Nikita Dutta first gained attention as a finalist in the Femina Miss India 2012 pageant and made her TV debut with Dream Girl in 2015, following it up with other TV shows, like Ek Duje Ke Vaaste (2016). Her transition to films took place with Gold (2018) starring Akshay Kumar. Next came the blockbuster Kabir Singh (2019) alongside Shahid Kapoor, The Big Bull (2021) opposite Abhishek Bachchan, and the supernatural film Dybbuk (2021) alongside Emraan Hashmi.
She was also seen in Netflix’s Khakhee: The Bihar Chapter. With her latest film, Gharat Ganpati (2024), she makes her debut in the Marathi film industry. Shot amidst Konkan’s stunning landscape, the Gharat Family cherishes welcoming Gauri Ganpati into their ancestral home during the Ganpati festival.
Spanning generations, this rich tradition fosters a poignant reunion navigating complexities. A still from the film | “As the name suggests, the film centres around the Ganpati festival, but also a lot to do with a joint family-their dynamics and their internal issues which they deal with during the festival. It’s a beautiful representation of Maharashtra and culture, which a lot of people aren’t well versed with.
I am basically playing a girl from Delhi who comes to Maharashtra and is in love with a boy who lives in Konkan. I didn’t really have to speak Marathi for the movie, which is also the reason why I was so comfortable doing it. Though the difficult part was that every other character who is there is speaking in Marathi, so I had to basically just get a little better at understanding what they are saying,” Nikita told us over a call.
A post shared by The Free Press Journal (@freepressjournal) Coming from a family where everyone was in the armed forces, acting wasn’t on her horizon at all. She wanted to prepare for the civil services, until in college she casually ended up randomly taking part in the Miss India, which changed the entire route for her. Post that, she just embraced everything that came her way- she started hosting TV shows, which led her to bagging her first serial.
During COVID, she also used her social media influence and joined hands with Hemkunt Foundation, spreading the word about their initiative for arranging oxygen cylinders, concentrators and requested people to contribute for the same. “There was not much I could do physically. I tried to help them out on social media and with whatever I could do from my end,” she told us.
A post shared by The Free Press Journal (@freepressjournal) Nikita has also been forthcoming about how she learned along the way how important PR was for getting more work. “I come from a place where there’s nobody who’s going to guide me. I don’t have any godfather or family in this industry, so nobody is going to tell me that ‘this is the way to go about it.
’ I had a release (Kabir Singh) which was extremely successful. Everyone knew about my work. I do remember right after the movie I had a lot of work that came my way.
But I think that work was not represented correctly and that’s probably the PR’s job which is why they do what they do. This is something I guess I have understood on the job. It’s not something somebody told me before, unlike if one is from a film family, and before your movie your PR is activated.
You’re already getting advertisements because you’ve got a certain surname that doesn’t work in our case. I feel like I could have just done better in terms of representation, which I’ve probably taken a while to understand,” Nikita explained to us. Next up for the actress is the Netflix film Jewel Thief: The Red Sun Chapter, alongside Saif Ali Khan and Jaideep Ahlawat, set to release in October 2024.
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