It started with a charcha over chai, but a one-episode narration by writer Divy Nidhi Sharma stretched to two hours. By the end of it, Divya Dutta was “moved, jumping in my seat, saying, ‘Yeh story karte hain’.” At the heart of Chiraiya lies a line that feels deceptively simple: Shaadi license nahin hai. The JioHotstar series unpacks what consent means within a marriage and confronts the reality of marital rape, which is yet to be criminalised by law.
That instinctive pull came from the story’s core, which addresses normalised violence within marriages and the silence that sustains it, she says. “I think it’s a story where there’s a combined synergy from the platform, and director [Shashant Shah], who is very sensitive. You need sensitivity for a subject like this. It cannot be made any other way,” says the actor.
Divya Dutta
Dutta plays the ideal elder daughter-in-law, Kamlesh, who initially embodies everything the system expects of a married woman. But Kamlesh is also, as Dutta puts it, “a product of patriarchy.” She adds, “As women, we are conditioned by the system [since childhood]. Somewhere along the way, we start forming our own opinions about what is right and wrong.”
What makes Kamlesh compelling is that she does not begin as a rebel. “She has been conditioned that this is what a happy family looks like,” Dutta notes. “Until someone shows her that this is not normal, she doesn’t question it. But [once aware], despite what’s at stake, she takes a stand.”
One of the most difficult moments in the show is when she first hears her sister-in-law say that she was raped by Kamlesh’s brother-in-law. “[The shock] is the natural reaction,” Dutta says. Then comes denial. “You start thinking, maybe she misunderstood. There’s also that thought, yeh mere ghar mein nahin ho sakta. When you realise that it can happen, it hits you.”
If the confrontation scenes are emotionally heavy, Kamlesh trying to harm herself to understand the survivor’s pain is almost unbearable. “When you are playing it, you’re not thinking you’re acting. You are living that life. I wanted to understand how it feels to be on the other side. I had asked the DoP [director of photography] and director to keep it for the last because it shook me up. I took some time to come back. [Realising that while] I am only living it for a month or two, there are people who live this life every day.”
While Chiraiya does not claim to offer solutions, Dutta believes the problem stems from a “lack of listening”. “The husband is not listening to the wife when she says [no]. That’s where it begins. Respect is missing. Relationships are built on love, yes. But the fulcrum is respect. [That’s true] everywhere.”
Who should watch?
Divya Dutta feels women may connect with it, but the six-part series is ideally for men. “These are very normal men. You see [them] around. They are not bad, but their conditioning is such. Sometimes it’s not even about intent. It’s taken for granted,” notes the actor.
Did you know?
Divya Dutta’s ‘Chiraiya’ is a remake of the Bengali series ‘Sampurna’
