In acting, I've found my soulmate.
Rasika Dugal
My family moved from Rangoon to Rawalpindi during World War II. My father was born in Lahore in 1946. Those were difficult times.
Very often when we talk about war, conflict or terrorism, we talk about it very politically. We forget that there are people involved.
I have been offered roles in mainstream films which have not been interesting to me. They have been too insignificant.
Film is my favourite without a doubt. I am a film romantic and I love the grandeur of cinema. Dark theatres and big screens are my first love.
Naseer Sir taught me while I was a student at the Film and Television Institute of India. Anything I know about acting is thanks to him.
Nothing is more important to me than the work itself. If I feel I am getting swayed too much, I take a step back… My focus is also on the performance.
I like to watch actors while they are acting, how they hold their attention when so many people around are there to distract them. It's difficult.
The best option that you can have as an actor is pure instinct and you should be able to protect your instinct. Information can either cloud your instinct or aid it.
Our family get-togethers are about the stories such as my uncle who walked across the Indo-Burma border, or a woman who gave birth in a ship carrying refugees etc.
I want to do roles that are important for the story and not there for ornamental value or to just aid another character in the film which is often a 'friend's role' in mainstream films.
Infidelity is a fairly common occurrence in society but very often not spoken about.
The problem is never the audience, it has always been the distribution. The digital space is proof that the audience is quite accepting.
There's a difference between being a star and an actor. If you feed off from being in the public eye, this is the unfortunate flipside to it.
It is nice to have a lot of people watch your work but I really have thought of it as not the goal of my career but a bonus in my career.
Memories come out only when you spend time with a person.
Women often get ignored from main narrative, especially in films.
Of course, I'm open to all kinds of genres. In my head, there are no demarcations.
There are very few parts, and very few scripts, that acknowledge women as sexual beings, or simply just recognise that women have desires.
I like a sensitive script, interesting and respectful directors and co-actors, producers who understand the creative needs of a project. A happy unit in which everyone collaborates to try and make something compelling.
I don't have much foresight, and I think that's an asset for an actor.
In Bombay, people usually tend to cast you in roles that you've played before. Even though they may consider you to be a talented actor, they just think it's 'safer' to have you play the same kind of roles over and over again.
Filmmaking, it has been my first love.
It is exciting to see the different genres that audiences want to watch. The response to a show like 'Mirzapur' last year and to Delhi Crime earlier this year was so encouraging and a proof that good content is the new formula.
I am enjoying the abundance and variety of work on the web.
The kind of scripts I have read for web shows have been outstanding.
I have also done a web show called 'Delhi Police'. It is about the investigation around the Nirbhaya case. It is also very path-breaking and interesting.
But, as an actor, the role that I enjoyed, in terms of really understanding and appreciating this profession, was Anoop Singh's 'Qissa'.
Because I feel as actors we are required to be vulnerable, it is a part of our job. So the space that you are being vulnerable in should respect that, otherwise it is not worth it.
If you are true at telling the story, it will get a good audience, and the required numbers.
There is room and time for multiple tracks to flesh out in the web space. I enjoy this format.
A well-written character is one where you don't know in which direction it's going; the character could spring a surprise any moment.
I really enjoy watching animation films and I have always been curious about how such well-established actors in Hollywood lend their voices to animation films.
I think we still have a long way to go in understanding that feminist and femininity are not opposites.
It was been an absolute joy being in 'The Vagina Monologues' for so many years. I think the play is truly special.
As a society, we need to create an environment that encourages women to make the choices that are available to them and encourages them to speak their mind.
No matter what situation you are in, if you need help, you should be able to ask for it.
In fact, it is more interesting to play someone whose politics is not in sync with my own politics because then I have to understand a different kind of mind and that becomes more interesting as an actor.
If the story is insensitive to a person and is not nuanced enough, that's a story I don't want to be a part of. Otherwise there is no other character that I don't want to play.
'Slice of life' is not a genre I had experimented with much, and it's quite difficult.
I think we're still struggling to find a way of depicting women that doesn't objectify them.
When you disagree with somebody else, they often tend to get very defensive. But that doesn't stop me from doing the kind of work that I want to do.
In the digital space, writers and directors get time to build and establish a character.
Whenever I work on a role, I always allow it to subconsciously take me to a place that is magical and unexpected, rather than consciously driving it to a place.
But honestly, much of the work that I have done has had some impact on me. It's something that I have realised only later. I also find it amusing that the memories of actors are so consciously constructed around what happened to that piece of work, in terms of audience reception or box-office results.
I just got an opportunity to do that with a film called 'Lootcase', and it's an opportunity that I am really grateful for.
Salaam Bombay' and 'Monsoon Wedding' are the two Mira Nair films I go back to.
The way you get to explore a city when you are on shoot is so different from when you are there as a tourist.
Sometimes you read the script and you feel that this is a challenging role but at times you feel that this one was written for me.
You can't understand a character intellectually, you have to become one with its emotional core.
