After portraying a young mother in her last film TU HAI MERA SUNDAY, actress Rasika Dugal will now be seen playing Ishrat, a Kashmiri mother in an upcoming drama HAMID produced by SaReGaMa. The film talks of Kashmir’s conflict zones through an emotional mother-son journey and an eight-year-old boy’s quest to find his father.
It was a daunting task for Rasika to play the role of Ishrat in this film. In order to prepare for her role the actress began her homework by reading up and watching documentaries on the life of Kashmir’s ‘Lady of Iron’, Parveena Ahangar, the founder of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 for her pacifism and human rights activism. Rasika was also very influenced by Iffat Fatima’s 26-minute documentary, WHERE HAVE YOU HIDDEN MY NEW MOON CRESCENT, which tells the story of Mughal Masi, who died waiting 20 years for her son to return. Rasika went on researching by going through various petitions, news articles published on the plight of Kashmiri women to locate their husbands and children in the conflict zone.
When asked about her research Rasika revealed, “It's a part of my job as an actor to do research work on the part that I am going to play. That is the most basic thing that I can do. The more important thing is to somehow find a connect with people and situations which are seemingly beyond your own realm of experience. I always find it useful to accept to myself honestly that I will always be an outsider to another person's experience but, at the same time, I am craving to be let in. That leaves me both vulnerable and curious. But at the end of the day, I can only do my work to the best of my knowledge and hope that I have been sensitive to the people whose story we are attempting to tell especially when it's about people who have lived in conflict for so long.”
