Ishita Dutta has zero interest in deafening aerial shells or smoky city skies this festive season. For the Drishyam actor, Diwali is strictly about clay lamps, flower petals, and quiet generational memory. The fireworks vanished from her docket two decades ago.
"I used to long ago when I was a child. But in the last 15, 20 years I haven’t," Dutta stated, explaining that her celebrations today rarely extend past one or two handheld sparklers. Her message to cinema audiences balancing celebration with toxic city haze remains straightforward: cut back. "I always advise people to at least, if not completely stop, reduce because it causes a lot of pollution and noise pollution."
Dutta’s push against loud pyrotechnics stems from an old-school upbringing anchored far from modern vanity bashes. Childhood celebrations in Jamshedpur revolved around kitchen stoves and family floor-plans. Her mother prepared batches of handmade coconut ladoos following Lakshmi puja at home—a bespoke culinary ritual Dutta now plans to replicate in her own kitchen for her young children.
City living has not altered the actor's calendar. Her standard festive itinerary runs on quiet routine: morning prayers at home, intricate flower rangolis, an evening stop at a friend’s house, and a midnight pilgrimage. Every Diwali night, Dutta joins her parents for a visit to the Kalibari at Bangur Nagar in Mumbai for traditional Kali puja and temple bhog. Simple fare. No fanfare, no red carpets.
Parenting has renewed the emotional stakes of those basic rituals. Dutta’s father lights up the family home with fairy lights each autumn—a habit she observed as a toddler and now stages for her own children. "Doing the same thing with my child, where my dad is now putting on the lights and my kids are watching," she remarked. "It just gives me so much happiness; it’s very, very nostalgic."
Dutta, who last appeared on the big screen in the box-office thriller Drishyam: The Conclusion, continues to balance domestic life with screen prep. Her festive manifesto provides a refreshing antidote to typical celebrity PR glitz: ditch the ear-splitting gunpowder, fire up the clay diyas, and protect the air your kids breathe.