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Ramayan’s Dipika Chikhlia says she isn’t interested in a role in Ranbir Kapoor-starrer film: ‘You are known as Sita, you should die as Sita’

Dipika Chikhlia said that she does not want to tamper with her image as Sita and thus, unlike Arun Govil, she does not want to play a role in Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana.

Dipika Chikhlia is best known for playing Sita in Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan.

Dipika Chikhlia, who is best known for playing Sita in Ramanand Sagar’s Doordarshan show Ramayan, is still recognised for her character by the masses. Though it has been over three decades since Dipika played that role, she shared in a recent interview that people still call her ‘Sita’ wherever she goes and seek her blessings as if she is a goddess. Arun Govil, who played Ram alongside her in that show, will soon be seen playing another role in Nitesh Tiwari’s Bollywood film Ramayana, starring Ranbir Kapoor, and when Dipika was asked if she wanted to be a part of that project, she said she believes she should “die as Sita.”

Dipika said that a few years ago, she was offered another serial based on Ramayan where the makers wanted her to play Kaushalya. Dipika shared with Siddharth Kannan that at first, she was “confused” but her brother told her, “You are known as Sita, and you should die as Sita.” Dipika said that she believes no other iteration of Ramayan will be as popular as the one made by Sagars back in the 1980s so she would rather not tamper with her image.

“I clearly understood that people have known me as Sita ji and nothing will become as popular as Sagar’s Ramayan. Then why should I fiddle with my image? I am Sita, I have accepted it. For 35 years, I have taken the responsibility of being Sita then why should I try to be something else,” she said.

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Dipika said that someone has to be “foolish” to believe they are gods after playing the role of gods so she completely understands the distinction between who she is and the roles she plays but, at the same time, she also understands that she can’t play negative roles as people tend to see her in a certain light. She recalled that she was recently given two offers and in both these cases, her character was was required to smoke. Dipika rejected these roles. “I have gotten messages from big production houses for a film and they wanted me with a cigarette in my hand, both of them. And I said no. Sometimes I wonder, how can you even ask me something like that?” she said.

Ramayan continues to be the most popular work by Dipika.

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