Divya Dutta's Big Week: A Writing Award and Gajab Raat

Divya Dutta has spent much of her career being the actor people remember from a film, even when the poster belonged to someone else. This week the spotlight was hers twice over. On October 23 she won the Power Creator: The Literary Voice award at the Times Entertainment Power Creator Awards 2026 in Mumbai, according to The Times of India, and on the same day Gajab Raat, a Netflix thriller in which she plays opposite Manoj Bajpayee, began streaming, as ANI reported ahead of the release.

The two events point to the double career she has built: a screen actor who keeps choosing difficult women, and an author whose books grew out of her own life.

An award for the writer

The Times of India reported that the Literary Voice honour recognised Dutta's writing and storytelling, and her ability to connect with readers through stories, columns and poems. The ceremony was hosted by actor Aparshakti Khurrana. Jury Choice winners were picked by a panel of casting director Mukesh Chhabra, actors Gaurav Gera and Kubbra Sait, and Dhruv Chitgopekar of Collective Artists Network, while Popular Choice winners were decided by public voting, the paper said.

Dutta was in mixed company. GTK reported that Ravi Kishan took Icon of the Year, Dolly Singh was named Global Digital Storyteller of the Year for Banter Cue with Dolly Singh, and weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu was named Sports Person of the Year. The official winners page on the Times events site lists Dutta under the Power Creator Award for The Literary Voice.

She did not seem to mind sharing the stage with digital creators. "To be amongst all the powerful creators is the need of today. Everyone is in it. And to be a part of it, in whichever way I can be, which is with words, it's truly special for me," she said at the ceremony, as quoted by The Times of India.

From school stories to two books

Dutta told the gathering that her interest in writing started in school and college, and that she later wrote newspaper columns. "I think I found a connection with people where I realised that words have amazing power," she said, according to the same report.

Her first book came from grief. "One fine day, I think when I lost my mom was the first time I thought I must write a book celebrating her," she said. That book, Me and Ma, was published in 2017 as a tribute to mother-daughter relationships, inspired by her bond with her mother, Dr Nalini Dutta, PTI reported in The Indian Express.

The second, The Stars in My Sky: Those Who Brightened My Film Journey, was published by Penguin Random House India in October 2021. It collects her experiences with figures such as Amitabh Bachchan, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah and Yash Chopra, and carries a foreword by Bachchan, the PTI report said. Her publisher's author page adds that Me and Ma was turned into an audiobook narrated by Dutta herself, and that her poem on the Covid-19 lockdown, Jab Sab Theek Hoga Na, was widely shared.

Gajab Raat and a cold kind of power

On screen, the week belonged to Gajab Raat. Directed by Ritesh Shah and produced by Neeraj Pandey's Friday Film Works, the film follows a Delhi police officer whose night turns after he sees a badly injured girl being thrown from a moving car, ANI reported. The Hindu and Hindustan Times both noted that the film was originally titled Ghooskhor Pandat before it was renamed.

Dutta plays a politician, and critics singled her out. In The Hindu, Anuj Kumar wrote that she "embodies a restrained, cold power centre" whose control provides a strong counterweight to Bajpayee's character. Rishabh Suri of Hindustan Times, who gave the film three stars, called her "effective" as the dirty politician.

Speaking to ANI before release, Dutta said the story's single-night structure was its hook. "I think this film is going to be a binge-watch because it tells the story of one night," she said, adding that this was her second project with Bajpayee after Last Man in Tower.

Two films with Manoj Bajpayee

That earlier film, an adaptation of Aravind Adiga's novel directed by Ben Rekhi, opened in Indian theatres on September 11, according to Variety. The trade paper reported that it was the first Hindi feature from Rana Daggubati's Spirit Media, with a screenplay by Sooni Taraporevala and Hindi dialogue by Juhi Chaturvedi, and that Dutta completed the principal trio with Bajpayee and Boman Irani.

In a conversation with The New Indian Express published on October 25, Dutta described her character there, Sangita, as a woman who "forgot herself until she saw a ray of hope". She said she enjoyed the role's shades. "I liked her greyness, vulnerability, and how she can turn into something else," she told the paper.

The X-factor she had to build

The same interview traces the longer arc. The New Indian Express pointed to her National Film Award winning work in Irada, a ruthless crime lord in Dhaakad (2022) and the 2026 series Chiraiya, which deals with marital rape. Dutta admitted the start was not what she had pictured. "Ideally, I would have loved to debut with a huge hero," she said. "I had to create my own X-factor to be noticed if I wanted to survive in this industry."

Penguin Random House India's author note says she has appeared in more than 150 Hindi and Punjabi films, with acclaimed work in Veer-Zaara, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Delhi-6 and Badlapur, and that her honours include a National Award in 2018 along with Filmfare, IIFA and Zee Cine awards.

A writing prize and a streaming release landing on the same Friday is a neat summary of that career. For an actor who built her own X-factor role by role, the week offered recognition for the words as well as the work.

Sources

Cover photo: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Wikimedia Commons, [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_film_actress_and_artist,_Divya_Dutta_compeering_the_opening_ceremony_of_the_40th_International_Film_Festival_(IFFI-2009),_at_Kala_Academy,_in_Panaji,_Goa_on_November_23,_2009.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_film_actress_and_artist,_Divya_Dutta_compeering_the_opening_ceremony_of_the_40th_International_Film_Festival_(IFFI-2009),_at_Kala_Academy,_in_Panaji,_Goa_on_November_23,_2009.jpg) (GODL-India).