EXCLUSIVE Interview! Richa Chadha on Netflix & Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Heeramandi: ‘I studied Meena Kumari for my role…’ | Not Just Bollywood

“Lajjo nai tawaif hoka ishk kaarna ka gunnah kiya.’’ In a candid chat with Firstpost’s Lachmi Deb Roy, Richa Chadha talks about her experience of working with Sanjay Leela Bhansali in Netflix’s Heeramandi  as Lajjo Jaan and how it was a very different role from her previous films.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

 What was the preparation of your role like for _Heeramandi_ ?

As Lajjo Jaan I worked on it very academically. I understood that this part had to leave an impact in some sense and I studied Meena Kumari as a reference character. Not just her on screen personas, but who she was, how her life panned out, her tragedy, her desire for love and poetry. I really immersed myself in it. I had to do a lot of unlearning because it’s a period film. Especially when you are doing a dance sequence, what are the reference songs that you need to look at.

If you are looking at classically accurate dance and song sequences, they are generally from Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s films in Bollywood like Devdas, even Mohe from _Bajirao Mastan_i. I had a great time jamming with Sanjay as the director. The way he advises like he used to ask me to check out a few dancers and how she did it with grace and not vulgarity and to hold a certain look. He was there to advise me on the entire treatment of my character in Heeramandi. It was very interesting for me to work with him. When I went to him for the first few days, he used to tell me whatever you do just stay true to the character you play and stay true to the grief. And he used to tell me, “Show the traits of Meena Kumari in your performance.”

More from Entertainment

'Jugnuma' Movie Review: Manoj Bajpayee-Deepak Dobriyal’s terrific performances stood out in this beautifully restrained way of storytelling 'Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale' Movie Review: The final goodbye of Julian Fellowes’s beloved British soap

The experience of working with him was brilliant because I didn’t know I could be pushed like that.  I really enjoyed the feeling of being alive on the sets. This is a very different role and genre of cinema that I have worked in the past. If you see in Masaan or Gangs of Wasseypur, the setup is very rural and I had to apply very little makeup and those movies are a decimal point of the budget as compared to Bhansali’s Heeramandi.

I have never seen you dancing in films? Did you learn or went through coaching for _Heeramandi_ ?

I learnt dance as a kid from the age of 6 to 16 in the heart of Delhi in Mandi House, which was like the culture hub of Delhi. Then the class ten boards happened and mom had to say, now you got to choose and that’s how I lost touch with dance. And now had the opportunity to dance all over again. The films I did initially never required me to dance. When this offer of Heeramandi came to me, I felt I lost touch and I had to brush it up, but it’s kind of like swimming you can never forget even if you are pushed to the deep end, you will survive.

I have seen a lot of legendary actresses performing Bharat Natyam in the films, whether it is Vyjayanthimala, Asha Parekh, Hema Malini, Waheeda Rehman. But no one really has done Kathak and given it the beauty that Sanjay Leela Bhansali did.

On cinema changing…

I have literally ridden on the back of changing cinema. I have never done a proto type heroine role. Now different types of cinema are coming, but the change is not so overarching that the heroine is nonexistent, but the typical hero who does dishum dishum and saves the girl doesn’t exist. Along with cinema, the audiences have also evolved.