From the idealistic and jaded Neeti Singh in Delhi Crime to the feisty Beena Tripathi in Mirzapur, the resilient Meera in Out Of Love to the understanding Savita in A Suitable Boy, Rasika Dugal has been an essential part of the rise of OTT in India. The actor says she has “developed a lot of respect for the women” in the process of bringing the myriad shades of womanhood to screen.

“When I was growing up, like everybody else around me, a part of me took them (women around her) for granted. Playing these different kinds of roles helped me appreciate and respect whatever the women around me did for me,” says the actor, who was happy to revisit the role of a police officer in the second season of Delhi Crime with new challenges and struggles to balance her work life with personal life.

Talking about the upcoming instalment, she says, “It was a different experience, but a very beautiful one. Neeti’s personal journey resonated with me as it is the story of most working women in our countries.”

And while she enjoyed working on the sequel, Dugal feels, many creators just give into the pressure of revisiting a story after its initial success: “I feel, subsequent seasons often have a very unrealistic timeline. That is something that we should be mindful of, because good content takes time. Interesting creative collaborations requires time.”

Talking about room for improvements in the digital space, the 37-year-old calls for a royalty system to be introduced for actors. “There should be a system of royalties. It might seem bizarre to say at this time in India because nobody’s even having this conversation. But there is really a need to look at that,” she says, adding, “Somebody has to take one step towards it, and envision how to introduce a system, maybe it is something that you have to incorporate in the contracts that we make with actors.”

Another thing she is worried about is the number game seeping in the space. “Even though numbers are more public now than they were earlier, I hope shows are not identified by that. Because then that sort of becomes the driving force, and then it becomes a numbers game,” she ends.