Rasika Dugal Shares Her Story From FTII To The Upcoming Film Manto
Latently appreciated by her role in the TVF web series ‘Humourously Yours’, Rasika Dugal shares her story from FTII to the upcoming film Manto. She has also played major roles in Irrfan Khan starrer Quissa and the recent TV series P.O.W.
Belonging from Jamshedpur, Rasika has been brought up in Delhi. On her background, she shared, “I am from LSR College New Delhi, and some people post that went on to apply to NSD but I didn’t think, I didn’t have the confidence to apply. And then I came to Bombay and did a course in mass communication, the course was called ‘social communication in media’ but I didn’t really think this could be a career. After this, I did a research project on ‘gender in public space’. Later, I applied for FTII and after six months into the course, I knew that this was something I wanted to do for a really long time.”
On getting into the field of acting, Rasika stated, “I did a very lovely play called ‘riders to the sea’ with theatre director Anamika Akshay, and that was like my first acting job or acting experience so to say. Before that it was only skits in school and all but not a play, this was a proper production and after that I did watch a lot but I didn’t really think of it as a serious career, nobody in my family had ever done that and was not something which I thought I could pursue because there were so many more talented people in college itself that I didn’t think it could be a profession for me.”
On working in the much-appreciated show, P.O.W., “POW has been a learning experience in many ways. Nikhil is a wonderful director to work with he has so much experience, for him, tough things are also regular. It is lovely to watch someone like him with that kind of experience calling the shots,” said Rasika.
Sharing her view on about the future of web series and working with TVF, Rasika said, “I think it’s a very good space that has opened up, especially for actors like me. It gives a lot of opportunity to new people to become celebrities or become known or to call the shots. So like TVF they already had a huge following but they also came to the industry a few years back and now they have made a mark for themselves. I am really happy about it and about being a part of TVF. It was a lovely experience and they totally deserve every bit of what they got.”
When asked about her favourite co-star till the time, in no time she said, “It is Irrfan Khan. I worked with him in Quissa and I think I learnt a lot by working with him. There is a scene in the film where the film, gets into a magical realism pace and that moment is a very hard space for an actor to be in because it’s not very logical. You know there has to be something more about it, you can’t play it logically, and you cannot ask the director questions like ‘Ye character ab aisa kyun karega’. It’s more experiential than logical. So you really need co-actors like him in such moments. He is so respectful of your space and at the same time gives you so much to work with in a scene. That was really special, I have learnt a lot from him.”
Lastly, on her upcoming projects, Rasika said, “I have started rehearsing for Manto, a film that’s being directed by Nandita Das and Nawazuddin Siddiqui is playing Manto. Basically, it’s a story about the writer Saadat Hasan Manto and his real work as a writer is appreciated by many. He was a revolutionary writer. So Nandita Das is the director, Nawazudin Siddiqui is the writer Manto and I am playing his wife. I am looking forward to this.”
