As 'Delhi Crime' returns for Season 3, Rasika Dugal talks about working hours and the women she plays

When asked about the ongoing debate around working hours in the film industry, Rasika Dugal is clear. "There has to be some structure. In the absence of one, the powerful win and the person who is lower in the hierarchy continues to get exploited." Long, unpredictable days come with the job, she says, but without any framework, those with the least bargaining power end up paying the price.

It’s the same clarity she brings to the women she plays on screen. As she returns to Neeti Singh in Delhi Crime and Beena Tripathi in Mirzapur: The Movie, Dugal is revisiting two characters that sit on opposite ends of the emotional and moral compass.

Stepping back into Delhi Crime, she says, feels unusually personal. "Coming back to Delhi Crime is a homecoming for me," she says. "I am often surprised by my own emotional attachment to the show… But this show draws me in in a very special way." She has shadowed a police officer since the first season, something that has shaped both her understanding of the force and of Neeti herself. "It has been a beautiful journey to experience Neeti Singh’s growth through these seven years… alongside my own and of the police officer I follow."

Beena Tripathi, meanwhile, brings out a completely different rhythm. Playing her in a feature-length format came with relief. "We had more time to shoot! And it was a joy!" she says. "When we shoot for the series, we are always so strapped for time… In the film, we have some breathing space."

Also Read: SS Rajamouli reveals ‘Varanasi’, a 2027 IMAX film linking time travel, mythology and Mahesh Babu

Beena lets her access a side she doesn’t naturally inhabit. "Beena is everything I am not," she says. "I have always admired women who own the space they walk into, who wear their sexuality on their sleeve unapologetically. I often feel I live vicariously through Beena." Neeti, in contrast, reconnects her with an old part of herself. "Neeti reminded me of a facet of myself that I was beginning to forget — the person I probably was in my college days, brimming with idealism and wanting to change the world."

Streaming, Dugal notes, has opened up space for these layered women. "Streaming platforms have finally given writing the attention it needed," she says. "With good writing, there are thankfully far more nuanced roles for women." The long-form format, she adds, makes storytelling more democratic. "Scripts are now exploring and celebrating femininity and having a female protagonist helming a show/film is no longer just an act of tokenism."

But she also sounds a note of caution. "We have just begun to scratch the surface of the plethora of things that women can be," she says. "Sometimes, even the most well-written and well-meaning scripts end up with sexualised images or perpetuating a stereotype rather than breaking it."

Her hopes for the future span genres and eras. "I hope I get to be Amrita Pritam in a biopic about her. I hope there is a spin-off on Beena Tripathi. And I hope I get to play a central part in a comedy."

Also Read: Keerthy Suresh appointed UNICEF India Celebrity Advocate to champion children's rights