Rasika Dugal on Four Months of Piano for Little Thomas
Rasika Dugal opens up about juggling Mirzapur and Little Thomas, building Jessie Miranda with a Goan accent, a dialect coach and four months of piano.
Rasika Dugal has spent years making Beena Tripathi one of Indian streaming’s most recognisable women—controlled, sharp and shaped by survival. Her next big-screen role asks for almost the opposite. In Little Thomas, she plays Jessie Miranda, a mother in 1990s Goa whose life is built around family, a bakery and music.
The film follows a young boy and his parents, and Dugal has been clear that Jessie is not Beena with a softer wardrobe. The two women think, speak and breathe differently.
Juggling two worlds at once
Dugal worked on Mirzapur and Little Thomas at the same time. Instead of feeling torn, she found the contrast useful. “Surprisingly, I enjoyed juggling a crime action thriller and a dramedy,” she told Bollywood Hungama. “I guess one was a relief from the other.”
The most technical part of the split was vocal. Beena’s character needs a strong North Indian Hindi accent; Jessie needs a Goan accent. Dugal described the constant switch as “the confusing bit but also an interesting challenge.”
Building Jessie from the voice up
She brought in a dialect coach to make sure Jessie’s voice stayed distinct and did not carry traces of Beena. That work mirrored a bigger separation of the two personalities:
- Beena Tripathi: a world of survival, power and revenge.
- Jessie Miranda: a life rooted in family, a bakery and music.
- The prep: four months of piano, working through pieces by Mozart, Schumann and Chopin.
The piano as an entry point
For Dugal, the instrument was not simply a skill to perform on camera. It became a route into Jessie’s emotional life. She said the piano unexpectedly gave her “an entry into a world” she felt she did not know well.
She practised between other commitments, saying she would happily play away between scenes of a horror show. The four-month process allowed her to approach Jessie through warmth and vulnerability, rather than carrying over the intensity that defines Beena.
Why the shift matters
Beena Tripathi remains one of Rasika Dugal’s most recognisable roles. Little Thomas gives audiences a chance to watch her leave that armour behind for a character shaped by family, music and quieter feelings. It is less a reinvention than a reminder of her range.
Source: bollywoodHungama.com
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