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.