Dreaming big

Coming from a family of doctors, not many thought that Divya Dutta would become an actor. But she was so enamoured by Big B eversince she was four, that she couldn't think of another career. She would even dress like him! A lot might have changed since then, but Divya still remains an Amitabh fan and in a way, owes her career to him. Gearing up to play a surrogate mother in her upcoming film, Divya opens up to CS:

Fan-tastic

I grew up wanting to be Amitabh. To look like him, I would tear my mother's sarees and duppatas and drape them like a dhoti. Since eating paan was taboo then, I would apply red lipstick to get the paan stains. Then I would turn on my old stereo and dance to Khaike Paan...

While in standard IV, I did my first stage performanceu00a0-- I managed to bag the protagonist's role because I could dance like Amitji. The applause I receivedu00a0 motivated me to become an actor. I then decided that I wanted to hear this applause all my life.



Role call

But getting that recognition in the industry was no easy task. Right from the start I decided that the length of the character didn't matter to me, as long as it was impactful.

Since then I have been doing varied roles. After I did Delhi 6, I got a lot of offers to play the seductress, but I turned them down.

I would rather play an interesting character in a small film than a mindless one in a big banner. I am also a very instinctive person when it comes to the selection of roles. I usually have a gut feeling about what roles are going to work.

Hollywood calling

I would like to believe that it is my dedication that has taken me overseas. Hollywood has certainly widened my reach. Barring that, working in Hollywood is no different than working in Bollywood.

I have done three films in Hollywood and one of them is Heartland. Fred Holmes, the double Emmy winner and director of Heartland gave me the biggest compliment of my entire career. He said that I am the finest actor he has ever worked with. But he did work very hard on me.

He spent long hours conversing with me on the sets so that he could get to know who I really was. He then made a few changes in the script so that I would be able to relate to it.
u00a0
The efforts were from both ends and the end result is amazing. I just hope that I keep acting, because that's what I do best and have always dreamed of doing.

Who: Divya Dutta

What: Talking about how she entered Bollywood

Where: At her residence