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POWERFUL PEOPLE: NEXT ACT, DEFYING PATRIARCHY
by Khalid Mohamed June 18 2025, 12:00 am Estimated Reading Time: 11 mins, 39 secsKhalid Mohamed interviews actor and former supermodel Dipannita Sharma on toxic Bollywood dynamics, gender politics, and her powerful theatrical debut in Ishwar, a bold retelling of Sita and Raavan’s myth.
In this candid interview, renowned journalist Khalid Mohamed speaks with acclaimed actor and ex-supermodel Dipannita Sharma about her bold leap from Bollywood and web series to professional theatre. They discuss her role in Ishwar, a powerful stage production that reimagines the myth of Raavan and Sita through a feminist lens. Sharma reflects on navigating the toxic male attitudes within the film industry, the challenges of typecasting, and the transformative energy of live performance. Her journey from ramp to screen to stage underscores her versatility and fearless commitment to artistic integrity.
She’s been on the ever-bustling entertainment scene for well over two decades now—in major film blockbusters and web series which have garnered top TRP ratings.
Anointed Miss Photogenic at the Miss India pageant, 1998. Born in Duliajan, Assam, Dipannita Sharma followed the route to the ramp walk for the top global brands Fendi and Valentino, besides high-end fashion lines at home. The supermodel, then, stepped into the uber‑competitive, gladiator‑like ring of Bollywood.
Perhaps because the head-turner isn’t seen at the right places at the right time, she hasn’t been assimilated into any ‘camp’. Neither will you find her being chased by the media since she isn’t an instantly recognisable face. On Instagram, with a relatively modest following of 218k followers, at best que sera sera has been her career policy.
A Coffee‑Shop Confession
Some two‑three years ago at a Bandra coffee shop, I’d met Dipannita Sharma who was self‑effacing, wackily witty, and diplomatic about her co‑actors. I was aware that quite a few of her close‑ups in scenes with a male colleague had been edited out in a mega‑budget actioner. When I asked her why, she had clammed up, saying, “It’s not my place to fathom the reasons. That’s the director’s call, it must have been for the betterment of the film.”
Oh, oh, she’s not the sort to tell all beyond a point, and was horrified when I broached the subject of a raging rumour associating her with a star‑son actor. Blushing red like a fire engine, she had pleaded, “It was a rumour, a nasty one,” and changed the subject to the weather, since it was raining incessantly that noon.
Taking to the Stage
Lately Dipannita Sharma sprung a surprise by taking a detour toward theatre, portraying the role of Sita in playwright‑director Atul Satya Koushik’s Ishwar, which has played to packed halls in Mumbai and Delhi, and is scheduled for two repeat shows at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, come June 28.
Curious to know more about the actor’s highs and low, I interviewed her over email, beginning with her foray into professional theatre to which her response is, “It was honestly a moment of immense pride and self‑worth.”
In the face of the lack of worthwhile offers of films and web series, the decision required immense courage for an actor mostly used to facing the camera. To emote before a ‘live’ audience called for endless rehearsals and yet keep that element of spontaneity intact.
Although there had been theatre offers before, she had procrastinated. “This time I was fighting my own apprehensions, it was an act of defiance that ‘yes’ I can do this too,” she explains. “My raison d’être has always been the love of the craft of acting and to practise it in its purest sense where the performer is at the liberty to express oneself.”
Escaping the Box
While acting in films and web series, which she’s grateful for, she was being ghettoised into enacting strictly urban characters. Unbeknownst to many, she had snagged an award for living the part of a simple small‑town homemaker in her first Assamese film Rainbow Fields which had a limited theatrical release. Ergo, most casting agents mouth that age‑old trope, “See we have to find the right fit for you.”
“What is the right fit?” she wonders. “It is the ‘image’ they have of me from the work they have seen so far. Steadily I understood that it was only I who could emerge from that prison‑like box. By liberating myself, there is deep sense of inner satisfaction.”
Atul Satya Koushik, whose productions are usually spectacular, ostentatious, approached her for the play. After a couple of detailed reading sessions, he was convinced that she could carry off the play’s poetic Hindi cadence. Followed the ‘blocking’ and design of the scenes which made her feel confident.
Consequently, she exults, “Wo Lahore is one of Koushik sir’s most timeless plays discussing the Partition of the sub‑continent. If he ever re‑stages it, I’d be thrilled to be a part of it. While keeping in mind my commitment to other projects, I’d love to act in any of sir’s plays or even the experimental ones at Prithvi Theatre, as long as I can invest a certain element of uniqueness.”
Sita Redefined
Sita as interpreted in Ishwar piqued her interest because it directly questions patriarchy in the context of the fortitude of a woman hurtled into a crisis. The resilience of Sita as depicted in the play could make some viewers from the senior generation uncomfortable but the next generation, she surmised, would connect with her. Apparently, young viewers of both genders met her after the show and a teenaged girl told her she likes this Sita since she is unafraid and combative. She forces spectators to think, question, and step out from their ingrained comfort zone.
Did she have any issues about Koushik’s take on the humane aspect Ravaan? “None at all,” she answers. “On the contrary, the depiction of Raavan is modern and yet faithful to the Ramayan epic. Ishwar for sure debunks the notion of an all‑pervasive patriarchal tradition.”
Although Raavan has been re‑assessed in several plays, say of the Adishakti troupe of Puducherry, and films like Mani Rathnam’s Raavan, Koushik’s Ishwar was in a different league because of its precise and clever writing. He was unapologetic in the way he saw his characters and reached the right balance. Going by the audience feedback after nine shows, clearly the writing was acknowledged as the star of the show.
Overcoming Stage Fright
Dipannita admits that she suffered from stage fright at the first show but covered that up with some body movements conveying fear. At one point during the opening show, she felt as if her mouth was stuck to her teeth, to be told later that even seasoned stage actors go through the same process at every performance. By the fourth or fifth show, she was at ease. At every follow‑up show, she found herself delivering the dialogue differently, inexplicably. This can never be experienced on camera as much as she loves the medium. The applause from the audience is the cherry on the cake but it’s important not to get carried away. After all, no two sets of viewers are the same.
For a stage actor the validation is immense. The heart beats rapidly before the entry in the first scene, settles down and the performance gets into the flow. According to Dipannita, “The beauty of theatre is embedded in the fact that every time you step on the stage, it’s with a fresh approach. Your reactions may change depending on the co‑actor and you might need to improvise if the props aren’t in place or your nose suddenly drips which did happen to me in two shows when my allergies acted up, or your hair gets stuck in one of the accessories. There are days when you feel the show is going well in your bones, and there are days when you feel it’s gone wrong. But then every actor feels differently after every show, so I guess we all balance one another out.”
Raavan was portrayed by Puneet Issar, known for his villainous and flamboyant film roles. She could have been overshadowed? “I merely follow the character’s arc and my director’s instructions,” she retorts. “A restrained yet powerful Sita was the requirement of the play. Atul sir’s idea was that her resilience and strength is inherent, she doesn’t have to be loud to assert, she just is. I think Puneet sir gave a psychological gravitas to the conventional image of Raavan which could have become a caricature otherwise.”
Waiting for the Right Project
Meanwhile the update on her films and web series is that she’s biding her time for a project that’s not ‘the same ‘ole’. Last year, she featured in the rom‑com Mismatched on Netflix, a thriller released on the Book My Show stream, a ‘guest’ appearance for an upcoming Amazon Prime video produced by Abundantia Entertainment, and a short film with Adil Hussain directed by a debutant Assamese director which is to be showcased at film festivals. The ones that she was excited about in the Indie space are on hold for lack of funds.
Despite the fact that Dipannita’s portrayals in films like December 16, Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl and War, and the web series Mismatched were appreciated, she’s underused. Shuttling frequently between Mumbai and Delhi (she possesses a house with her husband, businessman Dilsher Singh Atwal in Gurgaon), she can make it for any shoots, meetings or auditions. Every city is just a flight away now. That she’s married, she asserts “cannot be the reason for the dearth of offers. That would be an extremely myopic attitude. I might be a commodity as an actor but I’m sane enough to prioritise myself as an actor.”
Bollywood’s Bad Energy
She cites an example: a brief role entailing a commitment of 15 days was offered to her in an adaptation of a Hollywood web series. When she asked for more details, she was crassly asked by the team how much money she would charge.
Of the Bollywood system, the actor has had to contend with excessive bad energy. She finds the attitude of some people in Bollywood intolerable and avoidable, ‘such bad energy’. To quote her, “Besides quite a few instances of keeping a respectable distance from toxic male actors, women in this industry are equally responsible for pulling the other down and are on a trip of ‘one‑upmanship’. There was this woman I met whom I respected unconditionally but she projected so many of her insecurities that I was shocked. I have faced the insecurities of actors – of either gender – on the sets where I would happily mind my own business but they wouldn’t. That said, I’ve had a blast working with the supremely gifted Vidya Balan during the making Neeyat. I’m her fan forever. And there’s Vidya Malavade, who has become a close friend after Mismatched. Believe me, we as a fraternity must be in a far more conducive and positive work environment if we want this industry to survive in the long run.”
The Pageant Turning Point
Being crowned Miss Photogenic in the Miss India pageant, she describes as a turning point, a kickstart to her career. She nurtures tremendous regard for Lubna Adam who in her own cut‑and‑dried style coached the contestants, many of whom became her lifelong friends. She agrees that a supermodel usually has a short shelf life since the brands cater to a young age bracket. There’s an unshakeable obsession with certain ‘body types’. Additionally, longevity in any profession is about constant reinvention and rediscovery which must gel with the agents between the models and brands.
Rooted in Theatre Since Childhood
Lastly, is there anything she would like to add? To that she states she would like to allude to her connections with the stage ever since she was a child: “My Aita, maternal grandmother, used to write plays in Assamese initially for the children of her hometown Jorhat. Then my mother brought one of Aita’s plays to the Oil India Limited town of Narangi, Guwahati, where I’d spent a large part of my childhood. My dad was a doctor and mum, a schoolteacher. She wanted to direct this fun play that Aita had written about an elderly lady, who’s full of beans and keeps the whole neighbourhood on their toes. The play had an all‑children cast and I was cast as an elderly woman. Aita envisioned a lanky lady who, with some make‑up, could pass off as an old lady with high cheek bones and a slash of lipstick for paan stain at the corner of her mouth. I was a really tall, 10 or 11‑year‑old girl. This was my first female role, earlier I would have to play a man or boy because of my height! To play an old woman empowered me. When kids my age said I looked like my Aita in the play, it was a huge compliment. If grandma were still alive, she would have been my most enthusiastic cheerleader. Alas, we lost her even before I had thought of any career.”