'You Get Desensitised To Rejection'

'You're going to have your own journey and that can be very beautiful.'
'It can also be very terrifying because there is no precedence.'

Rasika Dugal remained active on the indie front before Mirzapur got the attention her talent always deserved.

She is presently at the juncture in her career where she hopes to balance between indie and blockbuster projects, like the back-to-back release of Fairy Folk and Mirzapur 3.

"I don't think in this career you can ever really see your route. It's a constant exploration, a risky exploration, and it should be like that," Rasika tells Mayur Sanap/Rediff.com.

I remember watching you in Ram Gopal Varma's Agyaat, which is one of your earlier films. Since then, you have had an interesting journey, working across indie features and mainstream cinema. What was the time in your career when you could see your route as an actor?

There was always a clarity from my side about what I really wanted to do, and that was not affected by the ups and downs of my career.

It is special to be so connected with your work; it's not something that happens to everyone.

Most people I speak to are people who feel like they didn't get an opportunity to explore what they think they would have really been good at.

So this is a very special gift to have.

My work started getting acknowledged around 2017-2018 with Manto, Mirzapur, Delhi Crime. A very different kind of work released together and I had an opportunity to showcase my versatility and to access the wide audience.

This was the time where I felt very motivated.

But as far as seeing a route, as you asked, I don't think in this career you can ever see one. It's a constant exploration, a risky exploration, and it should be like that.

Not feeling completely secure is not a bad thing. It keeps you on your toes and keeps you motivated.

Every actor's journey is unique. You can't look at somebody else's journey and say I have to reach exactly where they did. That's never going to happen.

You're going to have your own journey and that can be very beautiful. It can also be very terrifying because there is no precedence. But it's so exciting to be making your own path.

The industry tends to slot actors on the basis of their previous work. When you do films like Qissa or Manto, does it cross your mind that people might label you as indie actor? Is it a challenge then to constantly re-build your image?

People will always have their own perception of you. I don't want to break out of any labels.

If somebody labels me as an OTT actor, for example, or an indie cinema actor, they are labels I wear very proudly because both these spaces have given me a lot.

I'd like to continue exploring content in both the indie market and the streaming service market.

I don't think there is a notion that somebody who has done work in the streaming space will not do something in films. I've done work everywhere.

Do you still audition for the parts you want to do?

For most of the times, I've not been asked to audition.

But if anybody asks me to audition, I'd be very happy to go through the process. It tells me a little bit about them also, as it gives me an insight into how they are imagining the project and the character.

So I don't mind it, but I haven't been asked to audition much in the last few years.

How were the things when you just started out?

Oh my God, you know, there was one time in my life when I used to do so many auditions.

It was like you wake up in the morning, work out and go for an audition. There used to be conversations between all of us that how many auditions did you do today?

It was like eating a meal. It was that regular in my life. Beyond a point, you get desensitised to the rejection.

What was the toughest audition for you to crack?

I once auditioned for a news anchor in a film and surprisingly, I found that role very hard to do.

It's a very information-based unemotional kind of a role.

I realised for my craft that lines are easier to learn when there's an emotional connect in those lines.

I did very badly in that audition, but I learned from it.

So whenever there's just information-based lines, I need to rehearse them better.

One of my favourite outings of yours is Fairy Folk, the film that pairs you with your husband Mukul Chadda. But it went completely unnoticed when it released in cinemas earlier this year.

I always knew it was going to be a difficult journey to release Fairy Folk because the film was made very independently.

It is a very novel idea.

I was hoping that some platform would pick it up, but nowadays, platforms acquiring films which they haven't commissioned is a very tough part.

For a while, there were these golden years where a lot of smaller films, which otherwise wouldn't have seen the light of day, got picked up by streaming services. But now, they have set agendas and have their own mandates.

After the release of Fairy Folk, we made our own web site. Whoever wants to watch it can watch it. It is a pay-as-you-like model. If you don't want to pay anything, you don't pay anything. If you want to pay something, then go ahead.

Right after that comes Mirzapur 3, a show that has a huge fanbase.

I'm quite happy that I had two such varied experiences as an artiste, where I'm in an indie film like Fairy Folk which is self-produced and also marketed by ourselves.

On the other hand, Mirzapur has such a strong marketing behind it.

Interestingly, Fairy Folk went online the same week Mirzapur 3 released.

It was a nice experience for me, because as an artiste it keeps you in touch with what's happening in the business.

Did the mixed reviews for Mirzapur 3 bother you?

Not at all.

The Mirzapur audience is such a loyal one. They have been with us for three seasons. It's unreal how much love they give us.

I feel there's a sense of ownership from them, it's like they own the show. They have their own aspirations for the show because they've been so involved with it.

There are a fair number of people who enjoyed this season also, so there has been that response as well.

Mirzapur's Beena Tripathi is one of the most interesting characters on the show. Would you like to explore this space, in a complete badass, femme fatale role?

Beena Tripathi is as badass as anything else.

I don't think good scripts have completely negative or positive characters. Good scripts have characters which are a little bit of both because you are able to see the human side of their decision.

Beena is someone who has found her own ground. She's trying to survive here but she's also been violated.

Good scripts have that; they make you empathise with somebody who is not necessarily doing morally upright things.

Why don't we see you enough in an outright funny role, like the one in Lootcase?

I would love to do it! I am really hoping that I get to do more comedy, but I haven't had an opportunity to do much of it.

I feel naturally drawn to it as a viewer and feel there's a lot to explore for me as an actor in that genre. I feel like I have a flair for it.

And humour is understood in different ways by different people. Some are more slapstick, some are more dark. There's a wide range within comedy to explore.

What I really want to explore is a sitcom-ish, comedic space. I want to do a central part in a comedy film or series.

As someone who has done number of projects on OTT, do you think the streaming space allows better pay parity compared to films?

I'm not sure if the pay parity is better here than there because I don't have so much information about how much everybody is being paid on the project.

This information is private and not something I have always had access to. Much of what I know about is hearsay, so I can't really tell if one situation is better than the other.

If an actor is working on a project for longer, then definitely they should be paid more.

A lot of people in films have openly talked about the disparity in payments because of gender, and unfortunately, that's something we will have to fight for a long time.