Growing up in a home where both her parents were doctors, for Divya Dutta, the passion to pursue a career in films was unusual. She got a head start when she was only 17. This year, the 46-year-old completes 30 years in Indian cinema. Talking about her initial struggles, Dutta says she was replaced by other actors in at least 20 films at one point.
Divya Dutta started out in 1994 with Ishq Me Jeena Ishq Me Marna. Her first big break came with Train to Pakistan (1998). Directed by Pamela Rooks, the film was based on Khushwant Singh’s book on the Partition. When the film came to her, she was not entirely sure whether to do it. “I had come into films thinking I would wear chiffon sarees and dance on rain songs. I did not know if I should do the role.”
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The film opened for her the doors to a whole range of cinema—from films made by Shyam Benegal to Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. After three decades in cinema, Dutta believes, “The universe has its ways of giving you what you want. You will get what you want, but the ways can be different.”
Dutta has been part of some of the most defining Indian films through the decades, playing Shabbo in Veer Zara (2004), Vindhya in Welcome to Sajjanpur (2008), Jalebi in Delhi-6 (2009), Rosy Miss in Stanley Ka Dabba (2011), Ishri Kaur in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013) and Noor Khan in Sheer Qorma (2021). Last year, she came out with a Malayalam film titled Otta and a Hindi feature Aankh Micholi.
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Talking about how she chooses her roles, Dutta says, “I am very happy that I have always listened to my gut. If I don’t want to do something, I say an immediate no. And if I think yes, it’s a yes. Somewhere around, you know you want to be part of a journey, be it because of the director or the role.”
Having spent three decades in films, Dutta has had a front row seat to the transformation of Indian cinema. “In the 90s, scripts were not given. You were told and narrated your role and the rest was done on the sets. There were amazing writers who would write out the dialogues and then say— ‘catch’.”
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Earlier, there was a “certain intrigue”, Dutta says. “I guess now, with digital coming in and corporates coming in, all these production houses, casting directors it’s a different game altogether. You have bound scripts, your workshops, your look test. By the time you are on the sets, you have already done most of the work. Now you just have to go and feel the role.”
Three decades in cinema, and yet Dutta gets butterflies in her stomach when she takes on a role. “I wouldn’t like to repeat anything that I have done. I would like to give the role a nuance. I like to see my roles as a member of the audience. If as an audience member I am enjoying it then great. If not, I have to add something—an X factor.”
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She says actors get a lot of praise and sometimes tend to become overconfident. “If you ever see an overconfident actor, I bet you will start disliking that actor. But when an actor has the eagerness of a child, that nervousness, that passion, it reaches the audience,” Dutta adds.
All these years under the spotlight, but Dutta has remained as far from controversies as she can be. Asked how she has managed that, she says, “Genuinely, I have no idea. But it is a fact.” “I guess people feel like I am one of them and they sometimes let me be,” she says, adding that she has drawn a very clear line between her personal and professional life.
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“I am a total fun person and crazy sometimes and a child woman like that,” Dutta says, and adds she does not like to be judged. “With my personal life, I have never encouraged any kind of scrutiny.”
Over the years, Dutta has worked across the board—in Punjabi, Tamil and Malayalam films. Describing her experience of working with multiple languages, Dutta says, “Working in a language you are acquainted with comes with a certain sense of comfort. Because you know the language and you are thinking in the same language.”
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According to Dutta, the best moment in her career so far was when she won the national award for her film Irada (2017). “I love it when I am called a ‘national award winner’,” she says and adds that the award helped change people’s perception of her: “People said, oh, finally she got her due.”
Asked what she would like to be remembered for, Dutta says, “I want to be remembered very fondly and I want to have a place in everyone’s life. Everyone, meaning my audience, my family. I would want that place for sure. That way I am very greedy.”
