Rasika Agashe

Some Lesser Known Facts About Rasika Agashe

• Growing up in a middle-class Marathi family, she developed a passion for acting by watching a lot of theatre.

• Rasika started acting on stage when she was just four years old.

  

• Agashe chose to study Sanskrit in college because its classes ended in the morning, giving her the whole day for theatre.

• In college, she took part in theatre festivals like Purushottam Karandak, a well-known Marathi one-act play competition.

• Before finishing college, she joined the National School of Drama (NSD) in New Delhi.

• At NSD, she became friends with Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, who was one-year junior to her.

• Rasika and Zeeshan got married at the age of 24, right after Zeeshan graduated from NSD.

• Thereafter, the two moved to Mumbai for better acting opportunities.

• In an interview, Rasika and Zeeshan revealed that they moved to Mumbai with Rs 40,000, thinking it would be enough to kickstart their careers in the city. However, they spent all of it on the second day because a broker tricked them into paying three months’ rent upfront.

• Rasika started her career as a theatre artist.

• In 2010, she was cast in her first commercial Marathi play Popatpanchi. Based on the ancient tale of Shukabahattari, the play is about a parrot who keeps a woman entertained while her husband is away.

• She was part of theatre groups like Natarang Pratishthan and Shabdaakaar, and she acted in many Marathi, Hindi, and English plays.

• In 2011, she started her journey as a theatre director with Collaborators by Ramu Ramanathan.

  

• In 2013, Rasika and Zeeshan started the theatre group Being Association. Besides staging plays, the group actively promotes performing arts and education of theatre in India.

• In 2017, she played the role of a lecturer named Salma in the play “Iss Kambakht Sathe Ka Kya Karein?” Her husband, Zeeshan, also appeared in the play as Abhay, a successful ad filmmaker.

  

• In 2017, the Being Association launched the Sanhita Manch Theatre Festival to give new writers in theatre a better platform. She directed two plays from the festival, Sat Bhashe Raidas (2017) and HarusMarus (2018).

• In the same year, she played the role of Anupama in the Marathi film 1 Te 4 Band and Ayurved in the Hindi crime drama film Ajji.

• In 2018, she appeared in the Hindi social-drama film Mere Pyare Prime Minister in which she played the role of Rabiya.

• In 2018, the Being Association gained popularity with its play Museum of Species in Danger, a Hindi play inspired by the Nirbhaya case, which was directed by Rasika.

  

• She has directed various Hindi and Marathi plays like Ek Adpaka Sa Natak, DES, Gandhi And Me, Humaari Amrita, and Sahebji Darling.

• In 2020, she made headlines amid the Tanishq Ad Row. The jewellery brand was caught in a controversy for showing a Hindu-Muslim marriage in its advertisement. The event prompted Rasika to share a photo from her godh bharai (baby shower ceremony) on her Twitter handle to educate the Netizens about the Special Marriage Act, 1954. Following her tweet, she was heavily trolled for promoting ‘Love Jihad.’ ^[4]India Today

• In 2020, she participated in protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act at the Park Circus Maidan in Kolkata. The act was criticized for being biased and discriminating based on religion, especially against Muslims. During her speech, she read her poem “Main Hindu Hoon, Aur Sharminda Hoon” (I am Hindu and I am ashamed).

  

• In 2022, she appeared in the Marathi comedy-drama film BhauBali.

  

• In the same year, she starred in the play Photo-Copy by Niketan Sharma, where she played the mother’s role.

  

• In 2023, she performed a solo play titled Stand Up with D’ Girls.

  

• She appeared in the Marathi web series Pet Puraan as Ms D’Souza on SonyLIV.

• She became well-known for her role as jail matron Meena Rane in the Hindi crime drama show Scoop (2023) on Netflix.

  

• She played the role of Gayatri Jayant in the 2023 Hindi drama film Three of Us.