EXCLUSIVE | 'Mirzapur' actress Rasika Dugal on her show Shekhar Home: 'My screen time in the show is limited because...'

Rasika Dugal, who’s fresh off the success of Mirzapur 3, is now gearing up for a show called Shekhar Home that will stream on JioCinema. In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, the actress spoke about working with Kay Kay Menon, her prep for the role, and her favoruite murder mysteries.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

How was your, prep for the character like?

I mean, you know, there’s some parts which require you to prep a lot. There are some which don’t. I’d heard something very interesting many years ago, which kind of stayed with me, which was something that, Kate Winslet said about, an actor’s process. You know, she said anything that we do to prepare as actors is to assuage our guilt. Because finally, what you need is your experiences in life. The prep always helps you sort of, be more tuned to finding the magical moments and the time between action and cut, you know, and that’s what really makes or breaks narrative, with the performance.

For this one, I have to say that my screen time was, sort of, intentionally limited because, there’s a certain mystery mystery and intrigue about the character, which is which can only happen if you don’t see so much of her.

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There have been many mysteries inspired by Sherlock Holmes before. What makes the series different? 

I think even though there have been series made before, they’re all they’re all very different from each other if you’ve seen some of them. Because it’s everybody’s own, for example, the Benedict Cumberbatch series is very different from any other Sherlock show that you might have watched growing up. Right? It’s set in the modern world. It has a paciness to it, which is which is interesting, and I really like that show actually. As I said in Bengal and India in the 90s you know, so that’s, that’s, a totally different world. So, automatically, all of, of the environment and the and where it’s placed and the era that it’s placed in completely changes everything.

And therefore, the pace of this show is different. I think the humor of the show is, is quite fun. I really like it because there are all these serious cases being solved, but there’s this camaraderie between and Sheikh, which is, very funny. And, I think both so good with comedy that they’ve done a really good job of sort of finding those moments and really punching them. You know? And, yeah. So I think it has a very interesting sense of humor also.

What can we expect from your chemistry with Kay Kay Menon and Ranvir Shorey?

I totally enjoyed working with them. There’s something about actors who come with so much experience. Like, there’s so many things that I have to try out and then find out that, okay, this is working for me and that’s not. They have so much experience that they already know. Like, you know, they don’t even need to, sort of go through that process because they’ve seen it, done it before, and they know that this is the best choice for this scene in this moment. You know? I would probably come with 5 options to the director and, you know, tell them to sort of, help me find find that, an appropriate choice.

Ranvir, I have done Lootcase with him and known him socially. Kay Kay I have met only on this end. And I’ve just watched so much of his work that I felt like I already knew him. He’s always wanting to get a crack a joke which he gets right. You know? So there’s a method to his jokes, and he’s trying to always crack that. So very interesting to be around him.

Any kind of murder mysteries that or any murder mysteries that you have loved internationally and, like, in Bollywood?

Murder mysteries, not so much, but detective shows, yes. I don’t know if you’re familiar with, Feluda, the detective, character. And, there’s a lovely film which is one of the films that I enjoyed the most in the series called Sonar Kella. I enjoy a lot of spy thrillers also, which is slightly different from detective dramas.

Any similarities that you see in the world of Mirzapur 3 and Shekhar Home?

They’re totally different. I wouldn’t think that those these two experiences are similar in any way. And, we see, like, some of, shots of Kolkata also in the series. Mirzapur has its own brand of humor, which is so memorable, and there’s so much fun around that. But this has a different kind of humor. You’re in a different place. You’re only with the material you’re working with.