Kirti Choudhary enters ‘Ganesh Kartikey’ as Ganga, Goddess Parvati’s older sister. Ganga dreams of marrying Mahadev, but on learning Parvati’s divine connection with him, her world falls apart. “We did a couple of takes, and each time I felt a lump in my throat. Ganga’s love is pure, but her strength lies in stepping aside with grace, and that emotional balance is what made this journey so special for me,” shares the actor. 

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’

How did Aditya Dhar convince Nawaz Sharif to act in Dhurandhar: The Revenge?’ That and many other memes are circulating online, as the audience can’t get enough of the striking similarity between the character of Nawab Shafiq and the former Pakistan prime minister on whom the role is modelled. What does actor Mashhoor Amrohi, who played Nawab Shafiq in the action drama, think of it? Well, he is still in disbelief that his two-scene role has garnered so much attention.     
   
“For me, the biggest compliment is that nobody believes it is me. Some are saying that it’s AI. I had not anticipated this kind of adulation. There are memes and pictures all over the internet,” exclaimed Amrohi, the grandson of late filmmaker Kamal Amrohi. 

Mashhoor Amrohi. Pic/By Special Arrangement

Look at the actor and you’ll find no resemblance with Sharif. But filmmaker Dhar and casting director Mukesh Chhabra felt he would be perfect to play the former Pakistan prime minister. Becoming him naturally entailed a lot of work. Amrohi recalled, “When we sat for the first make-up test, we didn’t quite achieve what the director wanted. We had to depict the [same] body weight, face, and ageing. Preetisheel [Singh, make-up artiste] went all out — I sat through more than eight hours of make-up daily for four days. For the weight, I had a bodysuit with a paunch.”

You’ve seen Mashhoor Amrohi in:

. ‘Accused’ 
. ‘Freedom at Midnight’
. ‘War’