Actress Divya Agarwal, who will be seen as Harleen in Kunal Kemmu-starrer 'Abhay 3', made her acting debut with Ekta Kapoor's 'Ragini MMS: Returns'. The actress has also appeared in several reality shows and won 'Bigg Boss OTT' in 2021. She has become a well-known name by managing to make a place for herself in the industry. In an exclusive interaction with The Free Press Journal, the actress revealed that she is happy with how things are shaping up for her in the industry.
"I consider myself lucky and I would like to give this credit to Ekta Kapoor because that woman had that eye for me. I think it's important for people to get such opportunities where you can prove your ground strongly. Yes, it happened after 12 years of my struggle, but now I'm satisfied with the kind of roles I'm getting. I only aim to do better and I have no fear in experimenting with myself," Divya shares.
'Happy with how things are shaping up for me'
She adds, "For some people, I'm growing too fast or too slow. Maybe some people think that I should have been there and some believe this is just the start. But I see myself as living in the present. And whatever has happened in the past has actually shaped me properly. I'm now ready for whatever comes in my way. I'm actually not satisfied with my career graph. I don't know if it's going higher or lower, or if it's stagnant. Whatever it is, I am happy and I see myself working every day towards it.”
Divya comes from a background that has absolutely no ties with the media or the film industry. However, the actress believes she has taken wise decisions and has been at the right places at the right time.
On online trolling
On most occasions, celebs are the target of online trolling - right from their photos to the things happening in their personal life. Divya shares whether she gets affected by it or not. "If I can't see them (trolls), they're not there. When I open Instagram, it's a different world where they haven't seen me in my real self and I have also not seen them in their real self. So for me, they don't exist. When it comes to even the positive comments, I don't let them take over in my head because it's not just the negative comments that make the celebrity think in a certain way. The positive ones equally affect you and you can be the most arrogant person when there are thousands of people just complimenting you. I'm clear in balancing the positive and the negative. I'm grateful for all the positive messages I get but I don't let that energy turn into something vicious for me. It doesn't matter to me because if I start living according to how they want me to be, then my entire life will be a joke."
Divya's mantra of staying happy
We asked Divya how she manages to stay happy and not let her personal life hinder her professional life. "I'm always there for myself and I have not given that right to anybody else, not even my parents, siblings, love interest, or my friends. Half of the battle is won when you understand yourself and you know where to stop and what is good for you. That's the mantra I follow. I'm an emotional person but at the same time, you need to design yourself to be strong," she reveals.
On 'Abhay 3'
Divya will essay a negative role in 'Abhay 3'. Talking about the character she shares, "It was a challenging role. I had to do exactly the opposite of what Divya Agarwal would do and something that I would never imagine doing in real life. It was challenging but also fun and Tanuj helped me to get comfortable with all those challenges."
Playing a negative character also affected the actress personally. "One of my dialogues has hit my heart so badly because I could never, in my wildest dream, imagine saying something like that. It was traumatising for me. But as an actor, I sat with myself and I made myself understand that if people hate you for this, then I think that's when you win the battle of being an actor. Even if I get that hate for some time, I'm okay with it," she adds.
Divya says that her experience working on 'Abhay 3' was phenomenal. "I give the full credit to the team of Zee5, director Ken Ghosh, my co-actor Tanuj Virwani and the heart and soul of the project Kunal Kemmu. I think I got to learn so many things from each and everyone and there was a comfortable environment to explore myself. So my entire experience I could say it was like a very liberating experience," she says.
Divya shares a close bond with Tanuj off-screen as well. Calling him her buddy, the actress gushes, "We are complete buddies. And if we sit together, you would think that probably we have grown up together as best friends or just two weird people. I mean. It's a very different bond that I shared with Tanuj and it was very natural because when we were shooting for Cartel, I was under prosthetic makeup and for almost a year he did not even know who I was. Even at that time, we used to eat together, discuss the scene and have fun. So the bonding is quite strong."
Divya is also all praise for Kunal. Revealing what she has learned from him during the shoot of 'Abhay 3', Divya shares, "I met Kunal earlier because of Rannvijay Sir. I knew his personality off-screen a little bit. I had an idea that he's a very down-to-earth person and that he talks to everyone and he'll ask you about your work and your life in general. One thing that I learned from him was that he was always in his character. He was always Abhay for me on the set. Even when he used to ask, 'Did you eat breakfast?', it felt like an interrogation (laughs). So throughout he was in his character and that is what I need to learn from him - staying in control of the character. The Kunal Kemmu I know personally a little bit was quite different than the one on the set."
