Rasika Dugal On 'Adhura': Taking On This Project, I Was Literally Confronting My Fears

Rasika Dugal, Ishwak Singh starrer 'Adhura' premiered on Amazon Prime Video on July 7, 2023. It's a horror thriller, a genre which both Ishwak and Rasika never explored before. The 7-episode series has twists, turns, and scary scenes but it's more than that. In Rasika's words, 'there is an underline theme of what seems is not what it is'. In an interview with Outlook, Rasika opened up on why she said 'yes' to the project despite being not a fan of the genre. 

She said that the novelty of the new genre was attractive and added, "I think last year was full of experimentation with new genres for me. So, this was one on that list. I am very very spooked and I don't watch horror films. The last horror film I watched was when I was 10-year-old. Taking on this project, I was literally confronting my fears. So, that was one of the reasons. And also the story holds its own even if you take away the jump scares, or even if you take away the thriller for surprise or the twist in the end, that's the mark of good writing. It's beautifully written and I think Ananya (Banerjee) has very cleverly and sensitively used the supernatural as a tool to say something about the society we live in and something about reality and that was a very moving story. I am sure horror lovers will be thrilled with the horror tropes but even people who are not avid watchers of this genre will be connected with the characters and the story. So, that was also one of the reasons to take this".

The 'Mirzapur' actress also said, "There is an underline theme of what seems is not what it is. With everybody dealing with their own demons, everybody is struggling to resolve and come to terms with some unresolved grief. That I think you will see through all the characters in the show and that for me is the emotional tug of the show."

A role or a character leaves an impact on an actor's psyche consciously or unconsciously. When asked if 'Adhura' had left any such impact, Dugal said, "This is always a tough question to answer with every project. Because as an actor when you associate with any project, the attempt is always that it should affect you in some way...what you experience while shooting should be like an experience in your life that it should move you and therefore it should remain with you and it should be like it has almost happened to you. But the beauty of it is that it also has to be so so lived that you can't be conscious of how exactly it transforms you or how exactly it affects you. And similarly, every time you finish a role, it's exactly difficult to quantify how much or exactly be able to articulate how you have been affected. These experiences are beautiful because they are intangible and so it's very difficult to say what of it remains with me or how it affected me later. But everything that you experience on shoot does stay with you."