Exclusive - Dipika Chikhlia: In the first seven days of Ramayan shoot I didn't have a single dialogue

Dipika Chikhlia is a name which needs no introduction. Ramanand Sagar directed Ramayan’s Sita turns a year older today (April 29). The actress got candid in an exclusive live chat session with ETimes TV. From her first day on sets of Ramayan to her political career, Dipika spoke about it all. She also shared her views about the content of TV in the current times, her work experience in Uttar Ramayan and more. (By: Sukarna Mondal)

Didn’t expect this kind of response. I am happy that the younger generation is reaching out to me. Didn’t expect the social media and the press to go ga-ga over it. Everyone is hooked on to it and there are lovely memes being shared. It is just fascinating. There’s more transparency in terms of fan communication and messages. Happy to receive all the love.

All my fans moments have like someone making a painting of me, touching my feet. I also had fans who got their newborns and asked me to bless them. They would come to us. We never received any love letters or nasty comments. We have always been respected.

I would wear saris in my late teens and early 20s. It is not something actresses would do in those days. But I did it, because I felt it would look far more respectable to carry on that image. There were restrictions in getting roles in future but we have lived by.

My first day of shoot was the episodes of where I play Lakshmi. It was a huge set and there was lot of chaos and confusion. There were so many people and no one had the idea of what was going on. There was a lot of chroma involved. I remember sitting in Lakshmi’s getup near Vishnu ji in a constant position for seven days continuously. The episode also had to go to Doordarshan for approval and it had to be done in a certain way. As an actor sometimes you realise there’s not much to do but stay focus. I did not even have a dialogue for 7 days.

By the time Uttar Ramayan stared, there were a lot of cases going on againt Ramanand Sagar. Most of the time he wasn’t available to direct the episodes but would send the script. He made Ramayan on how it was actually written and created his own. He didn’t include the folk stories on Ramayan. Hence, there were a few cases on him. His sons Moti and Anand Sagar directed the show. I would stay in Umergaon for 28 days and I was also doing films in Bengal and South at that time. In Uttar Ramayan, the glam quotient which you had seen in Ramayan, lessens. It becomes a simple story of Valmiki ji, Luv Kush, motherly love, kids’ education and all. It is a story of single mother. I think she is the first single mother in the history of Indian culture. It is very interesting. She leaves the palace when she was pregnant.

I have no clue about television. I had last seen Kasautii Zindagii Kay and after that I haven’t watched TV. But I have read and caught glimpses. It is too loud and over dramatic. It is just not normal. Makeup to everything else. Somewhere I feel the magic is missing. It is unnatural and unreal. Some shows I have heard are very regressive as well. Television is such an important medium of learning. All these saas-bahu dramas and the negative characters, I think we should move on. Teach and educate via your serials. It is not my place to talk but I don’t think it is working.

I will not say ‘no’ to TV because I am what I am because of television. But I will listen to it and see if it is convincing enough.

I contested in 1991. I had also won with a high majority against the King of Baroda Ranjitsinh Gaekwad. I completed my term of five years, got married and had a child. It was a normal progression in my life. I couldn’t focus on my political career at that time. I felt my daughter needed my attention. I feel whatever I should do, I should do it with all my heart. I wanted to give 100% to my family.

Staying quite busy during the lockdown. Someone is constantly there in the kitchen. I have two daughters and they are cooking something or the other. Kitchen has become the central place of all activities. I am doing lot of puja-paath. Evening we all sit down together playing dumb-charades and all. We are learning to live with ourselves during the lockdown. Nature is trying to tell us ‘get back to your family’.