Cinema VinesActor‑director Anshuman Jha, who first made a mark with the 2010 film Love Sex Aur Dhokha, has always taken a path that defies the ordinary. From the beginning, he treated acting as his primary ambition rather than a safety net. When his mother urged him to pursue a conventional career and become an IAS officer, Jha was resolute: “I wanted to become an actor. My mother wanted me to become an IAS officer, and she was right, I would have, but I wanted to pursue acting.”
Jha’s determination was evident even in school. In class 11 he deliberately left his first unit‑test papers blank, prompting his principal to call his mother and ask why he wasn’t allowed to focus on the arts. Despite missing the first admission list, he secured a spot at St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai on the second try, earning the “licence to move to Bombay” and setting the stage for the rest of his career.
Fatherhood has added a new dimension to Jha’s worldview. He and his wife have chosen an unconventional route for their daughter’s early education, reading the Bhagavad Gita to her before she was born and now sharing it together. “She’s reading the Bible, then she’ll read the Quran. We are trying — now we are on the Bible. The aim is that by the time she’s five, she should have read once at least all these basic books,” he says. He describes the simple moments with his daughter as the best part of his life, noting how her morning smiles remind him of what truly matters.
These personal insights bleed into Jha’s upcoming film, Om Ka Hari, a father‑son drama‑comedy that feels especially intimate. The story was inspired by his own relationship with his father, who travelled frequently and whom Jha rarely saw. After his father’s death in 2020, the last message he sent was a recommendation to watch the film Lucy, a nod to Jha’s love of action movies. Jha admits that his biggest regret is never having told his father “I love you.” The script, which arrived in 2022, struck a chord because it mirrors the universal longing to express affection to a parent who is no longer present.
For the role of his father, Jha cast veteran actor Raghubir Yadav, a collaboration encouraged by his late mother. The casting choice adds another layer of emotional resonance, as Jha says, “There must be so many men and women who have had a relationship with their dad, but never got a chance to say, ‘I love you’ to them. This film is very special on that regard for me.” He remains steadfast that acting will never be a backup plan; instead, he views struggle as a necessary catalyst for growth, insisting, “You can be your best version only if you struggle.”
