EXCLUSIVE! 'Mrs' actor Nishant Dahiya on his portrayal of misogynistic character in Sanya Malhotra starrer: 'In many social media circles, Divakar has become the face of patriarchy'

Sanya Malhotra starrer Mrs. has garnered love and appreciation for its thought-provoking, at the same time, relevant subject. The official remake of the 2021 Malayalam film The Great Indian Kitchen shows the lead protagonist dealing with regressive patriarchal traditions.

Apart from Sanya, Nishant Dahiya, who played her misogynistic husband brought up in a patriarchal family, also garnered praise for his impactful performance. In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, the talented actor spoke about developing his character and doing intimate scenes with Sanya Malhotra.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

On receiving a tremendous response from the audience for the movie, people loving your acting and hating your character

I did not expect this sort of a reception for our film. This much love that our film will get, and this much hatred that my character would get this much love hate. I think I should correct that. In many social media circles, Divakar has become the face of patriarchy. I mean, I think because even if it’s in a negative way, I feel a sense of pride.

I don’t know, if I should be thinking about whether my work is being appreciated or in that sense, but I just feel a sense of pride as to where our film has reached. And maybe, I might have done something wrong or something right that people are hating Divakar so much despite me trying to not make him a hateful figure. But I’m extremely glad. I’m extremely happy for the reception and for all the love and hate for Divakar.

Did you watch the original movie before signing Mrs.?

Yes. I did. I think I had seen the original one, more than a year before, this film was brought to me.

Knowing the character is unlikeable and despite having a reference, how did you make Divakar your own?

So, my first thing while playing this character was trying to understand where he comes from and why he is like this, the way he is. I had seen The Great Indian Kitchen, and obviously, I hated the character. But my first job was to forget about that film.

And also, I am not thinking of him as a negative character or someone who’s a hateful character. That was the first thing that was on my mind. And as much as I as I dwelled on Divakar’s character, I realized he’s not a bad person at all. He’s just, the way he is because of the conditioning, because of the the way he has been brought up and because of the things that he has seen happening in his family and how he has grown up looking at his at his father, his grandfather, and both going out and working and and coming back home and mom serving them and hot phulkas and to to a to a larger extent, he was also doing the same thing. So for me, while playing Divakar, I just wanted to play him as a normal human being.

As most of the people are in this society, as most of the men are. They are not bad people. It’s just that they are conditioned in a certain way that they don’t even realize. They are not self-aware as to what they are doing. So, that’s what was in my mind while playing Divakar that this person is not self-aware of what his actions are doing. He’s not doing anything bad.

He’s just doing whatever he thinks is right. And throughout the film, whatever I did or whatever I said as Divakar, whatever I felt that Divakar would say or Divakar would act in a certain way, it always came from a place where I felt that Divakar is thinking that he’s right. It never came from a place where it felt that he wants to hurt Richa. The only instance I felt aware as an actor where I felt that as Divakar somewhere, he wanted to hurt Richa as in, not physically, but somewhere to hurt her feelings was the last fight scene between Divakar and Richa and when she says that, Divakar, why can’t you see that it hurts me? And then he turns around and then he says, “Oh! Kaafi experienced ho. You are a sex expert.” So, I think that was the only time when we were rehearsing also and when we did the scene also, it came in my head that, okay, whatever she has said, I have not liked it. Like, she has kind of taken my pants off by saying that you are a guy in a gynaecologist and you don’t know how to make love or do this. And that’s something that really hits Divakar deep, deep. It’s something that no one has questioned his career. And how does she? In my head as Divakar. While doing it also felt like how can she do that? And so a lot of times with us also as humans, when someone touches our nerve, something that we don’t like, and then it’s about it’s about hurting the other person. And I think that was the only instance, as Divakar I felt like telling her that, “oh, so you’re a sexpert”. So it was basically like a taunt just to hurt her. So, I think other than that, throughout whenever playing Divakar, it was always that whatever I’m doing is right. It’s just that this character, this person, just like a lot of men, is conditioned in a certain way and is completely unaware of what he’s doing or what is right or wrong.

When Sanya’s character throws decayed water at you, we see your second wife going through the same fate. That clearly shows Divakar has no regrets for his actions. 

Completely! When we were doing that last part of the film, when there is the second wife who’s serving rotis. So, it completely shows that there is no regret.

When we were doing that for whatever scene or wherever we were while shooting. In the story, there’s something that I have to prepare for as to where mentally Divakar is. So, in that part in the final scene where Divakar is eating rotis, for me, Divakar is at a place where he feels that he was completely right. He just got married to a wrong woman. She was not homely. She wanted to go out. She wanted to do her thing. So, she was not worthy of a homemaker. She was not worthy of being my wife. So okay. Fine. That’s her loss. I’ve gotten a new one, and I’m sure she’s a homely girl. So that was the thought process of Divakar even after whatever happened. Throughout the film and after getting married to the second one also, his thought process remained the same.

If there was any bit of regret, the film would have ended differently or any bit of self-awareness also as to what he did or what his father did. There was zilch, self-awareness and they both thought that whatever they did was right, it was the fault of the girl. They still saw the fault in the girl after all of this.

During one of the intimate scenes, when Richa’s character stops Divakar from doing mechanical sex and asks him to do foreplay bluntly, it showcases the desire of women. The scene was subtle yet impactful. So, how was the preparation of it?

I think whenever we are doing these intimate scenes in films, they are kind of the toughest scenes that we have to shoot. Because, see, intimacy is to be showing on screen, can come off in a very wrong way also. So, there is a very fine line in showing it the way you want to show it. You don’t want it to be vulgar. You know, that’s what I think also what we were looking at.

And also, it has to portray what you want to portray, what you want the scene to portray. And especially, while doing these sort of intimate scenes for this film, it was kind of our responsibility before shooting also as actors that these scenes should come out in the way they have to come out. Because every scene in our film, whether it’s an intimate scene, it tells a whole lot about the relationship as to what is happening between these two people. So, they are always the kind of the toughest scenes to shoot. And I think it really helped having Sanya as a co-actor because she’s extremely supportive and extremely creatively inclined.

And she just wants to do the best according to her abilities, and she’s a fantastic actress and a great person also. And when you’re doing these intimate scenes, it’s so important to have a co-actor who’s also thinking on the same lines as you and who you are comfortable with. So, I thought that it was a blessing that we were shooting these scenes together and then over that there was there was Arati (Kadav, the director) who’s also extremely empathetic and and such a lovely person and such an understanding person more than a great director she’s also a wonderfully beautiful person and I think all these things helped because for me these kind of scenes are all are always the toughest. But thankfully, during our film, they felt difficult when we were preparing as to when we were talking about the scenes. But when we did them, we did them quite fast and they didn’t take much time.