Rasika Dugal she’s known for taking on weird and unusual roles, though she admits there was a time when she didn’t know where her career was going. While ‘Mirzapur’ made her a household name, Rasika says ‘Manto’ helped her through one of the toughest phases of her career. In a recent interview, she spoke about the roles that changed her life, the difficult period between ‘Kissa’ and ‘Manto’, why she is still willing to audition and how a text message finally landed her the important role of Bina Tripathi.
Rasika Dugal in ‘Manto’ pulled her out of a slump
Talking about the project which she sees as her real breakthrough, Rasika said that while ‘Mirzapur’ reached the wider audience, ‘Manto’ came at a time when it was most needed. Speaking to India Today, he said, “Something where people saw me in a different light, and something that traveled and reached such a wide audience, was definitely Mirzapur. But I think what got me out of the slump I was in was Manto. There was really a gap between Qissa and Manto, and there wasn’t much in my way. There were a lot of rejections at the time, which were difficult. This was really the period when I had moments where I felt, “Now, where do I go from here? Now where do I go? What door do I knock on and who do I ask?”
Rasika Dugal on how she almost missed ‘Mirzapur’
He further recalled how his role in ‘Mirzapur’ almost got away. Although she was personally familiar with the creator Karan Anshumanshe hesitated to approach him for work. “For Mirzapur, I knew Karan Anshuman, who was the creator and one of the directors of season 1. I knew him socially, and someone told me he was doing this show. I said, “If Karan wants to cast me, he would have called me.” My friend said, “Why don’t you leave him a message to remind him?” I said, ‘I don’t want to make it awkward for him. Friends texting you saying, ‘Doing a role,’ it’s kind of a situation you can’t get out of.’ But I said, OK, I’ll text her,” the actress said.The actress further added, “I got a reply within a minute saying, ‘Of course we meet.’ When I met him, he said, ‘I didn’t ask you because you were cast opposite Nawaz in Manto. I thought maybe you don’t want to do a streaming show. Maybe you just want to do films.’ I said, ‘Are you crazy? Of course I would. When I read the part, I was like, ‘Wow, thank you.’ And I almost got scared. It was so contrary to how it might sound that I thought, ‘Ye log beech mein apna mind na badal de.Sometimes when I would go to the office to do readings, he would say to me, “Shit, I hope they don’t think he can’t do it.” I was so nervous about whether I was going to be able to pull it off.”
Rasika Dugal’s next project
Rasika will next be seen in ‘Mirzapur: The Movie’, which will hit theaters on September 4.