Divya Dutta's slim look gets her 'glamorous' roles

Actress Divya Dutta, known for playing the chubby and bubbly Punjabi girl in films, has gone in for an image makeover. Having lost oodles of weight, she says that she is now being offered "glamorous" roles.

"After 'Veer Zaara', filmmakers used to call me up for only bubbly roles or those which required a hint of a Punjabi accent. But now that I have lost a lot of weight, I am getting a lot of glamorous roles - the kind that are very different from what I have been doing till now," Divya said.

The actress, who was seen in films like "Train to Pakistan", "Baghban", "Aaja Nachle" and "U, Me Aur Hum", feels that directors are now more confident to experiment with the roles they offer her and also with her looks.

"I give a lot of credit for this change to my weight loss," she said.

Divya admitted that losing weight took a lot of hard work and determination.

"Beyond a point, I realised that a person's looks really matter. It was important for me to maintain a fit figure and generally be fit. I had to stop everything I love doing, including giving up on gol gappas, sweets and all good food.

"And then I did a lot of exercise, went to the gym, and it paid. I am getting exciting roles now."

The 30-year-old actress is upbeat that nearly 10 of her films will hit theatres in a year and that she is "not repeating" any one kind of character or look in any of them.

Starting with Arindam Chaudhuri's "The Last Lear", which released Friday, Divya has an interesting line-up of films including Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's "Dilli 6", Shyam Benegal's "Welcome to Sajjanpur", Rohit Kaushik's period film "Chehre" and a political thriller, "Monica".

Divya revealed that she will be playing a "sensuous, intriguing and mischievous" character in "Chehre" and will be donning a never-seen-before look in "Monica".

Apart from these projects, she is also doing a film with Irrfan Khan and three other comedies.

Divya is known to be selective about roles, but says she has no set preferences.

"I think these choices are very intuitive and instinctive for every person. There is no set idea about the kind of roles I want to do, but I guess I have done a good combination of commercial and parallel cinema," she said.

Divya was here to promote "The Last Lear" along with her co-stars Amitabh Bachchan, Shefali Shah, Arjun Rampal, director Rituparno Ghosh and Arindam Chaudhuri.

In the English film, she plays a happy-go-lucky Christian girl, Ivy.

"I (my character) brings in a whiff of fresh air whenever I come into the picture. This film has been a learning experience for me, as it required me to be very simple.

"It was tough because I had to unlearn what I learnt over the years," she said.

Divya has worked with Amitabh in five films earlier, but she said that working with the veteran actor always excited her.

"I have worked with Amitabh Bachchan in five films ... I was not nervous, but excited. In 'The Last Lear', I got to do just a teeny-weeny role with him."