An octahedral Ni(II) complex viz. diisothiocyanatobis(dmbpy)nickel(II) (3) based on 4,4′-dimethyl-2,2′- bipyridine (dmbpy) ligand was prepared by conventional method under mild reaction conditions. Besides analyzing FT-IR spectrum and the determination of percentages of atoms of elements, a thorough investigation of thermal and photophysical properties of the present complex was carried out. Diffuse reflectance spectrum of the complex scanned in the range 200-1100 nm displayed a prominent peak at 455 nm, with exhibiting reflectance percentage of 45. The measured band gap energy of the complex obtained by following Kubelka-Munk (K-M) function was found to be 2.18 eV. The photoluminescence spectra that incorporated excitation and emission spectra exposed the likely possibility of emission of blue light by the complex, for which the Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.3009, 0.2942) were calculated. A fairly high thermal stability of the synthesized complex with the incorporation of thiocyanate ligands, practically confirmed by simultaneous TG-DTA measurements, could be explored for application as an emissive layer in the fabrication of OLED devices.