Tellystar Divyanka Tripathi Dahiya has been part of daily soaps and reality showsfor over a decade. She has now given hosting a crime show a shot, and says theexperience should be refreshing.
Divyankacurrently hosts "Crime Patrol Satark: Women Against Crime", a specialseries that presents a comprehensive and dramatised account of crimes such asrape, molestation, murder, and child abuse, in an effort to act as aneye-opener.
"Iwas looking for a show like this. But then Covid and lockdown happened. I wasin a happy space during that time because I wanted that much needed break.After that, I wanted to do something very different from the daily soap zone,"Divyanka said.
"Infact, I have been putting up a lot of posts (on social media) about womenawareness and empowerment. I always wanted to work in this kind of a space.Maybe God has his own way of listening to people. Then came the offer of 'CrimePatrol'. It really excited me a lot. It's refreshing. Through this show, I amaiming to create awareness among women on how they can be cautious and be awareof crimes and possibly evade them," added Divyanka, who became popular inthe fiction space with roles in shows such as "Ye Hai Mohabbatein"and "Banoo Main Teri Dulhann". Her fans loved her equally forcompeting in the dance-based show "Nach Baliye" and hosting "TheVoice".
Shefeels that there are some women who lead a certain lifestyle and "peoplearound them have a fixated mindset about women behaving in a certainmanner".
"Sometimeswomen are unable to share their stories of molestation or torture for a longtime. Then the problem aggravates. If one woman doesn't speak, 10 others don'tspeak up. If one speaks up, others get the courage to follow suit. This is thecause I am working for through 'Crime Patrol'," said Divyanka.
Askedif there should be more Indian shows focusing on women's issues rather thankitchen politics, she said: "It's about demand and supply. There have beenshows showcasing something different. But they don't get enough eyeballs orTRPs. After all, it's a business. When people say that makers should createsomething different, then viewers should watch that different kind of content.But they don't. That's very unfortunate. Due to this, there are early shut downof shows."
Infact, she feels that channels want to play safe.
"Theydon't want to take risks. If they show an evolved daughter-in-law ormother-in-law or a family with no conflict, there is no masala. Maybe peoplefrom smaller towns won't watch it then. So viewers need to give the confidenceto makers that we will watch a good show because if viewers won't watch it, itwon't be made," said the actress, who has also made a mark on the web show"Coldd Lassi Aur Chicken Masala".