Almost nine years after Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela, Richa Chadha is excited for the audience to watch her onscreen reunion with Sanjay Leela Bhansali. In Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazar, she plays a nautch girl, who she has also described as ‘the female version of Devdas’.
Unlike the other empowering roles that she has been taking on over the years, her Lajjojaan in Heeramandi is vulnerable and may even be dubbed as a woman with no self-worth. In an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha, Richa reveals that it was rather refreshing for her to play an emotionally meek and fragile woman in the historical drama series.
“I’m often accused of essaying characters that are far too empowered, feisty, outspoken and bold. As an actor, I also get bored playing such parts and the same goes for the audience. I always like to thumb my nose at convention and puzzle the audience also a little bit because they expect differently,” says Richa, who redefined gender norms with her portrayal of the fiery Bholi Punjaban in the Fukrey series.
The 37-year-old star believes that she didn’t belittle her character for being at the mercy of a powerful man. “I doubt that a ton of people after they’re trafficked at the age of six and then made to grow up inside a gilded cage would have a lot of self-worth to begin with because their life is deemed unimportant by society. We cannot judge a character, say in the 1920s, with the standards of feminism we’ve today because then everything will fall flat,” she explains.
However, the one thread connecting her with her character in Heeramandi is the fact that they both are ‘passionate’ lovers. Talking about how in her personal life, it got strengthened by her husband Ali Fazal’s ‘loving’ nature, she tells us, “I love fiercely but it will never be one-sided. I wouldn’t waste my time on that. I wouldn’t even waste my time wanting a marriage if I didn’t have a partner as loving, understanding and easy on the eyes as I do. I would never take to the bottle. I do love passionately and like a tigress but it has to be reciprocated.”
Richa goes on to confess that she has, in fact, never had any qualms about playing imperfect characters as they make for ‘the most interesting characters onscreen’ and that ‘there are all kinds of people in the world’. “It’s wrong to expect an actor to just be super-respecting and have a ton of worth because that’s tantamount to judging the character. One could argue that a person who’s playing a mafia don has such little self-respect that they continue to be on the wrong side of the law and eventually get killed for it. So, I don’t judge my characters,” she states.
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