Even as Lord Curzon Ki Haveli arrives in cinemas today, actor Rasika Dugal is aware that such independent films rarely find a wide release. It’s a reality she has come to terms with. “The hope that independent films will see a wide theatrical release has unfortunately become a thing of the past. A few years ago, smaller films were finding some space in multiplexes. Now, with the dominance of large-scale movies, that hope has dimmed,” she states matter-of-factly.

That, however, won’t take away from Dugal’s love for them. The actor says that movies like Lord Curzon Ki Haveli — that is set in a single location, and stars Arjun Mathur, Tanmay Dhanania, Paresh Pahuja, Zoha Rahman, and her — keep her grounded as an artiste. “There’s an honesty to working on such a film. You don’t have the safety net of scale; it’s just you, your co-actors, and the director’s vision,” she says, before revealing that reuniting with Mathur after Made in Heaven was another incentive.