EXCLUSIVE: The Married Woman actress Monica Dogra: I was NOT white and had an accent, did not fit in

Monica Dogra has been garnering all the praises as Peeplika in The Married Woman. The actress also featured Ridhi Dogra in the series. In an exclusive chat, we had asked Monica Dogra how difficult it is for a woman especially to choose herself over other things. Answering at length, Monica Dogra revealed how she feels that from childhood, women are never taught to choose themselves as against men. She also opened up on how OTT space has made actors like herself feel that there is a space for them as well, as against before. The Married Woman actress said that because of her brown colour and accent, she felt she did not fit in the conventional definitions of a Bollywood heroine.

Speaking about how the OTT space has opened things for good, Monica Dogra told Bubble, “With OTT, I feel actors like me, I feel like I can go somewhere now and feel like I have space. Whereas before, for me I have always been someone who doesn’t fit in, not for not wanting to. I have an accent, I am not white with an accent, I am brown with an accent, I am not a newcomer, I have done a lot of art films that have been critically successful but not at BO, so In the market of Bollywood, people are like oh she is great but where do we put her. So for me, OTT is like a dream cum true.”

Monica Dogra also opened up on playing roles as a woman and losing ourselves in that. She shared, “We all can relate to what it means to play roles and we somewhere feel to disrupt that momentum and choose ourselves and that is very scary. Because it means in all of these I am, I am a DJ, a daughter, a musician, an actor, a sister, In all of those roles I have played, I have disappointed them by choosing myself at certain stages.”

Monica Dogra explained, “The big difference is choosing yourself is difficult but I feel women aren’t taught to choose themselves. Men are taught to and women aren’t. My earliest memories from childhood are that I was groomed to be a wife, that my ability to partner with a man somehow indicated my worth. That also taught me to something other than who I was to be desirable. It is like women need to be amazing in the kitchen, successful in the workplace, fit, we have to be in all the things to be wanted by someone else and not by yourself. I know most of my friends no matter how radical or woke they might be, experience that. Undoing that is difficult and that’s why you feel guilty.”

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Also Read: The Married Woman REVIEW: Ridhi Dogra and Monica Dogra’s show is radical despite loose ends

Bhavna Agarwal

Assistant Editor at Bollywood Bubble. An ambivert who is currently high on K-dramas and K-Pop. A forever Bollywood fan, who continues to gush over solid stories and characters. Hit me up for a fine conversation over chai.

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