Divyanka Tripathi read Custody to prepare for her character in Yeh Hai Mohabbatein. By I Kaur
looks can be deceptive and in Divyanka Tripathi’s case they definitely are. Her first impression is of a sweet, delicate and petite girl. However, the same petite girl holds a gold medal in rifle shooting, comfortably climbs on top of mountains, has walked the Republic Day parade, done NCC drills and has also walked the ramp as a model, lent her voice to All India Radio and acted in a daily soap on television. After all this, she chose to concentrate on her acting career. Known for her role in Banoo Main Teri Dulhann, Divyanka was recently seen on the small screen doing comedy. After a break, she is back with Ekta Kapoor’s Yeh Hai Mohabbatein. According to her, it was a deliberate break. She said, “Banoo Main Teri Dulhann ran for three years and I was completely done with this daily soap concept. I wanted something different because as an actor I want to experiment. In television we are always restrained. So that is why I tried to move to comedy so that I could explore myself and I wanted my audience to know that Divyanka can do more than just be a downtrodden bahu. I did Mrs. & Mr. Sharma Allahabadwale, Chintu Chinki Aur Ek Badi Si love Story and Comedy Circus. Now after so much experimentation I wanted to come back to my daily soaps because I love them.”
In spite of her craving to come back to this genre in television, it took Divyanka two years before she zeroed down on a script. “I heard stories and concepts from all over. But this one concept was really amazing. See when you have a lot of options you should choose the best. This was the best because one, it’s Balaji Telefilms, two, Star Plus and three, my character was great,” she elaborated.
The show is based on Manju Kapoor’s book Custody and Divyanka’s character is the one of Ishita, a South Indian girl who is a pediatric dentist. She explained, “It is not a run of the mill love story. This book is a major reason for me doing this show. I read Custody and I was cried a lot. It touched me. Also, I didn’t want to do the same old bahu kind of a character. This character I am playing loves kids but she has certain problems in her life and cannot get married. There she falls in love with a child and a very unusual love story begins.”
Though Divyanka will be seen playing a Tamil girl, she will not be speaking in an accent, she said. “A lot of people ask me if I will be talking like Deepika Padukone of Chennai Express, but no. Ishita is born and brought up in Delhi. She is a highly educated girl and speaks Hindi and English fluently. It is only when she speaks to her parents that she says a few words in Tamil,” she added.
Playing the role of Raman, opposite Divyanka is Karan Patel. The actress feels that she couldn’t have gotten a better co-actor. She said, “I was scared of him earlier because there were a lot of rumours about him being a snob. But he is a complete contrast to that. He helps me with scenes and is very cooperative. I always wanted that my co-actor is someone I have good chemistry with and with Karan it is perfect.”