Richa Chadha has come a long way in showbiz. The actress has proved her mettle with many commercial and content-driven films and is currently basking in the success of her recently released film Fukrey 3. Amid all the laurels coming in, the actor sat down for an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha recently and looked back at her journey so far in the industry. She confessed she regrets doing a few films now. Richa also opened up about working on sets where she was made to feel insecure.
The actress, who will soon be seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s much-awaited Heeramandi, will be sharing screen with Manisha Koirala, and Aditi Rao Hydari, among others. When we asked if actresses become insecure about each other while doing a project, the actress said it ‘completely depends on the person.’ The actress shared that she had a really great time working in Heeramandi and working with them.
“If you are an insecure person, it’s not about being a male or female. I have worked on films in which the hero is competing with me, even though we are different genders. And we are doing different things and we own different spaces. So I would say, among all, I had a really great time working on Heeramandi,” she said.
“There are people who are a little bit cagey insecure, and very obsessed with how they look. And they want to do damaging things such as they’ll forget the line when you are in flow, they’ll forget to give you the cue, they will block your light. It’s very 90s, very tacky behavior. So once I identify people like that, I make sure not to work with them,” Richa added.
When asked if she was picky about her films and projects, Richa shared that as someone who’s been selective since the start, she still regrets doing certain films. Without taking names, the actress shared there are five to six films that she cringes about.
“I have been pretty choosy since the start. But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t made mistakes. There are films that, when I look at my filmography, I cringe and regret. I was like, why did I do this you know, but at that time, when you receive a script, you don’t know that is going to be a bad one that is going to be badly executed,” Richa confessed.
“You’re giving it your all thinking, this is the best thing. You know, this is the best audio to tell. So there are regrettable decisions. However, now that we are producing also, I think they will be at a minimum because I’ve realized that working in a toxic environment or working on a bad film, or working on a film, which you know, is now going down south, you have to really detach yourself. So yeah, so I’m kind of in that space now,” she explained, before adding, “There’s at least five or six in there. We have no point talking about all those. The directors will get sent and send me messages. The truth is, it was really bad. The films are really bad.”
Although she has done films that she regrets, Richa clarified that she has not done any film just for money. “Not so far. But the truth is, at the beginning of your career, you don’t get paid a ton anyway. So how can you say you are ready for money, but that’s the worst thing? You’re doing a bad film also. You want it to be a good film, but you’re the only one who’s interested in making it something and then it turns out to be really….[not worth it]. So now I don’t waste my time on things like that.”
Back in 2016, Richa opened up about the ‘male gaze’ in Bollywood, and said that actresses are in certain films merely for the glam quotient. Seven years on, Richa said that there is a change but it is at a snail’s pace. “Not in the commercial space, not in the hardcore big film, dance number items, song space. I don’t think so. The changes are slow. And they are mostly in the OTT space, I would say.”
The Fukrey 3 star admitted that there have been times when she was made to feel ‘less’ because she was a woman. “I was working with a female who did this to me. So this is why like, when it comes to gender, I just feel like women can be as sexist as men. And men can be as feminist as women. It has nothing to do with gender, actually. It’s not automatic, that if you have a vagina you will automatically be a feminist, you know? So I’ve worked on toxic sets with toxic women, toxic co-stars, female actresses, producers, and directors, and they’re nowhere today, because it doesn’t get you anywhere.”
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