Rasika Dugal: ‘I’m looking to be part of a comic show with a woman in the centre’

Rasika Dugal with Vipul Goyal in Humorously Yours season 3, streaming on Zee5.

In the last couple of years, Rasika Dugal has established herself as an actor who can be banked upon for performing characters who are layered and intense. Films such as Qissa (2015), Hamid (2018) and Manto (2018) and web series such as Mirzapur (2018), Delhi Crime (2019), A Suitable Boy (2020) and Adhura (2023) have solidified her position as someone who is willing to go the extra mile for a good performance. Much as she likes doing these roles, Dugal also loves a laugh and her slice-of-life comedy drama series Humorously Yours with co-actor Vipul Goyal is proof of that. With the third season of the show having dropped on Zee5 on Friday, the actor shares her thoughts on the evolution of the female characters in recent years. Edited excerpts from an interview:

You have been doing so many intense shows lately. What does Humorously Yours mean for you in the middle of them all?

It is a breath of fresh air for me and almost feels like a paid holiday! (laughs) It is a break from the emotional intensity required for the other stuff I do. I really enjoy all that but a bit of change is needed once in a while. This show always pops up at the right time. I had just finished shooting Delhi Crime when we started shooting for season 2 and this time, I have just come off shooting continuously for five months on two different projects, both of which had required a lot of emotional investment from my side. I came on Humorously Yours, had a party and went back home (laughs).

What can the viewers expect from the third season of the show?

For a slice of life kind of show, I am always surprised how I always find this one person among fans of other shows that I have done who come and tell me how they are a huge fan of Humorously Yours; that usually comes from being a huge fan of Vipul as well. They have followed every small nuance of the show and sometimes have told me things that I don’t remember. In season two, Vipul was trying to fill an auditorium. In season three, it is about him trying to do an international tour and the comedy of errors that happens around it. The stakes are also higher because they have a house loan now and the burden of paying it off.

Apart from this show, you have hardly done other light-hearted roles. Do you think that aspect of you as an artist is yet to be explored?

I agree; it has not been explored enough and I am dying for it to be! I enjoy watching light-hearted stuff. I believe it is as layered as the other things we do but it has to be played with a certain lightness. I have done a fair share of comedy on stage. I performed in the Vagina Monologues for nine years. It has a lot of comic moments in the way it is staged even though it talks about serious things. I do believe I have a flair for it. I am really looking for an opportunity which makes me hone that side of me even more. A stereotype I don’t like is that people don’t associate comedy with women. I’m really looking to be part of a comic show with a woman in the centre, something like a Veep with Julia Louis-Dreyfus who has done such a phenomenal job.

You made your acting debut in 2007 but it was 2015’s Qissa that brought you critical acclaim. Do you consider that film a turning point in your career?

It is a very special film for me and definitely a turning point in terms of being a performer. I got to act along with Irrfan Khan, Tisca Chopra and Tillotama Shome who had so much more experience than I had at that time. To be able to share screen space with them and in a narrative like Qissa was a very special experience. The kind of attention and respect I was given, in spite of not having a lot of experience, from my co-actors and my director is something that really gave me a lot of immunity with everything else that was to come after that. Every time there would be a not-so-respectful experience, I would always think about my time in Qissa and that there are people like these as well. That film really gave me a lot of confidence because I felt that if I could connect with actors who have that much experience, then I must be offering something which is special as well.

From playing someone who loses a spouse in Hamid to playing a woman who is so expressive of her desires in Mirzapur, how do you think women’s characters have evolved in Hindi cinema? Do you think OTT has given a huge boost to the way women characters are portrayed on screen?

I think things have definitely changed over the last few years that I have been working and I am very happy to see that change. Earlier, when the streaming space was becoming popular around 2016-17 and there were a lot of interesting female parts being written, I somehow felt that it was more an act of tokenism than a genuine lack of prejudice while writing a female part. I felt there was an effort but it was not translating into material which was not reflecting a gendered mindset. Sometimes the writing would be very intelligent and politically correct but somehow the visuals would still be sexualised. At times, in order to give the women the central parts, their characteristics were written in a very male-like fashion. I was wondering where that is going to go because I didn’t feel we were really celebrating femininity and expressing what it means to be a woman. I think that changed and in a good way because the writing did become more nuanced. It acknowledged what it means to be a woman and the woman didn’t need to look like a man to occupy centre-stage. For instance, in Delhi Crime, Vartika Chaturvedi (played by Shefali Shah) is a woman, a mother and there is no question on her integrity or ambition towards her work. I am very fortunate to be working in these times. The streaming space gave an opportunity to encourage independent writing which was pushing the boundaries and not feeling the need to stick to a box. At that time, the situation genuinely asked for newness. It is still there but with a lot more clutter.

Your character Beena Tripathi in Mirzapur left an indelible mark on people’s minds. When do we get to see her again?

This is the most-asked question of 2023. Even though I don’t have an answer, I am very happy to be asked this question. If I did, I would have totally leaked it! (laughs)

What is next in the pipeline for you?

I think what might release is Mirzapur but I don’t know when. We are really looking forward to the way people respond to season 3 because the Mirzapur audience is one of a kind. It is so much fun to engage with them. Besides that, I have done about six other projects which are all at different stages of completion. Some of them cannot be bracketed into one genre completely. Among the projects, I have done is a dark comedy, a sports drama, a children’s film of sorts and a very dark mystery set in a small town.