IN HER ZONE

Rasika Dugal, an actor of versatile expressions and expressive silences, on her career and her craft

- PUJA AWASTHI

Rasika Dugal was quick to realise that mathematics was not for her. She now chuckles at the memory, for she had chosen the subject, in part, to show her father that she could study it. But at the Lady Shri Ram College for Women, New Delhi, there was too much happening for mathematics to hold her interest. “I ploughed through my maths classes,” she says. “Running from one play rehearsal to another elocution, and fitting in a class somehow.”

Dugal, an actor of versatile expressions and expressive silences has a busy year. Audiences will see her in a sports drama, Spike; a black comedy thriller, Lord Curzon ki Haveli; a supernatural horror, Adhura; a dramedy, Little Thomas and her signature, Mirzapur (Season 3).

Though excited about it all, she has reserved a special exuberance for Fairy Folk— an improv dramedy that premiered at the Sydney Film Festival in 2022. The film had a prepared storyline, but the dialogue was all improvised by the actors. “That’s not to say you go on set and do anything,” says Dugal. “It requires practice. You take what your co-actor gives you and build upon it. It is beautiful as it lets the inconsistencies and errors of everyday conversations seep through.” Dugal’s husband, actor Mukul Chadda, co-stars in the film.

Dugal, who debuted in Anwar (2007), has earned serious praise for her work—both at home and abroad. She plays self-destructive (Out of Love, 2019-2021) with as much elan as she does subtle (Manto, 2018). She does chatty (Lootcase, 2020) as well as silence (Kshay, 2012). She is equally convincing as jaded (Delhi Crime, season 2, 2022) as she is as saucy (Mirzapur, 2018-present).