An Interview With Oye Lucky Lucky Oye’s Dolly – Richa Chadda
Script deadline panic is on my brain as I write this, but I felt like doing whatever little I could to promote a good movie. This is a conversation and dinner with Oye Lucky Lucky Oye’s Richa Chadda, who’s impressed everyone with her performance as Dolly. I was also the cook for the night at Richa and Radhika’s place, but I’ll come to that later. Apne PFC ke Vasan and Thani were also there for dinner.
And that reminds me, there is absolutely no objectivity in my interview because Richa’s a friend who’s done a great job in her first film and I’d like to introduce a worthy actress like her to a wider public. (Can’t remember now who it was, but someone had commented on PFC about non-actresses, “Why is it that Ms X and Ms Y and Ms Z and 27 other girls keep getting work again and again?” My thoughts exactly. At least we have someone like Richa now.)
Richa’s a Delhi girl who’s done her schooling at Sardar Patel Vidyalay, graduation in History at St Stephen’s, and a PG Diploma in Social Communications & Media from Sofia Polytechnic. She’s trained in acting under Barry John.
Here’s a distillation of the highly informal post-dinner Q&A session, which I noted down on recycled paper, ‘cause one of the things she wants to do in life apart from having a successful film career is to set up an NGO which would towards preserving the eco-system and promote practices like rainwater harvesting.
Favourite actresses and their performances
Meryl Streep: Out of Africa, Sophie’s Choice, The Devil Wears Prada
Madhuri Dixit, because of her range. From Mrityudand to Choli Ke Peechhe.
Dream roles (Kaash maine yeh role kiya hota)
Chanda in Dev D. (She’d auditioned for the part but it didn’t work out.)
Bandit Queen
Geet in Jab We Met
Roja
Ayesha Dharkar’s Terrorist
Natalie Portman in Closer
Pretty Woman
Meryl Streep in Out of Africa
Jane Fonda in Klute
Anthony Perkins in Psycho. (Norman Batesini / Norman Beti would have to be the name)
Richa also listed Surekha Sikri, Anita Kanwar, Seema Biswas and Kitu Gidwani among her favourites. Among current mainstream actresses, she likes Kangana Ranaut.
Somewhere around this point, Richa had to attend to a phone call and our Thani saab wanted to go to the loo. Now, Richa and Radhika’s bathroom happens to be almost like a secret passage behind a whole row of cupboards and mirrors. So when Thani came back, he reported that he’d opened all the freakin’ wrong doors and seen things which a gentleman like me would rather not name on a family blog like PFC. (To quote the censor board, it wouldn’t be ‘healthy entertainment.’ Ha ha ha.) (PFC – A family blog?!? Ha ha ha ha!) (Gentleman – me? HA HEE HO HA!)
“Is there a special book that you’d really like to make into a film?” I asked Richa.
“It’s already getting made, unfortunately,” she said. “Midnight’s Children.”
“Why Midnight’s Children?”
“It’s a really rich story. Starts here, goes all over the place, then ends up somewhere else.” (I can’t really show how Richa pointed out the places it went to.)
“Which character would you like to play?”
“Saleem Sinai.”
The expression on my face was “?!?”
“So what?” said Richa. “I once played a guy in a play called Baghdad Ka Ghulam.”
“Bachpan mein?” I asked.
“No. Just this February. It was a period comedy about a girl who dresses like a guy till the end of the play, when she finds her lover.”
Our talk wasn’t conducted at one stretch; everyone was all over the place. Here Thani, who was very entertaining because of his inappropriate remarks, complained, “I’m the one who always has interesting news but is always discredited because of the two beers or whatever that I’ve supposed to have had.”
I asked Richa what, for her, Oye Lucky was really about. I couldn’t write fast enough to get all the details, but she said that for her, OLLO is about how we try to get the approval of society through the material possessions we own; how somebody who has a Maruti 800 wants an Esteem.
“Which was the most memorable or funny incident during the shooting?” I asked.
“I had high fever during the seduction scene. 103 degrees.”
“You were literally hot!” I said and gave my patented fake laugh, then cut it off when I realised everyone’s probably already done that joke to death.
“I’d never had such high fever before. It was 3 or 4 degrees in Delhi on that day. I had an assistant rubbing the soles of my feet while doing that scene. And that day we had a 22 hour shoot! From 6 in the morning to 4 the next morning.”
I asked Richa if there was some common misconception that people had about her.
“A lot of people thing I’m snobbish,” she said.
I don’t know about others, but snobbish is one of the last words I’d’ve used to describe Richa after meeting her the first time.
My target audience for the chicken I’d cooked was cut down by half, ‘cause Richa and Vasan are both vegetarians, but Radhika and Thani really liked it, thankfully. So did I. Thani was the last to eat, and he ate only under the condition that we wouldn’t make him feel like a zoo animal by looking at or talking about him eating.
I also asked Richa what her definition of a successful film career was. She said, “Films being written for me, that people would rather have me do. Anybody can be arm candy – I’d rather not.”
Then she said, “Wanna ask about favourite colour, perfume?”
“Absolutely not,” I said, with a look of horror on my face. “Not interested.”
“This is what I get asked.”
“What!”
It’d be na'¯ve of me to think that people don’t ask these questions of film stars, but for crying out loud, Richa’s just made her debut. How about asking her questions that are a little more sensible?
Now here are the questions I DIDN’T ask Richa. (But somebody else has.)
“What’s your favourite colour? Favourite perfume? Favourite brand of shoes? Make-up? What d’you do on a bad hair day? What does fashion mean to you? Why are you playing second fiddle in the movie? How was your relationship with Neetu Chandra – personal or professional?”
Would you just look at the gossip-fishing evident in the last two questions! And God help anyone who ever asks ME what I think of fashion and trends and ‘happening’ stuff.
Anyway, there’s Richa Chadda for you. Folks who haven’t seen Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, please do – it’s one of the best movies this year – in fact, THE best for many.
Tags: Dolly, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, Radhika, Richa Chadda, thani, Vasan
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
more power to such performers.
FUCK!! What’s wrong with me? I thought Dolly was Sonali Kulkarni(??)
Chamatkaar..Kenny..Did Thani make his faces after those two drinks..he did..didn’t he??!!
Thani didn’t make any special faces, but he brightened up every time Richa told him he had good teeth. As for two drinks, I neither confirm nor deny ha ha ha. Let him do it
Thanks a lot Kenny. This one is indeed a pleasant surprise…
There is one question in my head though ever since I saw OLLO – I didnt quite uderstand the character of Dolly when her family was introduced. Her sis Sonal, is a normal college going girl, talks proper Hindi. Same with the mother. It is a lower middle cls fam no doubt, but Dolly – her Hindi is crude, shes a prost (Right?) apart from working in a band as a dancer….It seemed that she couldn’t be part of that family…Couldn’t….Am I missing something here….
hats off to richa chadda. what a story. the film is a super hit and my family has watched it twice.
@Arthi..there are a lot of these kind of families all over India where the elder girl does some undesirable work to run the home fires. The family is in denial and very matter of fact (notice the matter of way Neetu says “woh jab peeke aati hai, main use chooti nahin hun”, this is very common and I have seen such households)about their lifestyle. Only, the neighbors talk! One day as they find out other means of keeping that income coming (Abhay here), they get her married off, preferably to far off places where she and her profession would not be known or the girl finds out some suitor herself and elopes. The family tacitly supports all this. She is as much a part of the designs of the family as anybody else in the family. Even college going Neetu is! Arthi, you would be surprised about the kind of things Middle class India resorts to support materialistic gains!
Damn..gotta watch the movie..too much yaar
maza aa gaya kenny.. thanks for this
Thanks for this interview, Kenny. Richa Chaddha truly rocked her role and looks like an actress we should watch out for. Hope she gets some really meaty roles in good movies such as OLLO and avoids getting typecast.
Plus, I totally have the biggest crush on her.
:-)
Oh, btw Kenny, it was I who wrote that about X & Y & Z and 27 others. Glad to see you agree. Here’s hoping the likes of Richa and Neetu Chandra can displace the Celina Jaitlys and the Amrita Aroras of Bollywood, ASAP.
Am I the only one (OK, also meetu@withoutgivingthemovieaway) who found OLLO boring! Sigh!
Thanks Kenny. Had liked Neetu but was wondering about ‘Dolly’. Thanx 4 the dope
Thanks Kenny, she was really good sply in the seduction (nothing offensive) where she says to lucky “aap kahin bhi touch kar sakthe hain”…..
I thought she was great in all the scenes. And it’s amazing that she did the seduction scene suffering from a high fever.
.
I absolutely loved the way she said ‘Main tujhe hot (pronounced like goat!) nahi lagti kya?!’
Yaar Richa Chadda toh waddi “hot” thi. Woh kadvi zabaan. Kamaal ki performance! The way she annoyed me with the way she mocks people. Man that was something! Hope to see more of her in the future.
Mind Blowing Perfomance,,, her perf will remain etched on my mind….for life… everything was like veteranish!!!!!!!!!amazing confidence,, and comfort with the chaaracter,,,when i was discussing bout da movie,,,da only character i prmooted the most was hers,,,she was just out of this world,,hope t see more n better all da best
I’ve just got back from the first cast-and-crew-and-guests screening of OLLO. Big names present were Anil Kapoor, Poonam Dhillon, Jagmohan Mundhra, Shilpa Shukla…
I met Manu Rishi, who’s played Bangali. I think I really need to pick up a few acting tips from him.
I loved those lines of Richa’s: “Main tujhe hoat nahin lagti?” “Main touch ho gayi by goad.” “Pehle angrezi seekh le! Then you say me!”
was wondering what her name was….
she was brilliant!
and yes she does look a bit like sonali kulkarni from a distance.
OLLO is not only the best film of the year, its the best i have seen in a long time. cant remember the last time and indian movie impressed me so much to drag me to the theaters a second time in the same week.
Kenny
I am bhery confuse.
I do not know if I’m more in love with DOLLY or with Richa.
Because you have the fortune of knowing both these ladies, please help me. Raaton ko need nahi aa rahi hai, bygoad!
This is just great!
The amount of people (like myself) who have gone back and seen the film more than once!
Thanks Kenny.
Really enjoyed reading that.
Tanul, yes she reminded me of Sonali ‘Gayab’karni too (where is she, btw?)
I thought the same, Arthi, but Indraneel has cleared that up.
Gosh, this really happens?
Richa’s character makes alot more sense to me now.
Thanks Indraneel.
SatyaVrat? Yup.
Ur the only one :-)
I want to watch it again.
But they’ve taken it off now :-(
Indraneel, thanks..But still.. the language differs so much? May be, its me, I’ll taking time to assimilate this….
Ya Pratik..That scene when Jogi quite sternly compels her to join the drunk, the way she imitates ‘eh…Dolly chahiye..’ it was coool….
Steve, Sonali K came last in Via Darjeeling this year. Next in Mumbai Cutting – I think the segment thats directed by Revathi – Shes a Muslim woman who wants to get her passport (visa?) done by illegal means…Shes also active in the Marathi theatre scene (esp with Makrand Deshpande’s group)…
Sorry..Typo….I’m taking time..
Hey thats very very interesting read, first time on your blog, but i guess i m subscribiing to your rss. its most interesting one i came across
and hey i loved dolly’s performance in ollo.
Thanks KENNY!
But I’m with SatyaVrat! Really didn’t loved movie as much as all guys here are praising. May be my expectation was bit high! Also had same dilemma about her character which Arthi has or had! SatyaVrat, U R NT ALONE! :P
Kenny Bunny
touch ho gayi main, by God!
Basanti is upset that she was totally ignored! sigh!
much love
Oye Richa tu khud aa gayi at last! Mera blog dhanya hua!
Basanti ko bol dena next time mana nahin karoonga. Darasal aaj mera ad ka shoot hai.
Sigh! Sigh!
Arthi..oh yes, ‘Via Darjeeling’!
That hasn’t released here..well, I haven’t seen it.
She’s a good actress, but we rarely se her.
I actually wanted to ask u if Richa is from Delhi…u mentioned it anyways. Could u please call her and tell her that the “tuesday..vegetable..” scene in the bar is the most memorable scene in Hindi Movies…………loved it and the accent!!!
Truly the best film of the year… JUGANI rehandi Sector-4 ROCKED>>> Music too was nice… Already seen it twice…
true depiction of West Delhi…