Armed with passion, I was my own godfather: Divya Dutta

Lockdown saw her work on a short film

If you consider that her debut was in the 1994 film ‘Ishq Mein Jeena Ishq Mein Marna’, Divya Dutta is a veteran. The overwhelming majority of her roles are called “supporting characters”, but the feisty actress, never one to be slotted, would rather not describe herself as a character actor.

“I am an artiste!” she declares on the phone. “I may have been Salman Khan’s heroine in ‘Veergati’ and 20 years later, I am doing a small role in ‘Badlapur’, but both are acting as far as I am concerned. I have worked in Hindi, Hollywood and Punjabi films, and even in Nepali, Tamil and Malayalam movies, but it’s the passion that matters. I choose what I know I will enjoy working on, and today, even the people with whom I work influence my choice.”

The Ludhiana-born actress gives the example of ‘The Relationship Manager’, her latest short film. “Neeraj Pandey is a man of few words. He is not only one of our finest filmmakers and human beings, but I trust him so much that I never even ask him about my character. For seven years after ‘Special 26’, he did not call me until ‘Special Ops’ and this short film.”

Divya plays a victim of domestic abuse in ‘The Relationship Manager’, and we ask how she prepared herself given that the screen time she gets is a matter of a few minutes. “The length of my role is of no importance, one just has to be sincere. I have never been a method actor, so I just feel the character. That is how I have approached all my work.”

The actress’ best-known work includes ‘Veer-Zaara’, ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’, ‘Jogger’s Park’, ‘Baghban’, ‘Ragini MMS 2’, ‘Stanley Ka Dabba’, the Punjabi ‘Shaheed-E-Mohabbat Boota Singh’ and ‘Des Hoya Pardes’, the English ‘The Last Lear’ and ‘Heartland’, among others. She has also acted for television and in a few short films like ‘The Playboy Mr Sawhney’. Her list of over 15 awards is topped by the National Best Actress award for ‘Irada’ in 2017.

Ask her which films she ranks as her favourites, and we get an answer typically in character: “All my films are my favourites. I took them all on by instinct and enjoyed doing them,” she says.

Divya has also authored ‘Me And Ma’, a Penguin-published memoir of her mother who passed away some years ago. Her simple statement is: “I owe everything in life to just one person — my mother. We were the best of friends. Very few parents believed in their children the way she did. I was an outsider here and she helped me tackle all my apprehensions.”

On a related note, how does she look at the current ruckus on nepotism? “It took years for me to get a foothold here,” she replies coolly. “I was my own godfather, armed only with my passion. There is a lot of favouritism here and you have to deal with it. But finally, it is all about how good you are and how tough you can remain.”

True to her words, the actress is now busy with a bevvy of assignments. Coming up are a film each with Anubhav Sinha and Dibakar Banerjee, a web show, two Hollywood movies and one in Punjabi.