Rasika Agashe is an Indian film actress and theatre artist, director, writer, and producer. She works in the Hindi and Marathi entertainment industries. She is well known for her role as jail matron Meena Rane in Netflix’s Hindi crime drama show Scoop (2023). She is the co-founder of the theatre group Being Association.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Rasika Agashe was born on Tuesday, 24 May 1983 (age 41 years; as of 2024) in Pune, Maharashtra. Her zodiac sign is Gemini.
Childhood picture of Rasika Agashe
She did her schooling at SNDT Kanyashala, Pune. Since childhood, she has been passionate about acting. Hailing from a middle-class Marathi family, she grew up watching a lot of theatre. She first took to the stage when she was four. She pursued a degree in Sanskrit at Fergusson College, Pune. [1]The Hindu She spent her college days participating in theatre festivals like Purushottam Karandak, one of the reputed inter-collegiate Marathi one-act play competitions. Before she even graduated, she enrolled in the National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi. [2]Rasika Agashe – Facebook After graduating from NSD, Rasika moved to Mumbai with her husband, Zeeshan.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 3″
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
Parents & Siblings
Not much is known about her parents and siblings.
Childhood picture Rasika Agashe with her father
Husband & Children
On 12 September 2007, Rasika Agashe got married to actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub in New Delhi.
A picture of Rasika Agashe and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub from their wedding day
It is an inter-faith marriage registered under the Special Marriage Act, 1954 as Rasika comes from a Hindu family and Zeeshan is Muslim. [3]The Indian Express The two became friends while attending the National School of Drama. At NSD, Rasika was one year senior to Zeeshan. Together, they have a daughter, Raahi.
Rasika Agashe with her husband, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, and daughter, Raahi
Career
Theatre
Rasika entered the entertainment industry as a theatre artist. In 2010, a year after moving to Mumbai, she was cast in her first commercial Marathi play Popatpanchi. Based on an ancient tale Shukabahattari, the play revolves around a Parrot who entertains a woman, while her husband is away from home. She was associated with theatre groups like Natarang Pratishthan and Shabdaakaar and worked in various commercial Marathi, Hindi, and English plays. In 2017, she played the role of a lecturer named Salma in the play Iss Kambakht Sathe Ka Kya Karein?, alongside her husband, Zeeshan, who played Abhay, a successful ad filmmaker.
Rasika Agashe while performing a play on stage
After appearing in a fair share of commercial plays, she moved her focus to plays based on various socio-political issues. She became a theatre director with Ramu Ramanathan’s ‘Collaborators.’ In 2013, Rasika and Zeeshan founded the theatre group Being Association. Apart from producing plays, the group actively promotes performing arts and education of theatre in India. In 2017, the Being Association launched the initiative Sanhita Manch Theatre Festival to provide a better platform for new writers in the theatre. She directed two plays that came out of the competition Sat Bhashe Raidas (2017) and HarusMarus (2018).
Poster of the play HarusMarus
In 2018, the Being Association became well-known for its play Museum of Species in Danger, a Hindi play inspired by the Nirbhaya case, directed by Rasika. Other plays directed by her include Ek Adpaka Sa Natak, DES, Gandhi And Me, Humaari Amrita, and Sahebji Darling. In 2022, she starred in another prominent play of her career Niketan Sharma’s Photo-Copy in which she played the role of the mother.
Rasika Agashe as the mother and Abhishek Chauhan as the brother in a scene from the play Photo-Copy (2022)
In 2023, she did a solo play called Stand Up with D’ Girls.
Poster of Stand Up with D’ Girls (2023) by Rasika Agashe
Film
In 2016, she made her film debut with the Hindi comedy film BHK [email protected] in which she played the role of Panna Bagga.
Rasika Agashe (left) as Panna Bagga in BHK [email protected] (2016)
In 2017, she played the role of Anupama in the Marathi film 1 Te 4 Band. In the same year, she played the role of Ayurved in the Hindi crime drama film Ajji. In 2018, she appeared in the Hindi social-drama film Mere Pyare Prime Minister, where she played Rabiya.
Rasika Agashe as Rabiya in the film Mere Pyare Prime Minister (2018)
She played the role of Gayatri Jayant in the 2023 Hindi drama film Three of Us.
Web Series
In 2022, she made her digital debut with Amazon Prime’s Hindi series Unpaused: Naya Safar in which she played the role of Gauri Kulkarni.
Poster of Unpaused: Naya Safar (2022)
She played Ms. D’Souza in the Marathi Web Series Pet Puraan (2022) on SonyLIV. She gained recognition for playing the role of a jail matron named Meena Rane in the Hindi crime drama show Scoop (2023), which streamed on Netflix.
Karishma Tanna as Jagruti Pathak and Rasika Agashe as Meena Rane in Scoop (2023)
Awards
- Loksatta Tarun Tejankit Award (2021)
Rasika Agashe posing with the Loksatta Tarun Tejankit Award (2021)
- 2022 Istanbul Film Award (IFA) for Best Debut Director – Feature Film for Ticha Shahar Hona
Favourites
- Actor: Shah Rukh Khan
- Theatre: Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai
- Theatre Director: Anuradha Kapur
- Theatre Artist: Kumud Mishra
- Playwright(s): Vijay Tendulkar, Girish Karnad, Satish Alekar
- Play Character: Mother From A Long Day’s Journey Into Night By Eigene O’ Neill
- Book: I am a Troll by Swati Chaturvedi
- Music Director: Amod Bhatt
- Production Designer: Aashish Mehta
- Set Designer: Robin Das
Facts
- Agashe took up Sanskrit subject in her college because its classes got over in the morning, leaving her with the entire day to do theatre.
- Rasika and her husband, Zeeshan, moved to Mumbai with Rs 40,000, thinking it would be enough. However, they spent all of it on the second day because a broker tricked them into paying three months’ rent upfront.
- She is a non-vegetarian. [4]The Times of India
- In 2020, she joined protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act at the Park Circus Maidan in Kolkata. The act was criticized for being biased and discriminating on the basis of religion, especially against Muslims. During her speech, she read her poem “Main Hindu Hoon, Aur Sharminda Hoon” (I am Hindu and I am ashamed).
Rasika Agashe with anti-CAA protesters at Park Circus Maidan in 2020
- In 2020, Rasika Agashe attracted attention for sharing her baby shower picture on Twitter amid the Tanishq ad row. She was trolled for promoting inter-faith marriage. The Tanishq ad showed a Muslim family organizing a baby shower for their Hindu daughter-in-law. The jewellery brand had to take down its advertisement after receiving heavy criticism for promoting ‘Love Jihad’. [5]India Today
References
