It's Winters Already, But We Forgot To Tell Richa Chadda

Yes, the shoot is weather inappropriate. But are you really complaining?

By Kabeer Sharma · Dec 2014 · 7 min read

It's Winters Already, But We Forgot To Tell Richa Chadda

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Last time we spoke to Richa Chadda, she promised us her next FHM shoot will be in all black leather and may or may not involve whips. That was a year and a half ago. Ask her what happened and with one deft forehand she places the ball smack bang in the middle of our court. “Even I want to know what happened, I came here expecting whips and leather – what happened?”

“I was in Mexico partying so I had no clue what clothes you guys were getting for the shoot.”

Read FHM India in the digital libraryEvery issue, every shoot, on TCG Media.

So does it mean you have missed out on the first ever FHM BDSM cover because of the laziness of this team? Not by a long shot. Miss Chadda apart from yelling “Chadda in Chaddi” every time she walks out of the bedroom for a shot is still a little bit of a gas bag – ‘all talk’ as she told us in June 2013. “Its gotten better though – I was very apprehensive and got scared off by the clothes and the references and the nudity but I think I’ve grown more comfortable in my own skin now.”

Ask her to define more comfortable and she laughs, “I’m still not okay with nudity, maybe some day,” she winks.

The great thing about Miss Chadda apart from the fact that she is as Punjabi as her last name (barring her general aversion to non vegetarian food) is that she is as unassuming as they come. She’ll give you a warm hug when she meets you as if she’s meeting an old friend who she hasn’t seen for a while. There’s no fuss, no tantrums, no demands for a particular sort of salad with a peculiar dressing from a hotel 3 hours away.

But even then, the last year and a half has been a quiet one for her – she’s had two movies out since Gangs of Wasseypur – Ramleela and Tamanchey – a movie from three years ago – a movie which she rather matter of factly terms a ‘dud’. Behind the scenes however things couldn’t be further from the truth – she’s signed on as many as eight movies – all of which she is in the various stages of completing. She’s travelled to Mexico for a film fest to promote a Mira Nair movie in which she plays an “Uppity, nose up in the air bitch” . She’s lived in New York watching plays with Denzel Washington in them, and come back to India to do a play which besides her, also features Kalki Koechlin.

A couple of minutes later, she’s put her “life on the line for FHM” shooting on a sea facing balcony which is more a ledge than a balcony and littered with oversized stones that she has to stumble over in order to get there. By then a small curious crowd has gathered underneath on the Juhu Beach wanting to know just what’s happening on the balcony. Instead of getting scandalized and rushing inside to get her robe on, she just smiles, takes a break and waves – “Hello”, “Say hello to your mummy.” She enjoys scandalizing people.

After this, she insists on opening the door when room service arrives with the lunch order in her dungarees and strapless bra. “There will be a fight downstairs in the kitchen on who gets to deliver the order here,” she laughs.

She enjoys this, a little bit of scandalizing, yet at the same time she isn’t a hollow head who’d do all of this for attention or the ‘Uppity, nose up in the air’ person she is playing in a couple of movies now. So what is she really like? She laughs. “That’s the fun when people expect me to be a certain way and then to surprise them. People assume that I don’t speak English or that I will show up for an event in a FabIndia creature. They sometimes think I am a banal creature who drinks herself to death every night – guess what – I’m not.”

We ask her if her FHM shoots then deliver a greater shock to people – thanks in part to a woman not considered ‘Urban Sexy’ suddenly appearing in a bikini. “If it’s a shock, they didn’t see me in Delhi playing basketball in a short short-skirt or roaming around Bombay wearing a deep neck top while looking for work. If I want to wear a kurta I will wear it. If people think I ought to wear something it’s their problem – I don’t get why people get offended – it’s not like they’re politicians!”

Is there any aspect of angst hidden there? Does it annoy her that at an event even if people are greeting her, they talk to her in Hindi telling her they enjoyed her work while they talk to others in English? “And they talk to me especially slowly, as if I have comprehension issues, its hilarious.” We’re sure, in a world as fickle as Indian cinema, it would get to her but it doesn’t, even if it does she isn’t telling.

We ask her how 2014 has been for her – did she love it to bits or does she want to throw it down the pot and flush twice? A bit of both actually. She spent the first part of 2014 reading trash scripts. How Trashy? “Someone after Fukrey actually called me to say ‘Madam there is a script with a lot of abuses, you will love it. Can you believe it, that was the pitch for a movie?” The rest of the year though she got some scripts that worked for her.

Ask her if she only wants to do hard-hitting, gutsy cinema that makes you think and she dismisses it. She wants to do artsy cinema as much as she wants emerge out of the sea in a bikini in slow motion. “I might do the second sooner than you think…watch this space.”

And what about nudity in movies? The bit she says she will be okay with if the right thing comes along? “Sure why not, it might happen soon – not too long ago we were showing moving flowers for a kiss and look at it now. Remember they had to change the words for Sexy, Sexy, Sexy to Baby, Baby, Baby and now I am getting scripts with the name Sexy in them – so things have changed. People have matured enough to take it. Its not like when you have a bath, you wont look at a naked body – its just a body at the end of the day.”

Still skeptical we press further. “Have you seen Reader?” “Of course you have,” she laughs answering her own question. “Has anyone said anything about the number of times Kate Winslet dropped her top? Its only a matter of portrayal.”

Some time later the conversation has shifted to food, thanks in part to the chicken Khao Suay that has arrived for lunch, she doesn’t eat non-veg. Not even fish. She has ethical issues, and even tried turning vegan for a bit. So much so that she has even done a campaign for PETA against eating fish.

Fish? But isn’t the larger debate against land animals, citing the methane in their farts adding to global warming? She laughs again, she doesn’t care, she believes all animals should be equal and man has no business being at the top of the pyramid.

“When is this issue out? I want to show it to my father and tell him that now that such pictures of me are out, I cant get married for the next two years. So when is the next one? She says laughing. We tell her it’ll be as soon as she gets okay with nudity. She laughs and reminds us “don’t forget the whip next time.”

Richa Chadda’s 2014 round up

News

Achchey din aaney waaley hain and the realization that its always in the tomorrow.

Movies

Queen – loved it. I have said it many times. How a small movie with a good script could do it. I am jealous I didn’t get to work in it.

Firangi Movies

Interstellar – was a little overrated. There are so many documentaries around it. Déjà vu with Denzel Washington is a better movie and so is What The Bleep Do We Know.

Music

Happy got popular. Its annoying but it shows how badly the world needs happiness. I listened to ATM JAM this year.

Food

Malaysian Spring Rolls – It has to be done correctly.

Sports

I was just annoyed that people were calling Sania Mirza Pakistani.

Running

I like running but that doesn’t qualify. I ran in Sweden, Lucknow, Allahbad, everywhere

Travel

New York – it makes you feel the vibe. It’s so funny that it’s less safe than even Delhi.

Actor

Same as last year – Clive Owen – the mention of his name makes me blush – so manly but interesting

TV Shows

Zindagi – love it. People speak clean hindi. Amazing to find people of all kinds. Its amazing to see women wake up and a wedding that ends in half an episode.