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Films: Memories of an actor
Divya Dutta talks about the memories she has made in the film industry through her three decades-long career
Savvy actors don’t just keep their experiences or life lessons stored in their memory file today; they alchemise them into books.
Many B-Town names have turned authors and penned autobiographical and anecdotal tomes (Karan Johar, Rishi Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, Kabir Bedi, Emraan Hashmi, Sonali Bendre, Ayushmann Khurrana) or fictional (Twinkle Khanna) or on motivational self-help themes (Anupam Kher, Karisma Kapoor, Shilpa Shetty).
Divya Dutta is part of the select clique of star authors who are already on their sophomore literary effort. In a career spanning almost 30 years, Divya has worked and vibed with the creamiest layer of film stars, and she has now shaped the most memorable of those interactions into a book, The Stars In My Sky.
She enthuses, “I find film people fascinating and I have been fortunate to know many at close quarters. My second book is about the bonds that I share with some of my fellow artistes; bonds that impacted me in subtle and beautiful ways. These people were there when I needed them most, who helped me in my career or otherwise or just brought a smile to my face.”
For Divya, writing is not just creative expression but also something deeply personal. Her first book Me and Maa proved cathartic. Recalling how she began writing, Divya reveals, “When I lost my mother, I didn’t know how to cope.” She decided to repair her despair by celebrating her mother in a book. She visualised Penguin as the book’s publisher, a foreword by Shabana Azmi “as she too has a strong bond with her mother” and a launch by Amitabh Bachchan. Fortuitously, it all came true.
She shares a lesser-known fact, “Mr. Bachchan has been the biggest support in my life.” Egged on by her brother, she had taken a wild shot and sent a message to Amitabh asking him to release her premiere book. “He replied: ‘Let me know when and I’ll put it in my diary.’” History repeated itself when Amitabh readily agreed to pen a foreword for her second book.
Amitabh Bachchan, of course, is one of the stars Divya has written about in her book. She recounts: “I have narrated how sensitive Mr. Bachchan is towards his co-actors.” Divya played Bachchan’s mean-spirited bahu in Baghban, and she was uncomfortable being nasty to her favourite star. “But he understood somehow that this little girl is really sad and he cheered me up without my even realising it,” Divya sighs, describing the moment as magical.
Divya has played it safe by “sharing their chapters with the actors after I had written about them.” She says, “I had this huge crush on Salman which turned into immense fondness for him after we worked together. As a newcomer, I was unsure about how to enact a death sequence. Salman stayed back after his pack-up and helped me. I’ll never forget that.”
Among the stars Divya has written about are Shabana Azmi, Juhi Chawla and Sonali Bendre. Dismissing the notion that two actresses can’t be friends, she says, “There’s a sisterhood here where we’ve looked over each other even in silences. Shabanaji knows I don’t like to rehearse too much so she ensures it stays that way. Juhi agreed to share a vanity van with me when she was a major star. We ate together, watched films and became friends. I adore her. Sonali and I started our careers together and she’s looked over me like a rock.”
Divya has a characteristically emotional way of describing her book. “It is my potla of memories which I have sprinkled on the pages.”
From HT Brunch, November 7, 2021
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