming home every day. He taught me how to drive. Later, we got to know he was involved with the mafia. One day, that guy offered to take me to Mumbai, but I said no.”
She said she received many such inappropriate offers during her career.
Navigating through her life, Jaya Bhattacharya came to Mumbai after she was offered a show. That time, she only had Rs 2000 on her, and she got on a train without any reservation. “I had gotten my father discharged from the hospital, and dropped him at a cousin’s house, then I came to Mumbai,” Jaya said. She recalled how people in the industry trusted her.
In 2000, life changed for Jaya when she bagged the role of Payal in Ekta Kapoor’s Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. What was supposed to be a month-long cameo went on to become a 7-year association. Sadly, Jaya never felt respected on the show; in fact, she only faced abuse from fans. Recalling her time on Kyunki, the actress said, “I faced a lot of abuse for Kyunki; that was my success. I never got an award for that iconic character; no acceptance or acknowledgement was given, even though I deserved it. I enjoyed the abuses. It was supposed to be a month-long cameo, and I worked on the show for 7 and a half years without signing a contract. I was the most underpaid actor, never got a raise until I asked for it. I was given a 50 percent lesser raise than others, and that hurt my ego. I was not respected.”
Jaya even recalled an incident where she was eating on the streets with a pregnant Smriti Irani when a fan came and pushed her away, calling her a ‘gandi aurat’. “She told Smriti to stay away from me, else it would harm her unborn child.”
After Kyunki, Jaya went on to star in some great shows like Banoo Mein Teri Dulhan, Kasam Se, Karam Apnaa Apnaa, and more. To date, Jaya has managed to stay relevant on the acting front, her very recent performance was in Delhi Crime Season 3.
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