I can't keep quite: Divya Dutta

Divya Dutta is a known face in Bollywood and a superstar in Punjabi film industry. She blew off audience with her blockbuster hit ‘Shaheed E Mohabbat- Boota Singh’ and many other films pairing up with superstar Gurdas Maan.

Her performance in supporting roles in Yash Raj Film’s ‘Veer-Zaara’ and Shyam Benegal’s ‘Welcome to Sajjanpur’ have been much appreciated by audience and critics alike. She has also done lead role in tele-serial ‘Shanno ki Shadi’.

In a conversation Divya Dutta talks about her latest film ‘Sukhmani- Hope for life’, her on-set pranks and association with superstar Gurdas Maan and Juhi Chawla.

You have worked in a number of Punjabi films with Gurdas Maan and Juhi Chawla so how has your association been with them?
This is my fourth film with Gurdas Maan and third with Juhi Chawla. Whenever we are cast together there an excitement, I and Juhi gel very well and all three of us have lots of fun shooting together.

Tell us about your character in the film.
I play the role of a Kashmiri girl who is very beautiful, but due to a tragedy she is mostly quite and reserved. It is a very serious and intense character who plays Major Kuldeep’s (Gurdas Maan) love interest.

The movie seems to be on a serious subject, so which was the most difficult part to shoot?
(Smiles) On a lighter note, I can’t keep quite as it’s difficult for me to keep quiet and being quite was the need of my character. Now on a serious note, we were shooting in various climatic conditions at various locations, at times it was snowing and raining, still it was not much of trouble.

How is Sukhmani different from your last film with Gurdas and Juhi?
Our first film ‘Shaheed E Mohabbat-Boota Singh’ was a romantic blockbuster hit, in the next film I was playing Gurdas’s sister so there was a huge transition from a lover to sister. In this film I play his love interest, but our characters are much more complex and also the story is set amidst the background of terror.

You have done many bubbly girl roles so what attracted you to such a serious role?
I am quite a mix of everything actually, I am an actor and I could be any character for the need of a film.

You come across as a happy-go-lucky person so any naughty or funny incidents that you remember happening on sets?
Once, we played a prank on my hairdresser. I told her that we were in need of an artist and could not find anyone at end moment, so she will have to do the part.

So she got very excited and while saying this to her I winked at Gurdas and even he got the signal so, he got dramatically funny lines written for her and joined the prank.

We got her to rehearse few lines, but then when we told her that we were just joking she was disheartened as her blooming acting career went for a toss in a second.

How has been your equation with Juhi Chawla, since you both seem to have sunny personalities?
Me and Juhi did not have scenes together, but once we went to Dal Lake together and went for a ride in a Shikara and relished Pakodas and kavas. We had a lovely time together.

What do you think about the film’s music?
Songs like ‘Rabba’ are already famous and are received well by audience. Lyrics are very beautiful as they are penned by Gurdas ji. Juhi ji has sung for the film for the first time and the songs have turned out very well.

What was the most special thing while shooting for ‘Sukhmani’?
It is always special to work with people whom you are fond of, so shooting the whole film was special. Also, I got bruises on my shoulder while shooting as I use to keep falling all the time on sets. No single day of film shoot would pass by without me falling, which was at times quite funny.

How would you describe this movie?
It is a very sweet and simple story about how goodness triumphs in the end.