She has made a career out of portraying complex characters, but Indian actress Richa Chadha is happy that finally she is being offered commercial roles.
Fresh from the success of Masaan, the actress is now busy shooting for Pooja Bhatt’s Cabaret.
“It is a great part and I am really happy that I finally got a commercial role in the industry. Earlier, they would shy away from offering me mainstream characters,” she said.
The actress, who started her career with Dibakar Banerjee’s Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, has already touched many hearts with her poignant portrayal of an ambitious small town girl in Masaan, who unwittingly gets caught in a web of corruption.
Chadha said she will continue to play roles that are different despite the stereotyping of such actors.
“I am trying to pick roles that are interesting to me and are different so that I can continue to do good work. I don’t want to be slotted into a particular part. I want to be versatile.
“Right now, my only slot is that I am a good actor or I am an offbeat actor. I can live with that. But I can’t live with the tag that I am good only for specific roles,” she said.
There were reports that Cabaret is based on the actress Helen’s life, but Chadha denied it.
“It’s not [based] on Helen. The rumours started after I was spotted reading a book on Helen. I was reading it generally and people presumed that I am going through it because Cabaret is based on it.”
Chadha is taking special classes to master the dance for the movie, which also stars Gulshan Devaiah.
“The shooting is on. I will begin filming my part after this month as we have only finished the first leg of the shoot. We still have two more to go and now we are going to work on songs. The movie is shaping up well,” she said.
Chadha will be next seen in Sudhir Mishra’s Aur Devdas, where she will play Parvati, a role that has previously been portrayed by actresses such as Suchitra Sen and Aishwarya Rai.
“It’s a different Paru [Parvati] in Sudhir sir’s film. She is more empowered this time,” she said about the movie, which is a political take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s famous novel Devdas.
