Rasika Dugal: It’s a pity that female actors don’t get a chance to explore comedy as much as male actors do
Rasika Dugal, recently seen in the dark comedy Lord Curzon Ki Haveli, talks about how the genre is dominated by men, and the ‘screaming’ nature of social media
Rasika Dugal got to venture into one of her favourite genres, comedy, with her recent release Lord Curzon Ki Haveli. While she enjoyed the experience, she admits that female actors don’t get recognised much in the genre.
“It was very exciting. I hope that this black comedy is one step in the direction of an out-and-out comedy also because I'm very keen to explore that. I don't think female actors get a chance to explore comedy as much as male actors do and that's a pity because women have an inherent sense of humor, otherwise how would we survive in this patriarchal world? We should be given more opportunities to do that,” she says, adding that only two names, Sridevi and Juhi Chawla, come to her mind when it comes to comedy.
Rasika Dugal also adds that today, actors have to deal with a lot of external pressures other than their acting work. “The pressure of the peripheries is on everyone. Everybody's complaining about how they need to be more seen on Instagram and I find that very funny. The world has become like a reality television. It's there in the choices of the leaders we've chosen all over the world also, so it's really like we are living out a reality television show. Everybody sort of feels the cringe of it, but still the need to align with it in some way.”
The actor elaborates, “This is also a good way for people to come together but it's also a very binary and aggressive space where there's a lot of shouting and screaming. It's like ‘I belong to this clan and you belong to this clan, we will fight’. There's no moderation which is something a person like me hates. I hate being in a world which is so polarized about everything and social media sort of cements that. But it's also an access to information in a way. There's some people who create some very interesting things. The kind of humour on the internet is something that I lap up and it is very entertaining. It sort of reinstates my faith in the world.”
