Dibyendu Bhattacharya: I don't know why I am known for negative characters I Exclusive

Dibyendu Bhattacharya. Pic/Still from Mission Raniganj

Actor Dibyendu Bhattacharya has been a part of the film industry for over two decades now. The actor who is popularly known for essaying negative characters of Yeda Yakub in 'Black Friday' and Chunnilal in Dev D, fails to understand why he is known for his negative characters. Bhattacharya says he has done more positive characters than negative. "My character in 'Undekhi' is the most positive character. Even in 'Jamtara', my character may seem negative in the start but becomes positive towards the end. Even in 'Rocket Boyz', he is a positive character who is being framed. In Ghuspaith also, he is just a positive character," says Bhattacharya in conversation with mid-day.com.

Among Dibyendu's well known characters are Chunnilal from 'Dev D' and Yeda Yakub from 'Black Friday'. While both characters are known to come in the negative realm, the actor says, "Chunnilal was not a negative character, he was just a character. He is into the business so he does what is required of his job. But my character Yeda Yakub from Black Friday was completely negative. I played a negative character in ‘Criminal Justice', ‘Mission Raniganj' and in 'BA Pass'. I always joke that if a man is dark and he does a negative character it becomes popular." In the recently released film 'Mission Raniganj', Bhattacharya plays Sen, who is out to sabotage the mission in order to get back at another officer. Describing the film as nationalist, heroic, and mainstream,' Bhattacharya says that the constant sabotage by his character makes the act of the hero more heroic.

However, the actor is also aware of the impact a negative character leaves behind on the audience. "Mogambo agar strong nahi hoga toh Mr India strong nahi hoga, Gabbar agar strong nahi hoga toh Jai- Veeru strong nahi honge. It's a balance of bad and good," he observes.

"Doing a negative role is very difficult. I am a very positive and optimistic person in real life. So it is very difficult for me to play these characters in reel life. When you do a negative character you have to nurture, you have cultivate something very very dark inside you," the actor shares.

But with the advent of OTT, Bhattacharya has been dabbling in a mix of negative ad positive roles in web series. The actor who has done varied roles in series like 'Undekhi', 'Rocket Boyz', 'Criminal Justice', 'Jamtara', 'Mirzapur', 'Sacred Games', among others feels like the industry is yet struggling to write a character that is human, that is just not black or white but has shades of grey. We have not a reached a place where we can show faults in the hero because then he won't be a hero. He becomes a flawed hero. We are all flawed human beings. But you cannot show that in cinema, yet," he concludes.