Rasika Dugal

“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.”

“I have been offered roles in mainstream films which have not been interesting to me. They have been too insignificant.”

“Over-articulation kills the character because it becomes one thing and that is not how it happens in life and it is not beautiful to watch on screen either.”

“I like people who are particular about what they want.”

“With digital space, the content has become accessible for the audience. So, they feel more connected to you as you are more accessible to them. The kind of adulation actors get today is very different from the kind of adulation you had for a star which came from aspiration rather than relatability.”

“I've been fortunate with the kind of work I've done, in terms of quality. But a lot of work didn't get the kind of release and attention that it deserved. And, I feel little let down by our distribution system.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Infidelity is a fairly common occurrence in society but very often not spoken about.”

“Women often get ignored from main narrative, especially in films.”

“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.”

“Talking about your work all the time and to open up, you have to do all that. I have begun to find my fun in that as well.”

“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.”

“I think we're still struggling to find a way of depicting women that doesn't objectify them.”

“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.”

“I am a serial class taker. I take classes for anything and everything!”

“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.”

“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.”

“I think we still have a long way to go in understanding that feminist and femininity are not opposites.”

“If you are true at telling the story, it will get a good audience, and the required numbers.”