Chayanika Chowdhury: 24 years and still going strong

In 2001, Chayanika Chowdhury hadn't gone to "Light & Shadow" to direct – she had simply dropped by to collect a payment for another project. On that same set, a new script was being discussed, and she casually asked producer Mujibur Rahman about who would be directing it. His answer startled her: "You." The old saying "Think before you act" never suited her. "I act first and think later," she laughs. "Within two seconds I said yes." That impulsive decision became the first step of a filmmaking journey she has now pursued relentlessly for twenty-four years.

On October 28, 2001, at exactly 8:40pm on BTV, she debuted with her directorial drama, "Ek Jibone". Actress Tamalika Karmakar served as executive producer, and Zaydan Rabbi backed the project under the AdMedia banner. "There wasn't really a budget," Chayanika remembers. "I carried everything from home – costumes, candles, even a blower to fake rain."

Before television knew her name, "Light & Shadow's" Mujibur Rahman gave her a first platform to learn the ropes. For the next three years, her work kept appearing across three channels; small crews, borrowed props, and the stubborn belief that stories would find their audience. "I feel lucky that what I introduced 24 years ago is still running," she says. "Back then people waited for a Chayanika Valentine drama."

Music threaded through those early plays. Bappa Mazumder and Fahmida Nabi would hand her unreleased songs before the albums even came out. There was no YouTube, no instant metrics. "Today, we celebrate a million views," she smiles. "Back then, nine crore people tuned in at the same hour; no repeats—miss it and it was gone."

The training started much earlier. She recited on television as a child; in Class Four, her mamoni placed Tagore's "Golpo Guccho" in her hands. At home there were flutes and tablas, Nazrul songs, and a mother who insisted on good cinema. "That's where the schooling happened — at home," she says. "The music, the dance, the watching — all of it still runs through the way I tell a story."

The industry she entered was dominated by heavyweights; Giasuddin Selim, Mamunur Rashid, Abdullah Al Mamun, Salauddin Lavlu, Afzal Hossain, and Arun Chowdhury, among others. "One channel would have only seven Eid slots, and naturally they went to the giants," she recalls. "If I wanted in, I had to pass a test and bring in something new."

Her big test arrived with "Tomake Chuye", an NTV Eid special that reunited Bipasha Hayat and Shomi Kaiser on the same screen after a decade—a pairing audiences had not seen together in years. She took on the challenge and brought them back for the drama in 2005.

"'Prohelika', however, was the most arduous project of my career," she notes. "Many urged me to delay its release because a Shakib Khan blockbuster was already commanding the cinemas." Her ensemble, Nasir Uddin Khan and Shobnom Bubly—carried a story that, "won over viewers even when every projection suggested otherwise."

For the newcomers," Chayanika says, "never stop working. Don't stage one play and disappear. Keep the work in motion. That is how I've sustained twenty-four uninterrupted years. 

Speaking of platforms and worth, the director remains pragmatic. "Someone has to create the opening," she says. "We speak of who is worthy, but worth becomes visible only after a platform allows you to show it. Recognise the space that extended that first opportunity, it is consequential. I intend to validate each opportunity through my craft, but the opportunity itself must first be offered."

After twenty-four uninterrupted years, she rejects any notion of completion. "I once thought this span was enough," she admits. "Now I feel there's far more to do." Her signature love stories, she says, belong on OTT for a new generation to measure. All these years in filmmaking, she finds herself more determined than ever, certain that her story as a director remains very much unfinished.