Divya Dutta interview: On ‘Chiraiya’ and her belief in unlearning as an actor

It is right after lunch on a sunny afternoon in Mumbai that we meet actor Divya Dutta and director Sushant Shah. Before we begin talking on their upcoming JioHotstar series, Chiraiya, I happen to overhear a candid moment between the two where they are discussing about the pleasures of sitting comfortably with their legs pulled up on the chairs. “Can I sit like this?”, Divya asks her team as she puts one leg over another. “It’s more comfortable than just keeping your legs hanging below,” she reasons. However, it’s her vibrant, yellow sari that comes in the way of her posture.

Divya situates in that feeling of ease and comfort with her character of a traditional woman of values in Chiraiya, where she plays Kamlesh, a sweet wife and a caring daughter-in-law with motherly instincts for her husband’s baby-faced, younger brother. Kamlesh’s perception about her seemingly innocent brother-in-law breaks when his newly wedded wife, Pooja, confides in her about his forced and non-consensual sexual advancements on their first night.

“Kamlesh realises that her family is not as perfect as she thinks. That’s when you realise that the sense of ‘normal’ could be different for different people,” says Divya, adding that playing the character was difficult. “If it isn’t difficult, its not enjoyable as an actor. The role took its toll on me many times. But I wouldn’t have had it differently as the story needs to be told. I had to play her sincerely, to let her feel what she feels and not let Divya come in between at all,” she says.

Divya Dutta in a still from ‘Chiraiya’
| Photo Credit:
JioHotstar

Divya slips into Kamlesh effortlessly, as she puts on a seamless North Indian, earthy accent for the character. The variations in her dialogue delivery are not just limited to pronouncing certain words with the obvious inflections. Rather, the peculiar dialect of the region becomes her language organically. As it happens, Divya first learnt the manner of speaking when she was shooting for the 2017 crime-drama, Babumoshai Bandookbaaz, starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui. She requested her driver in Lucknow to speak to her in the local dialect. Soon, Divya started catching on to his words and rhythm during the freewheeling conversations.

“Interestingly, when I came back to shoot in Lucknow for Chiraiya, the same driver was again taking me around. I was overjoyed and told him to teach me again,” Divya laughs, saying that she judges people for not getting the dialect right. “That’s why when I am working on something, I have to be careful too. It is important to become part of the grass-roots, be with the people and speak the language the way it is rather than enact. The dialect should become a part of you. But then, it also takes some time to go away as when I came back from shoot, I was still speaking in the same way for some days.”

Adapted from the 2022 Bengali series, Sampurna, Chiraiya addresses the reality of marital rape within the setup of a familiar television-drama. It is written by popular TV writer, Divy Nidhi Sharma, who brings in a share of likeability to the narrative. It was Sushant, who decided not to give it a serious tone from the beginning. “The idea is to show a house where a wedding is taking place and everyone is happy. There is celebration, dance, music and colors but in the same house there is something darker happening which no one knows,” says Sushant.

Divya Dutta’s still from ‘Chiraiya’
| Photo Credit:
JioHotstar

The series is also essentially about the experience of two women and told largely from their perspective. How did Sushant understand the space as a man? “We all have grown up because of women, be it our mothers, sisters and many others who shape us since childhood. We have observed many things in them and then making a show also gives you an opportunity to question our own silences. So, for me, it is always important to learn something from what I am doing and I didn’t see it as a challenge or a responsibility to make a show about women as a man,” says the director.

Divya adds, “The subject needed someone sensitive to make it, be it a man or a woman. And I have rarely seen someone as sensitive as Sushant. He was always observing the actors carefully, which makes it easier for us to perform better as you know you are being looked over.”

The actor has worked with numerous directors in her decades long career, starred in diverse roles, each different from before. However, despite her varied experience, Divya is mindful not to be complacent; she finds solace in unlearning. “You cannot carry the baggage of your previous work in your present. Every time, with each role, you have got to give it your all and find something within you which is new. The process of discovering is what makes you nervous and excited at the same time. It pushes you from your comfort zone and that’s when you can deliver,” she says.

So, what is it that she is looking for when signing on a new project now? Divya is quick to use the analogy of the earlier candid moment of putting her feet on the chair. “While hearing a new story, anything that excites me won’t have me sitting so prim and proper on the sofa. When I want to do something, my legs would automatically come up; I would be so eased up and comforted, eager to know more and just say: Let’s go and break a leg.”

Chiraiya will be releasing on JioHotstar on March 20

Published – March 18, 2026 05:47 pm IST