I’M OPINIONATED AND FORTHRIGHT: RICHA

Richa Chadha, who was recently seen in the Sudhir Mishra film Daas Dev, plays four completely different characters in her upcoming films. From a lawyer to a politician, the actor will be seen playing characters that she hasn’t attempted earlier.

Talking about her experience playing a politician in one of these projects, she says, “Politicians are also in the business of perception like movie stars. So, a girl who has draped on a sari may not necessarily want to wear it, but she knows that it will help her cause. Similarly, politicians are often clad in white kurtas to create a spotless and clean impression. This isn’t an intelligent observation, just an obvious one. Also, people who get a kick from power are very different from the rest of us. I just tried to internalise that.”

Does Richa feel that an actor’s off-screen persona influence the film offers they receive? “Sometimes, it is a compliment, and sometimes it is downright annoying,” the actor says. “It’s like asking Gulshan Grover if he is a rapist in real life because he plays a bad man on the screen,” she says, adding about her popular character in the Fukrey films, “Bholi (Punjaban) is uncouth and powerful. I loved playing Bholi because it is such an iconic character. But I have also played different parts such as the one in Masaan (2015), or a helpless part like in Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela (2013) and Sarabjit (2016).”

“Perhaps people have a kink to see foul-mouthed women on screen, and that is why they think that my real life resembles Bholi’s,” a clearly miffed Richa goes on to add.

The Masaan (2015) actor says that her outspoken nature cannot be conflated with the characters she plays in films. “I am opinionated and forthright, but that is me expressing myself as a citizen, which we all should be allowed to do,” she says. I hate the tag ‘bold’ because it is just banal industry nomenclature.”

PHOTO: AMAL KS/HT Richa Chadha says she hates the tag ‘bold’, which she feels is ‘banal industry nomenclature’