Dipika Chikhlia’s screen image is inseparable from Sita in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan, but the role is a midpoint in a longer working life, not its beginning. A recent Times of India photo feature gathers lesser-known details from her filmography, and they read as an alternate history of a familiar face. That framing matters for how Hindi cinema remembers actors: the defining role can flatten a filmography, but the filmography often explains the performance.
An early career across languages
Chikhlia made her film debut at 18 in Raj Khosla’s Sun Meri Laila (1983). She was not waiting for television to discover her. The feature lists Cheekh (1986) and Raat Ke Andhere Mein (1987) among her Hindi credits, and then a move into regional cinema. Her Malayalam debut was Ithile Iniyum Varu (1986), with Mammootty. That was followed by work in Kannada, Telugu and Bengali films; the Bengali release Asha O Bhalobasha (1989), opposite Prosenjit Chatterjee, was a success.
- 18 — film debut in Sun Meri Laila (1983)
- 1986 — Malayalam debut in Ithile Iniyum Varu
- 1989 — Bengali success Asha O Bhalobasha
- 24 — cast as Sita in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan
- 1991–1996 — member of Parliament from Baroda
- 2019 — returns in Bala as Yami Gautam’s mother
The small decision that made Sita believable
At 24, Chikhlia took on a part that would dominate public memory. The feature recounts a discreet intervention: Hema Malini contacted the makers of Ramayan and suggested that the character should not wear lipstick, to protect the show’s authenticity. Chikhlia also avoided nail polish and kept her nails short. These are not cosmetic footnotes. In a devotional show watched by millions, restraint became part of the performance—and audiences began associating her with Sita even outside the story.
From Baroda to Bala
The most unexpected turn was political. In 1991, Chikhlia contested the Lok Sabha election as a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Baroda in Gujarat and won. She served until 1996, then chose not to seek another term. In interviews, she said she wanted to devote more time to her family and daughters, and preferred to give complete attention to one responsibility rather than split politics and motherhood.
Her screen return says something about the range she still had to offer. In the 2019 film Bala, starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Yami Gautam, Chikhlia played Susheela, Yami’s on-screen mother. The part was contemporary and small, nothing like a goddess—but it carried the familiarity of one of Hindi television’s most recognisable faces.
For an audience that cares about Hindi cinema’s history as much as its news, Chikhlia’s arc is a useful case study. One role can swallow a career, yet the credits before and after it remain legible. She had worked across five film industries before Ramayan, took a political detour at the peak of her fame, and returned to the mainstream more than two decades later. That is a longer record than a single mythic image suggests.
Source: The Times of India
Comments