For actress Rasika Dugal, the theatrical release of her indie film Fairy Folk on March 1 is a special event. The film directed by Karan Gour also stars her husband, actor Mukul Chadda, and is an improvised piece of work. Rasika spoke to The Telegraph Online about Fairy Folk and her upcoming projects.

Fairy Folk is your first film collaboration with your husband Mukul Chadda and it’s an improvised film. What was the process like?

Rasika Dugal: We had acted in a short film, Banana Bread, which was shot during the lockdown but since Fairy Folk was shot before that, so this is our first long-form content. We have done live performances with Improv Comedy Mumbai. We have done ads too.

In Folk Fairy, our collaboration was lovely. Since we have worked as improvisers, we have a working rhythm in place. We didn’t have to start from scratch. We already knew, and it saved time and helped the collaboration to take off instantly.

Unlike what people think about improv, it isn’t that people get up and start performing. It’s like playing a sport. You don’t play the game every day that you play on the final day, but you practise with a certain set of rules. You must have a rhythm with your fellow players and know your strengths and weaknesses. It’s like a team sport, so we could build on other things. But the flip side is Mukul is like my soundboard. I come home and tell him everything about what happened, what worked and what didn’t. In this one, I couldn’t as I didn’t want my thoughts to affect him.

What, according to you, is the most fascinating part of Fairy Folk?

Rasika Dugal: I have worked with Karan Gour before (in Kshay), so I know he is a maverick. He does everything for his films. He edits, he does the sound design, the music… he is extremely talented. He likes to work alone, work on his own and do everything. That manner of working is very fascinating. He is extremely intelligent.

He came one afternoon to talk about Fairy Folk. I told him that I didn’t have the bandwidth as I was into so many projects. Also, because I won’t have the kind of support I have to double as a makeup person and I may not have a place to sit on the sets. Since it would be very exhausting but exciting, I didn’t know whether I could do the film. Karan had a rough idea of every scene, but he didn’t know how it would transpire. He wanted improvisation. He had a structure. He narrated it and took us through the scenes. Around page 19 or 20, I said yes to the film because I realised it’s unique and a very clever take on love, compatibility, relationships, loneliness, marriage, gender identity and living in a city. I must tell you that when I watched Fairy Folk, it exceeded my expectations.

Tell us about your experience of reuniting with director Karan Gour.

Rasika Dugal: With Karan, I have a friendly and comfortable relationship. We started our careers around the same time. We can always call each other out. There’s no second-guessing if I want him to do anything. It’s a healthy, professional relationship. Even if we have a bad day, we know we will recover from it quickly, which is very beautiful. The candour and the uninhibitedness led to good filming.

Fairy Folk travelled to a lot of film festivals across the world. Did you get a chance to see the reaction of the audience after the screenings?

Rasika Dugal: Unfortunately, I couldn’t travel to any festival with the film. My husband Mukul (Chadda) did. I was shooting, so I couldn’t but the first time I had ever travelled to any film festival was with Karan Gour’s other film, Kshay. I remember we got international reviews and it was all favourable. It was very encouraging for my journey as an actor. When I didn’t have much work, I used to look back at those reviews as motivation. Film festivals are great avenues for a credible and involved audience.

Since it is not easy to release indie films in theatres, how did you feel when you knew that Fairy Folk would release theatrically?

Rasika Dugal: Indie films always have a hard journey. I found it out since the time I started working, as my first few films were independent. Kshay was released under the PVR Director’s Rare initiative. Distribution of indie films is always a bottleneck and therefore the access to the audience.

I am thrilled that Fairy Folk is releasing theatrically. I hope the audience will go and watch it because the biggest compliment is when people go and watch a film, whatever they think of it is inconsequential. If they watch it, it is like a personal victory. So, when Karan said that it’s being released in the theatres, we were happy that he had managed to pull it off.

Besides the big budget films of last year, a relatively small film, 12th Fail, found an audience. If not in the theatres, people watched it in the streaming space…

Rasika Dugal: A lot of people went to watch 12th Fail. It was a big motivation to see the success of the film. It’s so beautifully made and performed. It’s inspiring and it proves that our audience will watch good cinema.

When will Fairy Folk start streaming?

Rasika Dugal: We hope to have Fairy Folk in the streaming space but we have no concrete news yet.

After having done varied projects, how do you choose roles now?

Rasika Dugal: I think my answer changes very often because I feel so different every day. As actors, we get inspired by small things. I think the few things I look at are that a role should ask a lot of me, like learning a new skill or going to a space I haven’t gone before. Then a director who’s obsessed with his script because it’s fun to work with directors who can’t think of anything beyond the film around that time. I love that kind of commitment and involvement. I love to see that in a director. I love to work with that energy. And I want to work with actors who believe that every moment in a film is an exchange and not just one person doing it.

We can’t let you go without asking about Mirzapur Season 3…

Rasika Dugal: (Smiles) I don’t know about its release date but it’s coming this year. I thank the loyal and committed fans for hanging around for so long and it’s worth the wait.

There are too many Indian web shows that are quickly coming up with subsequent seasons at the cost of the content. What’s your observation?

Rasika Dugal: There will always be good and bad in every growing space. What is good and what is bad is also very subjective. The audience desires different things at different times. It is the sign of a healthy, competitive space. The OTT space has something for everyone. If it has room for interesting content, there will always be things that will not meet somebody’s standard or are mediocre or average. It’s not possible to have a high standard in everything. If there’s space for good, I am happy.

You must be having a lot of upcoming projects…

Rasika Dugal: A lot! I have seven-eight upcoming projects, with Mirzapur Season 3 being the next after Fairy Folk. There are more indie films. I have Lord Curzon Ki Haveli with Arjun Mathur, and then Spike, a sports drama series. I am looking forward to a new role in Applause Entertainment’s new series. I have a film called Little Thomas with Gulshan Devaiah, and another film, which I am not allowed to speak about. I have also shot a series, Sekhar Home, with Kay Kay Menon and Ranbir Shorey. Hopefully, the audience will be as loyal as they have always been.