Watch her on the small screen and her diminutive frame could well get lost in the midst of the umpteen heroines draped tightly in sequinned saris and shod in silvery stilettos. Yet her very simplicity and lack of guile set her apart as she effortlessly essays the role of Ichcha in Uttaran. Pitted alongside the more glamorous Tapasya (played by Rashmi Desai), Dutta succeeds in holding her own. True, the cards and plotline are stacked in her favour – she is the underdog who wins hearts at every turn – but even discounting that advantage, 18-year-old Dutta – clad simply in salwar kurtas and minimal make-up – quietly comes up trumps every time.

No stranger to the world of greasepaint and the cameras, the teenager who hails from a joint family in Kolkata (and has since moved to Mumbai with her mother), initially aspired to fly high as an airhostess while she was growing up. “But when I started acting, I knew that I could become a good actress,” says Dutta. “I was in the eight or ninth when I realised what I wanted to do.” She had faced the camera earlier in Parineeta as the younger version of Lolita played by Vidya Balan and had also shared screen space with Aishwarya Rai in Chokher Bali.

Ah! When the big screen touches your life it leaves its imprint forever. Dutta flashbacks, “It was a dream come true. Working on a Hindi film project gave a lot of mileage to my career. It was great working with both Vindu Vinod Chopra and Rituparno Ghosh as well,” she says. “Even working in a small scene felt really good.”

Today’s popular TV star enjoyed the time she spent with the two leading ladies of cinema. “I remember my interactions with Aishwarya and Vidya Balan. Both are very down to earth. When I met Aishwarya, she treated me well and we clicked many pictures together,” says Dutta, like any star-struck teenager. “When I met Vidya, she remembered that we had worked together before for a video album.”

Her ongoing tryst with television (she has earlier starred in Koi Aane Ko Hai and Khela) has catapulted her into audiences’ imagination. Dutta admits candidly, “I feel like an icon because whenever people meet me they tell me to marry Veer (her romantic interest in Uttaran). They greet me with affection and lots of love. Today television is doing what films used to do earlier for people in the industry. It is a great platform for newcomers.”

Although she confesses that she is 70 per cent like her alter ego – “I am sacrificing, loving, kind and gentle” – yet unlike Ichcha she is more contemporary in her tastes and styles of dressing. Dutta laughingly says, “I am very much into trends and fashion in real life. I love wearing jeans and short skirts. Whenever I have free time, I go shopping. If I am given Rs 10,000 for shopping, I will come back with only 50 bucks left. Even in Kolkata, I spent a lot of time shopping.” Time is a scarce commodity when you are doing a daily soap. Free time is spent on learning lessons for self-improvement. “I watch my own show, so that if there is any scope of improvement I can work on that. I watch other shows to know what others are doing,” says the young tele-star, whose TV icons include actors like Smriti Iraani, Shweta Tiwari and Sakshi Tanwar.

Colors’ Uttaran almost fell into her lap and though Dutta dreams of working with the small screen diva, Ekta Kapoor, she would love to do movies: “I know that I am unique and I feel that I can be a fine actress there. Though TV gives you ample scope for acting, at times I feel as a lead positive character in a serial we have less variation in the character graph. When we do five films in that same time, we have five new roles and that means more variations. I will not turn down any role; I would like to do all kinds of roles. Even a negative role will do, as I will learn from it. I want to give every role a try at least once.” Will tinsel town reach out and grab this small screen’s shining star? Only time will tell....

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