Rasika Dugal is returning to one of her most closely followed characters as Beena Tripathi in Mirzapur The Movie, and the actor believes the character represents a broader change in the way women are written for the screen.
Ahead of the film’s September 4 release, Dugal reflected on what makes Beena such an interesting character to portray. For her, the evolution goes beyond the familiar idea of the “strong female character” and moves toward women being portrayed with contradictions, vulnerabilities and morally complicated choices.
Rasika Dugal on moving beyond the ‘strong woman’ label
Dugal said audiences have long welcomed strong female characters because they represented an important shift from an earlier era when women were frequently written as passive or secondary figures.
But she believes strength should not become another limitation.
“For the longest time, we celebrated the arrival of the ‘strong female character’ because it was a necessary correction to decades of women being written as passive or ornamental,” Dugal said.
According to the actor, women on screen should be allowed the same emotional and moral range that male characters have traditionally been given.
“Real women are contradictory,” she said, pointing to the possibility of a character being vulnerable and strategic, nurturing and ambitious, or compassionate while also making morally difficult decisions.
For Dugal, that contradiction is what makes a character feel human rather than designed around a single personality trait.
Why Beena Tripathi continues to interest her
Beena Tripathi has never fitted neatly into a conventional hero-or-victim framework, and that ambiguity is one of the reasons Dugal remains drawn to the role.
“What drew me to Beena is that she refuses to fit into a neat box,” the actor said.
Dugal described Beena as someone who constantly adjusts to changing circumstances, negotiates power and makes difficult choices in an environment where survival often depends on reading the people around her.
“She’s neither entirely a victim nor a conventional hero,” Dugal said.
That moral uncertainty gives the character room to evolve rather than simply reinforcing the image of a traditionally “strong” woman.
‘Women are allowed to be complicated’
For Dugal, the most meaningful development in female representation is not simply creating women who are powerful.
It is allowing them to have flaws.
“They can be vulnerable one moment and strategic the next,” she said, describing the contradictions that can exist within the same person.
The actor believes this approach gives performers more opportunities to explore silence, insecurity, difficult decisions and uncomfortable truths.
“As an actor, I’m far more excited by characters who have contradictions, silences, insecurities, and uncomfortable truths,” Dugal said.
She added that she hopes the industry continues moving toward a point where women are not expected to represent an ideal on screen and can instead simply be portrayed as human beings.
Revisiting Beena for Mirzapur The Movie
Returning to Beena after the character’s journey through the Mirzapur franchise has been particularly rewarding for Dugal.
She said the writing gives audiences an opportunity to view Beena beyond straightforward moral categories and explore additional dimensions of her personality.
“Revisiting Beena in Mirzapur The Movie has been incredibly rewarding because I feel the writing gives audiences the opportunity to see her beyond binaries,” she said.
For an actor, revisiting an established character can also mean finding new details that were not necessarily visible during the character’s earlier appearances.
In Beena’s case, Dugal’s comments suggest that the film will continue to explore the character through her relationships with power, survival and personal agency.
Mirzapur The Movie brings back familiar faces
Mirzapur The Movie expands the popular crime-drama universe onto the big screen.
The film features the return of Pankaj Tripathi as Kaleen Bhaiya, while Divyendu Sharma reprises his role as Munna Bhaiya. Ali Fazal and Rasika Dugal are also part of the returning cast, alongside other franchise performers.
The film is scheduled to release on September 4.
For viewers who have followed Beena’s journey across the Mirzapur series, Dugal’s latest comments offer an indication of the kind of character exploration she hopes the film will continue: a woman who is neither defined solely by vulnerability nor reduced to the label of a “strong woman,” but allowed to exist in the complicated space between the two.
