From anchoring Devlok to acting in Manto, Rasika Dugal on the value of small roles, feminism and web series
Rasika Dugal. Pic/Datta Kumbhar
You are making your Oscar acceptance speech, but all you might be thinking is — am I looking alright? Did I photograph well?" says Rasika Dugal. Far from frivolously talking about coveted awards, Dugal is making an observation about Nandita Das' upcoming film Manto. Did those who go through the Partition know they were going to be such a big part of history? "I suppose it was more immediate, more practical — today, my neighbour is leaving for Pakistan. Will I seem him again?" continues Dugal.
Rasika Dugal. Pic/Datta Kumbhar
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Manto features Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the role of the eponymous Indo-Pakistani writer, while Dugal plays his wife, Safia. Ahead of shooting for the film, she is getting to know her fictional husband better. A centre-table at her Bandra home has a stack of six volumes of Manto's works. The collection is a gift from Das, who bought it from a Charni Road bookseller. With absolutely no persuasion from the director, Dugal has set herself a deadline of a story a day. "That way, when I get through a volume, I would have earned my right to keep it," she says, cheekily.
Dugal says she has been successful so far in keeping her resolution by stealing time from other projects. She has just finished anchoring the second season of Devlok with Devdutt Pattanaik; she is currently shooting for an adaptation of the Israeli TV series, Hatufim (based on which the hit American series Homeland was made); and will soon start work on a web series for The Viral Fever. Safia is her third major feature film lead role — it's been four years since she played the role of an obsessive woman in indie psychological thriller Kshay and a year since Qissa — but Dugal is far from uneasy. The small part, in her opinion, has played a big role in her career.
At her home, clad casually in a cropped shirt and jeans but seated like a Bengali thakur on a couch laden with throw pillows, Dugal confesses that anchoring wasn't always her cup of tea. "The kind of anchoring you see on television requires you to be excitable, even about things that are fairly inconsequential. You have to be upbeat and deliver 750 words per second. That's not me; I am fairly cynical," she says. With Devlok, which features author and mid-day columnist Pattanaik, Dugal felt anchoring his show would be different — gentler even. But it meant waking up at 5 am to read up on Hindu mythology and remembering the number of women whose names began with the letter K.
On the subject of women, Dugal says that certain kinds of projects have found her because she is "sensitive to the politics of feminism". Which is not to say that she hasn't acted in roles that expect her to portray characters different from her sensibilities. "I like the rassa-kassi — between my personality and a character with a different set of ideas on gender and morality. But, that is only as long as I don't find the overall politics of the script offensive," she says.
Dugal has acted in scene-roles in about 10 movies so far, including Anwar and No Smoking, but turned down "seemingly progressive" ads. An ad, which showed a child gifting his mother on Father's Day, for instance, was met with circumspection. "I sent the script to close friends and asked them if I was being uptight about it. A lot of single mothers I know were happy with it but I wasn't sure. This is one department which I feel I have a responsibility towards and I don't want to do disservice to the conversation [on feminism]," she says. It is the same reason why Dugal wants to look back at Kissa Yoni Ka, the Hindi version of The Vagina Monologues, which she has been acting in since 2008. As an interactive play, the directors and she often reassess on how it can speak to audiences differently, especially in the post Nirbhaya era.
"In theatre, you get a chance to do comic roles, but in cinema it is very hard. Either you are laughed at for being obese or for some other physical reason. Women are shown not to have a sense of humour. It is a relief to have good comic content now in the form of web series," Dugal says, as she preps for Humorously Yours, the working title of TVF's web series. Is it a format that "serious" actors would shy away from?
"Fortunately, I am still excited about things, be it web series or film. This excitement has done me good. Despite being ambitious, I don't get into strategising about what each project means for my career," she replies. Several well-meaning friends often advised her against signing up for those small scenes as did the local grocer, but for Dugal, the small role meant a chance to learn something new and a way to connect with others. "People think that if you are not a star, you have failed as an actor. I was not cut out to wait around till I landed a lead role. I wonder how my career would have turned out if I had," she says, before adding, "I have lost interest in doing small roles, though. I know my craft and how to do a scene – so no more small parts."
As we wind up our conversation, Dugal says she was surprised by a recent call from Karan Gour, a dear friend. He'll be sending her a cheque, four years on, for Kshay (to say that it was made with a slim budget would be an understatement). "I actually made some money from it! Now, increasingly, I find it hard to work under those circumstances as I did for Kshay. That really required some kind of spirit from all of us and I don't think I have the energy for that again."
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