The beautiful Divyanka Tripathi began her journey with Zee TV's Banoo Main Teri Dulhan' in 2006, and almost 8 years later, she is the leading lady of TV's one of most popular daily shows, 'Yeh Hain Mohabbatein'. She shared the details of her journey and experiences during a freewheeling chat with Pinkvilla.com. Excerpts from the interview:
Please begin by teling us about your background and how you got into acting?
I belong to a middle-class family and my father is a pharmacist, and we are from Bhopal. I never thought of being an actress. I have learnt singing, dancing, horse riding, and others arts from childhood which helped in gaining confidence in acting as well
When I was around 18 years of age, I did reality shows like Mr & Miss Bollywood, Zee Teen Queen etc and thus the acting and modeling bug bit me. I started doing modeling and a show called Akshavani on Doordarshan as a freelancer.
Did you get family support when you expressed being an actor?
They were always confortable with my acting dreams as they knew that their daughter will choose the right path. I have never misused any opportunity I have been given, so they are okay with it.
Did you have to struggle when you came to Mumbai for acting work?
Yes, I had no place to live, no contacts, no awareness about acting contracts initially. I had no guide and was made to work 18-20 hours a day with no extra wages. At times, I worked 30 days of the month with no holidays or gaps in between. I slogged like this for 2 years.
Who became your 3.am friends after you came to Mumbai?
Maninder and Deepa who gave me place to live as well as Manish Naggdev and Sharad Malhotra.
You have learnt arts such as rifle-shooting, which are traditionally considered as masculine. What made you learn and how do people react when they see you practicing them?
It is all because I was pretty masculine till I was 16-17 years old. I was tomboyish and have done adventure sports, parasailing, water skiing etc. I was the second daughter in my family and was treated like the son of the house. I never cooked unlike my sister. That's how I picked up manly traits and skills. However, I did have a brother a few years after I was born.
Your sugary sweet image is known to all around you. While some people say that you are naturally sweet and kind, there are others who tag you as fake. What do you have to say on that?
Earlier it used to affect me a lot and I felt bad about it. I smile a lot, and people often think why is she smiling? What's her problem?'
But these reactions from people made me wonder why can't people just smile? I thought of smiling as normal action. " Log sochte nahin hain ki agar kisi ki buri mansha nahin hai to use kitna bura lagega" (people don't understand if the person is not carrying the wrong intentions, then their rude attitude can make him/her feel bad). But now I keep forgiving such people because the world is such. I trust people very easily and doubt them later. That is my weakest trait. As far as my sweet attitude is concerned, this is just how I am and I can't change it.
How about doing an intimate scene in a TV show or film? Something like The Dirty Picture'?
Yes, why not.
Much hullabaloo happened after the media-bashing controversy happened between Karan and press on the sets of YHM a few weeks ago. What is your say on that? How are you are Karan on the sets of YHM after the controversy?
Me and Karan professional. Karan was not against me giving bytes to media but it troubled him. I feel that there should be proper coordination with the press for interviews etc. If the channel invites media on sets, I can't really say that they are doing anything wrong specially if they are not giving bad publicity or irritating them.
Media was not wrong in this case, they are humans. If they (press) are doing their job, then we cannot disrespect them. Even Karan respects it and spoke to the channel and got it sorted. It was a small issue but blown out of proportion.
PS spammers can have field day voicing how divs should behave and call fake or whatever but at the end of day divs and her fans can only LOL at them coz being sweet might irk some but showing attitude can hurt ppl.
PSS divs I truely hope you stay this way,its rare to find such a gem of person in todays generation😃
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