EXCLUSIVE: Divyanka Tripathi says “was called a ‘behenji actress’ when I started off; did not get any work”

Television actresses are often stereotyped for playing the role of bahus in television serials and often they are put in the box and perceived a certain way one such actress is Divyanka Tripathi, who is one of the television favourites, has done many daily soaps and is also the most popular actress in the telly world.

Now, in an exclusive chat with Divyanka for Xtraordinary You on Bollywood Bubble, the Yeh Hai Mohabbatein actress revealed how she was given the tag of behenji when she had just begun her career, she said: “People were thinking that Divyanka is a behenji actress. They called me behenji when I was just starting my career and I was a teenager at that time, that’s when I got the tag. They felt I could only play the role of bahu or bhabhi on-screen. So, because of the tag, I didn’t get any work. I realized I have to change myself. I have to do something which I would never agree to do otherwise and I took up Comedy Circus. I said yes, to it. Back in the day, in comedy, they would objectify women and they still do it. Either it’s about explicit language or objectifying women, but if a girl looks beautiful, they can’t show her playing the main character. She’ll have to play the role of an old woman for some time but then you want her to look beautiful and glamourous. So, I said yes to it and agreed that now I will wear small clothes and I will tell the world that I can also do this. This is also possible for me, do not undermine me, I am beyond it. At least once I have to show the world that I am more than what you think of me and that’s how I have to keep breaking my image. People need to be creative to think of an actor in a certain way. This never happens in international cinema.”

 

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A post shared by Divyanka Tripathi Dahiya (@divyankatripathidahiya)

Further, Divyanka also revealed that the behenji tag bothered her. “People have that personality that ‘oh she wears sarees, how can she wear short clothes.'”

Check out the full conversation:

ALSO READ: EXCLUSIVE: Divyanka Tripathi Dahiya opens up on being tagged a ‘tantrum queen’: People did not give me work