In Search Of Heaven

Theatre, films, web series… Rasika Dugal is the actor for all mediums. Raghuvendra Singh chats with the made in heaven girl

- Raghuvendra Singh

Small has certainly proved big for Jamshedpur-born Rasika Dugal. The FTII graduate, unmindful of the length of her roles, concentrated solely on her love for her job. The small steps have led her to an ever-widening horizon of opportunities - short films, web series, feature films… She straddles them all with enthusiasm.

If hard-hitting films like Hamid and Manto had her play poignant characters, the web series Mirzapur, Delhi Crime and Made In Heaven have unearthed her ability to dabble with the dark and intense. Being at the right place, at the right time and with the right attitude, sums up her rise and rise in the digital world. “I never look at a project as small or big. You don’t know what the destiny of a venture will be. Good content is all that excites me,” she says for starters.

A math graduate from Delhi, she did Mass Communication at Sophia College, Mumbai. “It was the best year of my life. I watched Satyajit Ray’s films and classic cinema. That urged me to apply at the FTII in 2004. It’s a gift to discover what you want to do in life,” she beams.

She began doing bit roles in films like Manish Jha’s Anwar, Anurag Kashyap’s No Smoking, Santosh Sivan’s Tahaan and Ram Gopal Varma’s Agyaat. “The roles, the directors inspired me. I’d loved Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday,” she says.

Finally, she got to play the lead in Karan Gour’s black-and-white psychological drama, Kshay (2011), which won awards at film festivals in Los Angeles and Shanghai. “It was about a woman’s obsession with Goddess Lakshmi. My performance was appreciated,” she reminisces about the film, shot in a flat in Bhayandar.