“The game remains the same, but the craft varies”: Divy Nidhi Sharma  

Divy Nidhi Sharma is a conveying artist with a steady consistency of storytelling; he uses emotion for truth, well-lived character, and provides a story without any discomfort in it. With a body of work spanning television, films, and OTT, Anupamaa, Laapataa Ladies, and recently completed his web series Chiraiya, which is currently streaming on JioHotstar, featuring Divya Dutta and Sanjay Mishra. Divy has steadily built a voice that balances relatability with poetic depth. 

Chiraiya starts off from something that seems like a simple idea, but for Sharma, the word wasn’t just aesthetic; it carried both cultural grounding and metaphorical weight. “Okay, so that’s why this imagery exists; it has a very typical North Indian sound to it. So, it also gave grounding to the story and worked well as a metaphor,” he explains, hinting at the delicate balance of fragility and rootedness the narrative explores. 

Chiraiya’s core theme leans towards many themes that typically remain unspoken. As Sharma puts it, “the general awkward topics which we always brush under the carpet,” and these kinds of subjects don’t usually see as much focus alone as they should. His writing thrives in this space—drawing attention to emotional contradictions that are familiar, yet seldom articulated. 

For Sharma, collaborating with seasoned performers like Divya Dutta and Sanjay Mishra meant a match made in heaven; it was an outcome of the process rather than creating something anew. “They didn’t reshape it; they helped us realise it in flesh and blood,” Sharma says, emphasizing how closely the performances mirrored what was on paper. 

“Chiraiya was one of those experiences in which the written word, when you see it getting embodied, is perfect.” It’s a refreshing perspective in an industry where scripts often evolve dramatically post-casting. For Sharma, this fidelity to the written word felt almost ideal. “Yes, yes, they were fantastic,” he adds simply, before reflecting, “But isn’t that how it’s supposed to be? There is a role written; you tailor your personality to suit the role. It works both ways.” 

Having written extensively across formats, Divy draws a compelling parallel between storytelling and cricket. “It’s almost like T20, Test cricket, and ODI cricket all together. The game remains the same, but the craft varies when you move from one format to the other.” The analogy also demonstrates his different way of working; his experience of television provides him with a longer window to correct course, while film and OTT require him to work with more precision because there is no room for error. 

Sharma believes there will always be this tension between an artist’s creativity and outside or external measurements of success in today’s content landscape. “There’s always going to be a struggle between the two. The people in power will always go by the algorithm; artists will always want to go by their gut feeling,” he says, advocating for a middle ground where both data and intuition inform storytelling. 

For Divy Nidhi Sharma, however, the ultimate validation doesn’t come from numbers or trends; it comes from audiences. Not influencers or industry insiders, but ordinary people who loved his work. “When ordinary people, who are not invested in the show monetarily, start reaching out to you, then you realise it must have struck a chord.” He recalls how people began messaging, tagging, even creating reels, often for the first time, simply because a character resonated with them. “These are common people sending a message because it touched them and the character’s journey.” 

The strong emotional bond between an audience and a character isn’t a coincidence; Sharma believes that most characters develop through observation, personal experience, and conscious efforts to create depth through writing. “It comes from all of them combined. Every human being is a complex person,” he says. His approach is rooted in building “3D, well-rounded characters,” where vulnerability and strength coexist. “When you are writing a strong character, you have to look for vulnerability… I try to apply the same process to all my characters.” 

Collaboration, too, has played a defining role in his journey. Divy credits many of his successes in creatives to collaboration with filmmakers such as Nikkhil Advani and Sanjay Leela Bhansali. “I have been very, very lucky to work with some great directors who know how to bring the written word alive on screen,” he says. Disagreements, when they do occur, tend to focus more on the creative process than the writing of any one writer. 

With Chiraiya, Sharma also made a conscious attempt to bridge audiences. “We made some bold choices because we wanted the television audience to come and watch an OTT show,” he explains. The idea was to maintain accessibility without diluting storytelling, a response to what he sees as a growing disconnect when narratives become too niche or overly influenced by global sensibilities. “At times, we tend to alienate them… but you can’t alienate them. So, accessible storytelling.” 

As he reflects on his journey, from Television to films and OTT, there’s a sense that Divy Nidhi Sharma is still searching, still evolving. “Oh, I’m still waiting for that,” he admits when asked about a defining creative risk yet to come. 

And perhaps that’s what keeps his storytelling alive, the willingness to sit with complexity, to question, and to keep chasing stories that feel both intimate and universal.