Rasika Duggal on playing a mother in a film that traces Kashmir’s conflict zones
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 12, 2017)

After portraying a young mother in the recently released Tu Hai Mera Sunday, Rasika Dugal will play Ishrat, a Kashmiri mother, in the upcoming drama, Hamid. Directed by adman Aijaz Khan, who has helmed films like The White Elephant and Baankey Ki Crazy Baraat, Hamid talks of Kashmir’s conflict zones through an emotional mother-son journey and an eight-year-old boy’s quest to find his father.

“Aijaz has wanted to work with me for a long time but I almost didn’t do the film because of several delays and lack of time for prep. I get really nervous when a story requires sensitivity,” Rasika told Mirror. But after she wrapped up Nandita Das’s Manto, in which she plays Safiyan, wife to Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s titular character, the actress thought it was ideal to step into another interesting space and signed Hamid, which is produced by Saregama’s Yoodle Films. “I began my homework by reading up and watching documentaries on the life of Kashmir’s ‘Lady of Iron’, Parveen 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. Her 16-year-old son was picked up at 3am in 1990 and she never heard of him since,” Rasika says.

The actress also watched 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. “The documentary is in Kashmiri and I watched it with subtitles. The poem that the film ends with moved me to the core,” the actress adds. She laughs when asked about her rapport with the film’s eight-year-old-protagonist, Kashmiri child actor Talha Reshi, admitting that while celebrities pretend to get along even if they cannot stand each other, children are not a part of “this professional game”. “I was anxious because he was making his debut and if he didn’t like me, there would be nothing I could do! But he’s a bundle of raw talent and we connected well,” she signs off with a smile.