MUMBAI: Richa Chadha says she has been ‘on fringes of this industry’- ‘Don’t think they understand me, but I don’t care’

MUMBAI: Richa
Chadha is known for her work in films like Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur,
Neeraj Ghaywan’s Masaan, comedy franchise Fukrey and Amazon Prime Video series
Inside Edge.

Actor Richa Chadha says she has consciously tried to
break through the clutter of repetitive work even if it has come at the cost of
taking risks, something that most people in the industry don’t understand.

Richa,
star of films like Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur, Neeraj Ghaywan’s
Masaan, comedy franchise Fukrey, Amazon Prime Video series Inside Edge and this year’s political drama Madam
Chief Minister, has been working in the industry for over a decade.

The actor
said she has navigated its highs and lows by walking on uncharted, creative
territories without trying to “butter” people for work.

“I
have been so on the fringes of this industry here, I don’t think they
understand me. I am always looked at like the awkward smile GIF that exists on
the internet.

“They
feel, ‘Oh, she can say what she wants to, she looks really b***sy, the things
she is saying are empathetic but the way she is saying could seem borderline
rude.’ I struggle with people understanding me. But I don’t care. I can’t
butter anyone up. I have the quality to offer,” Richa told PTI.

The
34-year-old actor said the movies and shows she chose in her career are the
norms in the industry today.

“The
kind of work I have championed all my life, now everyone is doing it. People
made fun of Inside Edge when it came out in 2017. They called me and said it
was a demotion, that my career was over. They were condescending towards the
web series format.”

The actor
said she has tried to shake things up in her career and always attempted to
push the boundary with her work, even if sometimes it hasn’t been accepted with
the same intention she had.

“This
little ecosystem that exists between Bandra and Goregaon, where everyone is
like, ‘Look at my car, look at my reel.’ It’s like, do the same thing, rinse,
repeat. I was just getting bored. If for that reason people don’t understand
me, I don’t care. I still want to do my kind of films.”

She gave
the example of her 2019 courtroom drama “Section 375” — in which a
film director is sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment after a costume designer
accuses him of rape.

Richa
said the film was meant to question the law and not throw women under the bus,
which a section of people had criticised it for.

“I
get attacked for them (my films) left, right and centre. When ‘Section 375’
released, a lot of people felt, ‘Oh this is a film that Bollywood chose to
make.’

“It
was a subversive take, a procedural drama which questioned a law that wasn’t
gender-neutral. It wasn’t talking about how women’s characters are at fault.
These things happen a lot.”

Richa
currently stars in the Voot Select thriller series Candy, alongside Ronit
Boseroy.

The actor
came on board the series, which features her as a police officer, after meeting
the creators Agrim Joshi and Debojit Das Purkayastha.

She was
fascinated by how the makers used the backdrop of murder mystery and loaded it
with subtexts about parenting and father figures.

“It
is set in this misty, small hill station and has this eeriness attached to it
which reminded me of the horror stories I grew up reading. It is a world in
which you don’t know whether the crime that has been committed has been done by
a creature, a presence or a person. It is a dense, layered plot.”

For
Richa, the Ashish R Shukla-directorial aligned with the kind of work she was
keen on doing.

The actor
said she is at a stage in her career today where she is saying no to projects a
lot more than yes.

“Earlier,
I have taken chances with newer directors, people I didn’t meet… It was like
diving head first into a shallow pool and cracking my skull open with all the
stress. I am not doing that today. I am not going to die of poverty, I want to
be creatively happy,” she added.

Richa
revealed that after the trailer of Candy was unveiled, she was offered five
more cop roles.

“I
am consciously saying no to that money, those offers. I don’t want to be that
actor who thinks, ‘I have dates in October, let me fill it up.’ I am currently
writing a script, getting into film production and have no intention of
stifling my creative growth.

“I
want to focus on quality. It is a conscious decision. It has made my life
sorted,” she added.