About
Jaya Seal Ghosh
Jaya Seal Ghosh is a nationally renowned actress who has worked in films is several languages. She has made a name for herself as a superlative performer and is widely respected for the same. She started her acting career at an early age in Assamese television and did plays with noted Assamese theatre personalities from NSD like Dulal Roy and Baharul Islam who inspired her. To pursue this interest she went to the National School of Drama in New Delhi where she subsequently completed her three-year course in 1997.
The years that followed sow her base to Bombay and emerge as one of the leading actresses in the country. She went to act in 19 feature films in 8 languages besides appearing in several ad commercials. Some of Jaya’s films received National and International Awards in Film Festivals like Venice, Busan. Among her noteworthy films, she holds Uttara, by Buddhadeb Dasgupta close to her heart. She was nominated for best actress in the year 2000 for Uttara. This film has received Golden lion award in Venice and best Director award in national award section. She also played the lead role in the popular serial in ‘Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki’ in 2004. Some of her well-known films are Chal, directed by Hansal Mehta & Xcuse Men by N. Chandra (Hindi), Penninmanathaithottu(Tamil) opposite Prabhu Deva, Samurai(Tamil) opposite Vikram, Bahala Channa Gide (Kannada) opposite Shivraj Kumar, Magunido Sagodo (Odiya) which won the National Award for best Odiya film in 2003, Thilaadanam (Telugu) Which won National Award for best debut director to the late 6 time National and International award winning Film Critic and Director K.N.T. Sastry and also won best foreign film and New Currents Award in Pussan film festival in 2003, Shesh Thikana (Bengali) etc. She has worked in more than thirty ad commercials like Dettol, Colgate, Clinic plus oil and shampoo, Sundrop oil etc. She appeared as the main lead in the hugely popular television serial "Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki". The role of Parwati made her a household name in the country. Throughout this phase she also continued her primary passion - dance.
She received the Best Actress Award at the Assam Prag Cine Awards for the Assamese film Shrinkhol 2014.
Jaya also worked with renowned theatre personality Usha Ganguly as the main lead in her production Chandalika. Recently she has acted in the film Arshinagar directed by Aparna Sen. Film Alifa in Bengali language shot at Guwahati directed by Deep Choudhury which has been selected in 2016 22nd Kolkata International Film Festival received best debut director award in 2017 national award and Best film in OTTAWA film FEST. She won the best actress award in Lonawala Film Festival (LIFT) and in 2018 received best actress award in Hyderabad Bengali film festival- for the film Alifa. Alongside being an actress of national repute, Jaya is also widely heralded as a highly skilled Bharatanatyam dancer. Dance has always been an important part of Jaya’s life. She learned Bharatnatyam under Guru Indira P P Bora for five years. During the period she was in Mumbai working on Bollywood, she trained under Guru Vaibhav Arekar and Guru Rajeshri Shirke at Lasya academy. Later she trained under Guru Naresh Pillai too. After shifting her base to Kolkata, Jaya joined Kalamandalam under the guidance of Guru Thankamani Kutty in the year 2005. Currently she is continuing her learning under Vidushi Rama Vaidyanathan. Jaya has performed as a dancer at many prestigious venues.
Some of her important performances include the following:
• Inaugural concert of The North American Bengali sammellan at Detroit's Cobo Arena in 2007.
• Performance for the T20 finals in 2016.
• Performance for the West Bengal Government’s Digha festival in 2019.
• The International Festival of Music and Dance in Muscat in 2015.
Jaya has recently ventured into film production under the name Jaya Seal Ghosh Productions and also runs her Bharatanatyam institute.
Last year she has acted in two hindi short films The Green Window and Soch, both films are directed by Indira Dhar Mukherjee which received lot of accolades in respectable festival circuits. She has also worked in web series Ashram season 3 directed by Prakash Jha which is running on OTT . She has received best actress for the film Soch at 7th Bengal International Film festival. She has started acting in Hindi theatre also after 12yrs gap with Padatik theatre Group of Kolkata.
In this banner she has directed a dance drama called Andal in Bharatnatyam dance form which is successfully staged in Kolkata n delhi . Jaya regularly performs Bharatanatyam shows as well as her choreographed shows with her own team of dancers across the country .She has been examiner for Bharatnatyam MA students at Rabindra Bharati University of kolkata 2025. She has been jury member fie IKSFF in the year 2024and 2025. She has been also jury member for KIFF for short film section in the year 2023. She is the vice principal of Bickram Ghosh Academy of performing Arts.