"Shooting for 'Fairy Folk' was an actor's delight," says Rasika Dugal!

Rasika Dugal is one of the most striking faces in the firmament of Indian entertainment and has a checkered career in cinema and on the small screen. Always eager to push boundaries, she now stars in award-winning director Karan Gour's film ‘Fairy Folk’ which will hit Indian screens on March 1. The film has already won wide acclaim at the Sydney Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival, MAMI (Mumbai), and the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, and will now enjoy a theatrical release across Mumbai, Delhi, Goa, Kolkata, and Bengaluru.

Interestingly, this is the first time that Rasika is sharing screen space with her husband Mukul Chadda. The two play a couple caught in a rather surreal situation when a genderless being enters their life and turns it upside down. Rasika says the film that has a large helping of magic realism and explores human relationships from an unusual perspective, also offered her ample freedom to improvise.

She adds, "In fact, it was a lot easier to perform in an improvised film because we shot it linearly. Usually, scripted films are shot non-linearly and you have to be mindful of continuity even though they might be shot weeks/months apart. Very often, you have to work backwards. In Fairy Folk, we knew exactly how things had transpired in the earlier scene so it was an actor’s delight. Improvisations also help you to find interesting ways to understand the keynote of the character you are trying to play!"

She also believes Indie films are a great playground for actors and says , "You can do as many takes as you like without feeling like you are holding up 300 people while you experiment with your craft. It is very freeing. I also feel now I have the time and space to experiment with new cinematic idioms."

About working with spouse Mukul Chadda in the film, Rasika shares, "Mukul and I have worked together as improvisers before this film, so we knew how to jam together. We didn't have to go to the basics or start from scratch. It was great because we already had a working rhythm in place and we could then focus on building on other things.On the flip side, Mukul is usually my sounding board after a long day but in this case, since we were shooting together, we didn't want to burden each other with opinions on what had happened. And we definitely couldn't discuss what our characters ( Ritika or Mohit) were thinking because that would have completely killed all our improvisations!"

'Fairy Folk' is produced collaboratively by Empatheia Films, Annukampa Harsh’s Balawala Cinema, and Timbuktu Films ( backed by actors Nakuul Mehta, Alekh Sangal, and filmmaker Ajay Singh). The background score of the movie is composed by the director himself, who has notable ventures such as ‘Titli,’ ‘Haraamkhor,’ ‘Dear Dad,’ and ‘Agra’ to his credit as a composer.