Neha Dhupia is entering a phase of her career where looking glamorous is no longer the priority — telling the right story is.
Fresh from the European premiere of her first international film, 52Blue, at the London Indian Film Festival, the actor spoke to t2ONLINE about embracing her 40s, going makeup-free on camera and taking on roles that challenge the image audiences may have built of her over the years.
Directed by Egyptian filmmaker Ali El Arabi, 52Blue follows a young boy from Kerala who goes to extraordinary lengths to meet his football idol, Lionel Messi. Dhupia plays Lakshmi, the protagonist’s mother, in a performance that required her to move away from the polished, glamorous screen persona associated with some of her earlier work.
For Dhupia, that transformation came at an interesting point in her life — when growing older has begun to feel less restrictive and more liberating.
52Blue gave Neha Dhupia a chance to take a creative risk
The London screening gave Dhupia an opportunity to see how an international festival audience responded to a performance that was deliberately stripped of glamour.
She recalled receiving particularly warm reactions after the screening, including from filmmaker Prakash Jha, whom she knew in the audience. Some viewers were also familiar with her earlier work, from Chup Chup Ke and Singh is Kinng to A Thursday.
What made the response especially meaningful was that audiences were reacting to a very different side of her.
Dhupia believes actors can eventually reach a point where they wonder whether the industry still sees possibilities beyond the image it already knows. 52Blue arrived as an answer to that concern.
The opportunity to work with El Arabi also gave her a chance to approach cinema from a different cultural and creative perspective.
For Dhupia, taking that kind of risk is one of the advantages of getting older. Experience has not made her less ambitious; instead, it has made her more willing to choose work because it matters to her.
Playing Lakshmi meant letting go of glamour
Lakshmi is not a conventional glamorous role. Dhupia plays a mother whose emotional journey is closely connected to pain, loss, hope and eventually learning to let go.
The character also required her to play the mother of a much younger version of the protagonist before the story moves forward in time.
That meant consciously aging herself for the part.
Dhupia says one of the biggest things she had to unlearn was the instinct to always appear attractive on screen. For 52Blue, authenticity mattered more than conventional beauty.
Going without makeup became part of that process.
At the festival, one audience member reportedly told Dhupia that seeing her face without makeup on a large screen made the performance feel particularly real. The actor responded to the compliment with her characteristic humour, joking about whether the viewer had noticed if her pores were “open or closed”.
Behind the joke was a serious point: she wanted audiences to see Lakshmi rather than Neha Dhupia.
The actor is embracing her 40s
Dhupia’s attitude towards aging is one of the most striking parts of her conversation.
Rather than trying to conceal her age or continue playing younger characters indefinitely, she describes growing older as freeing.
She no longer feels compelled to accept an opportunity simply because it is available. The ability to say no has become an important part of her professional independence.
That does not mean she believes every future decision will be purely artistic. Dhupia acknowledges that practical considerations can always influence an actor’s choices.
But for now, she says she is increasingly interested in following her instincts rather than meeting external expectations.
Shooting 52Blue demanded unusual preparation
The production was physically demanding, partly because of its dependence on specific natural-light conditions.
Dhupia recalled receiving a call time of around 2:15am for sequences that had to be filmed during a brief period of blue light, when night is giving way to dawn. The window lasted only around 15 minutes.
The crew also had to travel by boat to an island location. Dhupia, who had never learned to row, found herself having to navigate yet another unfamiliar part of the filmmaking process.
For her, these difficulties were part of a broader definition of courage.
She believes bravery for a working mother can mean leaving her children behind for a shoot. It can mean appearing before a camera without makeup. It can also mean accepting a role that takes her far outside the territory in which audiences expect to see her.
She recalled another particularly unusual experience: playing an eight-month-pregnant police officer while she herself was eight months pregnant with her second child. During one shoot, her real contractions began, although the director initially interpreted her breathing as part of the performance.
The anecdote captures the kind of physical and professional demands Dhupia has been willing to embrace.
Ali El Arabi saw something unusual in Dhupia
Dhupia’s casting in 52Blue was itself unexpected.
She believes that if a conventional casting process had been searching for a woman from Kerala to play the mother of a young boy who later grows into a 20-year-old, she would probably not have been an obvious choice.
That is precisely what made the opportunity significant.
She recalled El Arabi telling her during their first meeting that he liked her eyes because they could communicate a great deal while also appearing emotionally distant.
The observation convinced Dhupia that the filmmaker was looking beyond the obvious qualities associated with her screen image.
For an actor who has spent years being associated with particular kinds of roles, that recognition of untapped range can be powerful.
From Perfect Family to Single Papa: Dhupia wants variety
52Blue is not the only recent project reflecting Dhupia’s interest in different kinds of characters.
She also spoke about her role as a therapist in Perfect Family, a SonyLIV series centred on a dysfunctional family that enters therapy together. She said the show’s themes stayed with her and noted that therapy can be approached not only as a response to damage but also as a preventive measure.
Her Netflix project Single Papa also received a positive response, according to the actor.
At the same time, Dhupia admits that interesting offers have not necessarily arrived in abundance. She would welcome more choices, but she is not interested in accepting everything simply to remain visible.
That distinction appears increasingly important to her career strategy.
Her next choices are about more than acting
Dhupia also discussed Family Business, a Netflix project directed by Hansal Mehta and featuring Anil Kapoor and Vijay Varma in the lead roles. She described it as another upcoming opportunity in her expanding body of work.
Away from conventional screen acting, she is also investing heavily in Double Date, a YouTube project she hosts with her husband, Angad Bedi.
The format allows the couple to build their own intellectual property while creating a conversational space around their dynamic.
Dhupia acknowledges that creating and sustaining an independent IP is difficult, but says the experience is enjoyable because Bedi is deeply involved in it.
Why staying hungry matters to Neha Dhupia
Being a multi-hyphenate has long been part of Dhupia’s professional identity, and she believes one reason she continues to experiment is that she has never allowed herself to become completely comfortable.
In her view, extreme success can sometimes create an environment where people become hesitant to challenge you. When everyone around an artist agrees, useful criticism can disappear.
Dhupia says she would rather remain in a position where people feel comfortable disagreeing with her.
That hunger, she suggests, keeps her open to new mediums, unfamiliar characters and unexpected opportunities.
And 52Blue may be one of the clearest examples yet of that philosophy: a role without the usual glamour, a filmmaker from another part of the world, demanding locations and a character who required her to reveal a very different side of herself.
