Actress Divya Prabha in 2015 won the State Television Award for second best actress for her performance in the teleserial ‘Ishwaran Sakshiyai’. But fame came her way for the role in Mahesh Narayanan’s 2017 movie ‘Take Off’. Since then, the actress had her kitty full of roles until she hit a crescendo with Payal Kapadia’s Cannes winner ‘All We Imagine as Light’.

Divya’s popularity surged following the film’s theatrical release in 2024. Her name even went on the top trending list on X for weeks. It was not her acting that triggered the name to appear on the search list but a nude scene that she did in the movie that drew massive attention.

A debate ensued after netizens started appearing on social media requesting the link to the scene which even forced the actress to respond. And now, actress Hima Shankar in an interview with Kaumudy Movies responded on the issue.

“ If the scene was acted by a Bollywood actress, there would have been no fuss. Malayalees have known Divya only as an actress mostly appearing in traditional roles so a sudden switch to a bold version aroused curiosity. Many couldn’t even believe their eyes because they never expected this makeover. An actress from mollywood doing a nude scene is rare so the reaction is not surprising.

If the role was taken by any Bollywood actress. Nobody would have cared. Divya felt fine doing the role so she did it. People term such a role as ‘bold’. However, I beg to differ on that one. Boldness is not restricted to cinema. Being nude on screen is not bold. The word bold has a different dimension.

Some Malayalees are out-of-the-box intellectuals offering great discourse while some others on another spectrum are still stuck in archaic ways.”