Rasika Dugal on ‘Saanson Ki Mala’ Becoming Beena Tripathi’s Anthem: “It’s Beautiful to See a Song That Has Lived for Generations Find a New Context”!

There are some songs that never really leave the cultural consciousness, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s “Saanson Ki Mala” is undeniably one of them. Decades after becoming a cult classic, the iconic qawwali has found a striking new context in Mirzapur: The Movie, becoming almost synonymous with one of the film’s most talked-about moments and Beena Tripathi’s character.

The song plays over a pivotal sequence involving Beena Tripathi, creating a poignant contrast between the lyrics of eternal love and the high drama unfolding on screen. The moment has since taken on a life of its own across social media, with fans sharing clips, memes, edits, and reactions to the sequence, further cementing “Saanson Ki Mala” as an unlikely anthem for Beena.

For Rasika Dugal, who has portrayed Beena throughout the Mirzapur universe, seeing the song resonate so strongly with audiences has been particularly special.

“It’s really special that the song has been around for generations and people have had such a deep relationship with it. And now, to see it find a completely new context through Beena, and to see people reacting to it, making content, sharing their own takes on the dialogue while simultaneously rediscovering the music is wonderful. It reinforces how timeless the song really is,” she says.

The choice of “Saanson Ki Mala” is particularly significant to Beena’s arc. The song, with its themes of devotion, longing, and an enduring connection, gives the character’s emotional journey an unexpected poetic dimension.

“For Beena, the song is not just playing in the background—it almost becomes a part of her emotional world in that moment. There is so much history in that moment and there is so much that she cannot say. The song says things that she herself doesn’t. That’s what makes the sequence so powerful for me,” Dugal adds.

For Rasika, the audience response has added another dimension to the scene. “It’s lovely when something you’ve been a part of creating takes on a life of its own and becomes a part of people’s conversations and imagination. Experiencing the reactions to the scene in theatres has been so special, and then seeing it travel beyond the film through the song is a new experience for me.”

Ultimately, it marks a fitting new chapter for “Saanson Ki Mala”: a song that has lived across generations, now finding a fresh legacy through Beena and the world of Mirzapur.

By Keerti Kadam