Actor Divyabharathi, known for her performance as the female lead in Bachelor, recently saw the premiere of her JioHotstar series, Lingam, a year after the release of her last theatrical outing, Kingston. She reunited with GV Prakash in Kingston after Bachelor; however, the film did not do well, neither critically nor commercially.

Divyabharathi, who began her career with a small role in Mupparimanam in 2017 and then Bachelor in 2021, only had the release of Maharaja and Cheran's Journey in 2024, apart from Kingston. The actor, in an exclusive conversation with CE, opened up about the gaps in between her film releases and the failure of Kingston.

On why she didn't get opportunities despite Bachelor's success, Divya took the onus on herself and said, "The biggest mistake I made was not networking enough. After Bachelor released, I assumed film opportunities would naturally come my way. It wasn’t overconfidence in my abilities—I genuinely thought that’s how the industry worked."

She explained that waiting for good projects also added to the delay. "Since I don’t come from a film background, I didn’t realise that I had to actively approach people and build connections to find opportunities. At the same time, I was also waiting for good projects. Looking back, I think I waited too long, and that ended up delaying my career," she shared.

On what happened with Kingston, she added, "Kingston had the potential to be a good film, but somewhere along the way, it didn’t work out as expected." Helmed by Kamal Prakash, the film marked GV Prakash's 25th outing as an actor and his debut film as a producer.

In Lingam, Divyabharathi stars alongside Kathir, Poornima Ravi, Sathya, Bose Venkat, and Nikhila Sankar. She plays the female lead in the series, which is helmed by Lakshmi Saravanakumar and presented by filmmaker Prasanth Pandiyaraj of Vilangu series fame. The series premiered with eight episodes on Friday and opened to mixed reviews.