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She's no ultra-glam Bollywood heroine. But actress Divya Dutta, with her infectious smile, has still managed to hold her own in the fickle world of Bollywood by portraying powerful characters in niche and even mainstream films. Most recently, she impressed critics and cinema lovers by playing Milkha Singh's sister Isri Kaur in the highly successful Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.

Bhaag Milkha... is perhaps a major turning point in Dutta's career. She says that her phone has been ringing off the hook ever since the movie became the season's unexpected mega-hit. And Dutta says it was a tough role. She says: 'The role was the toughest in my career because most often I had to emote through my eyes. On one hand Isri Kaur was very vulnerable and dependent on her husband, but on the other hand she had deep love and concern for her little brother. For someone like me who is very vocal about issues and expressive in real life playing this role to perfection was quite a daunting task.' She adds: 'The biggest compliment that I have got so far was from Milkhaji who called to blessed me.'

In the wake of Bhaag Milkha..., Dutta now has a string of offers pouring in. She has recently signed Traffic, the Hindi remake of Malayalam hit by the same name starring Manoj Bajpayee and Prosenjit Chatterjee.

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  Divya Dutta won both critics and audiences over by her performance in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag in which she plays Milkha Singh's sister

And she's gearing up to for a Hollywood film that will be shot in Europe and India though she isn't revealing details. She has also done two other Hollywood films — a thriller-action drama called Hisss and a romantic comedy Heartland directed by Fred Holmes in which she played a bubbly Punjabi girl. She has also signed a Hindi film produced by Ekta Kapoor. Says Dutta: 'It's a wonderful time in my career as directors have suddenly taken note of my performances and are offering me characters of substance.'

Dutta, 35, protests when the word 'character actor' pops up in conversation. She says: 'Even top actors today are experimenting with various characters. I love to do roles with a special flavour. For me roles matter and not the length,' she adds.

But even before Bhaag Milkha... it had been a great year for Dutta with back-to-back big banner films from Sonam Nair's Gippi to Lootera by Vikramaditya Motwane. And in each movie she has done a different kind of roles. She says: 'If you're able to give a hit, there are scores of offers with similar kind of roles. But I don't let this happen. I love to surprise my audiences by doing different roles.'

Director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, with whom she has worked earlier in Delhi-6 and now in Bhaag Milkha..., praises her effusively. He says: 'The film's best scene is when Milkha Singh comes back and persuades her sister to wear the Indian army blazer. She was such a natural, recreating that poignant moment so brilliantly where she had to cry and laugh at the same time.'

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  Dutta loves experimenting with roles like she did in Sonam Nair's Gippi, where she played the single mother of an overweight girl

Dutta likes to make it very clear that her Bollywood career is due to 'sheer hard work'. She had to struggle to get good movies as 'there was no godfather for her in the industry'.

She was born and brought up in Ludhiana and first tried her hand at modelling in Punjab. In 1994, she was selected for a talent hunt competition by Stardust in Mumbai.

However, her Bollywood career, which started in 1994 in Ishq Mein Jeena Ishq Mein Marna, has had plenty of ups and downs. She says: 'After my first film I started meeting people who were sweet to me. Everybody encouraged me, but when it came to giving work there were very few. I worked my way up by sheer merit.'

Initially, she even bagged films opposite actors like Salman Khan in Veergati and Suniel Shetty in Surakshaa. But when these flopped, the offers faded away. Dutta then began doing small and blink-and-you-miss-it roles in films like Chhote Sarkar, Gharwali Baharwali, Joggers' Park and Baghban.

But it was Veer-Zaara where she played Shabbo, Preity Zinta's friend, which brought her critical acclaim. She says: 'I never allowed failures to affect me. After Veer-Zaara, people started taking me seriously.'

Soon she was flooded with offers that mostly required her to play voluptuous Punjabi girls. But she was clever enough to sign films that displayed her acting

mettle. For instance, she played a low-caste garbage collector, Jalebi, in Delhi-6 and a nurse in Rituparno Ghosh's The Last Lear and also a caring teacher in Stanley Ka Dabba.

Dutta spends most of her free time at home with her doctor mother Nalini and brother Rahul who live in Mumbai. 'Recently, my mother gifted me a bicycle and I've been enjoying going out cycling in the rains,' she laughs. She's also writing an autobiography, which she plans to release by year end.

For now, though the actress is going with the flow, enjoying the good times and being smartly selective about film offers. She says: 'The most important lesson that I have learnt is to say 'no' to offers that will not further my career.'