Nikita Dutta

In 2012, Dutta participated in Femina Miss India and landed up as one of the finalists. Later, she made her Bollywood debut with a brief character in the romantic comedy Lekar Hum Deewana Dil (2014). Produced by Saif Ali Khan, the film failed to perform well at the box office. She was cast opposite Sudeep Sahir.

In 2015, Dutta made her television debut with Life OK's drama series Dream Girl – Ek Ladki Deewani Si. She starred alongside Shraddha Arya and Mohsin Khan, portraying Lakshmi Mathur, an aspiring actress who falls in love with Khan's character. She quit the show in November 2015.[9]

In 2016, Dutta was cast in Sony Entertainment Television's Ek Duje Ke Vaaste opposite Namik Paul. Her chemistry with Paul and role as Suman Tiwari, a girl who likes cooking and wants to have her own restaurant, was well appreciated by critics. She won the Lions Gold Award for Jodi No. 1 with Paul. However, the show culminated in October the same year because of short storyline unlike other indian serials.

Dutta's next television show was yet another Sony Entertainment Television series—the romantic thriller Haasil–which aired for 4 months (October 2017 to February 2018). Cast opposite Zayed Khan and Vatsal Sheth, she received praise for her portrayal of Aanchal Srivastava, a lawyer who dares up against a rich family, Raichands, and engages in a love triangle with the family's two step-brothers (played by Khan and Sheth). For her performance, Dutta was awarded the Lions Gold Award for Best Actress. After the show's air-off, she appeared in an episode of &TV's episodic horror series Laal Ishq and quit television shows.

In 2018, Dutta returned to Bollywood films with Gold,[10] a sports film directed by Reema Kagti and based upon the national hockey team's title at the 1948 Summer Olympics. Co-starring with Akshay Kumar, Mouni Roy, and Sunny Kaushal, she played the supporting role of Simran (Kaushal's girlfriend). With a worldwide gross of over ₹1.51 billion (US$21 million), Gold emerged as a critical and commercial success.

In 2019, Dutta starred as a film actress Jia Sharma in Sandeep Vanga's action romantic drama Kabir Singh—an adaptation of Vanga's Telugu romance Arjun Reddy (2017) and co-starring Shahid Kapoor and Kiara Advani. The film tells the story of the titular medical student (played by Kapoor) who goes on a self-destructive path and becomes an alcoholic surgeon after his lover (played by Advani) marries someone else. Kabir Singh received mixed reviews from critics but proved one of the highest-grossing Indian films of all time, grossing more than ₹3.7 billion (US$52 million) worldwide. Dutta received praise for her chemistry with Kapoor in the second half, and followed up the success of Kabir Singh with a central role in Neeraj Udhwani's Maska, a drama about an aspiring actor who is caught between his own dream and his mother's ambitions of seeing him take over the family Irani cafe.

She will next star opposite Abhishek Bachchan in Kookie V. Gulati's The Big Bull, a biographical film about 1992 stock market scam accused broker Harshad Mehta, playing journalist Sucheta Dalal. She is also slated to star opposite Aditya Seal in the Zee Studios dance musical drama Rocket Gang,[11] which is to mark the directorial debut of choreographer Bosco Martis.