Genres don't matter to me at all: Divya Dutta

"We are a male dominated society where we want to know 'who is the hero of the film?'. I am talking about the masses who first ask that and then, 'oh so who's the heroine?'. The heroine is always the plus. But a hero defines everyone's characters or roles in the industry," Divya told PTI.

The Badlapur actress, who has carved a niche for herself by working in a variety of films like Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Veer-Zaara and Special 26, feels there is risk of getting "stereotyped" by the audience depending on the role an actress is playing with a male star in a film. "You play a heroine once with a top hero, even if you don't act for a long time, or change roles, you will always be the heroine because you worked with a star. You were opposite him," she said.

"Even if you play a villain in a film, where you are not right to the man, you will always be a villain. You will be offered fifty thousand roles which are only that because you set an example by playing a negative character against the hero."  The 38-year-old actor, however, says even though there is a classification of male and female oriented films in the audience's minds, if they are served with a good movie, they will lap it up irrespectively.

"There is a major section of the audience who consider films male and female oriented. Having said that, if you give them a nice commercial film with a heroine oriented subject, then will enjoy that too. It's not like there is 'phase' now." Divya will be next seen in the upcoming Manoj Bajpayee starrer Traffic which releases on May 6.

Even though the actress has mostly associated herself with off-beat films like The Last Lear, Joggers' Park and Welcome to Sajjanpur, Divya also appeared in the commercial Sunny Leone film Ragini MMS 2. The actress says she does not have any soft-spot for a particular genre.

"Films are offered to you by dozen, everyday. What you choose out of those, is all heart and intuitive...If I feel I am going to enjoy it, then great. I've left the biggest of films because something inside didn't feel right. Genres don't matter to me at all," she said.
 

• Divya Dutta
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