A good actor follows directions. A great actor improvises and gives inputs, even if it means cutting themselves out of scenes. Which is what Rasika Dugal did to Iraboty in Shekhar Home, the Hindi adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. She asked the directors, Rohan Sippy and Srijit Mukherji, to show her sparingly on screen to maintain the mystery shrouding her character. “I loved her aura and the wicked charm she exudes. She is not manipulative yet mysterious. That is the aspect I worked on,” says Dugal, adding, “I believe detective fiction is a genre that needs to be preserved. We have all watched Sherlock Holmes starring Jeremy Brett. I am also a huge fan of Satyajit Ray’s Feluda films; Sonar Kela is my favourite.” From playing the headstrong Safia—Saadat Hassan Manto’s wife—in Nandita Das’s biopic Manto, to transforming into the scheming seductress Beena Tripathi in Mirzapur; from playing the demure Savita Mehra in A Suitable Boy to being the empowered Neeli, who convinces her partner to reclaim her womanhood in Qissa, Dugal continues to traverse the diverse acting spectrum. “I know cinema is a director’s medium and an actor is often perceived in a certain way because of the way they look, but as a performer, the stage is your canvas. I am glad that I am not getting the typically miss goody two-shoes roles, and playing a femme fatale, a mysterious woman, or an avenger. I like to have fun with my roles,” says the actor, who was given the Diversity Champion Award at this year’s Indian Film Festival of Melbourne for her “bold” onscreen choices.In her most recent outing, Dugal morphs into the composed Jesse Miranda in the comedy-drama Little Thomas. Set in the 90s’ Goa, the Anurag Kashyap production centers around a seven-year-old boy Thomas, who wants to reconcile his estranged parents played by Dugal and Gulshan Devaiah. The film recently premiered at the International Film Festival of Melbourne. “I liked the calming pace of the film, and the fact that it was a dramedy. It has the humour I had been missing in my filmography,” she says, adding, “I think filmmakers find it hard to associate women with comedy.”
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