I want my characters to make people re-examine their lives and affect them, says Rasika Dugal
Rasika Dugal, who forayed into Bollywood in 2007, is driven by the idea of playing layered characters and bettering her craft. For instance, the actress made audiences sit up and take notice of her first role in Anwar followed by Manto, Mirzapur, Delhi Crime, Hamid and Lootcase, among others. Rasika has come a long way, thanks to her exceptional acting skills. And after a successful 2020 with Mira Nair’s A Suitable Boy, which released on BBC and Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video’s Mirzapur 2, the actress is now seen in the second season of her most acclaimed web series, Out of Love.
Adapted from the BBC series Doctor Foster, Rasika plays Dr Meera Kapoor, who discovers that her husband Akarsh played by Purab Kohli is cheating on her. The first season saw Meera as a bitter woman who wants to take revenge while dealing with the grief and humiliation that comes with facing betrayal. Talking about the second season, Rasika shares that it will revolve around Meera’s life post separation and her struggles being a single mother who is content till her ex-husband tries to make a comeback into her life.
“Season 2 is basically psychological warfare between Akarsh and Meera in which both of them engage in very dark things and make very erratic and irrational decisions,” Rasika reveals, and hopes that her story will resonate with the audience. “My job as an artiste is to do my job with as much involvement as I can and hope that the detailing and hard work translate to the audience. I want my characters to make people re-examine their lives and affect them in some way or the other,” says the actress.
“I understand this character in bits and pieces. One thing that I don’t relate to with the character is she doesn’t seek help if something is wrong with her. She will deal with it on her own which makes her strong and in control, I find that fascinating. But I am not like that. I will just pick up the phone and talk to my friends. I reach out to people. And what I relate to is that she makes instinctive decisions and that’s very innate to my personality,” she shares.
Driven by the idea of making her craft better with her performances, Dugal has been choosing some offbeat characters. For instance, Beena Tripathi in Mirzapur was a woman who owned her sexuality in a male-dominated family and Safina of Manto was a restrained and supportive wife to the progressive and critical author Saadat Hasan Manto. But for Rasika, these characters were picked instinctively and she felt compelled to portray them. “There is no one rule that I have, but besides a role, script and what it teaches me, the one thing that’s important to me is the kind of director and co-actors that I work with. My acting process sometimes has me feeling vulnerable and I want people on set to respect and nurture this,” she signs off.
Streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
priyanka.chandani@newindianexpress.com