Richa Chadha recalls reprimanding casting director for offering role of Hrithik Roshan’s mother: ‘You’re taking away an older actor’s part’

When asked if she got angry at the casting director, Richa replied, “Yes, because I was 21 years old. But someone had told him that I play the role of older women nicely. So without thinking, he just offered me the role. Later, the actor who actually played that part is a very good artist. So I felt that this is wrong that you are taking young and attractive actors and ageing them.”

Richa felt it was not only unfair to her but also to the older artists who fit the role better than her. “Not only are you doing a disservice to a young actor, you are also taking away an older actor’s part which is already shrinking.”

She added, “To usool ke hisaab se bhi maine mana kia tha. Baaki uss casting director ne mujhe kabhi bulaya nahi wo alag baat hai. (So, I refused to do it on moral ground. But that casting director never called me again, also).”

In Gangs of Wasseypur, Richa played an older girl. Justifying why she took up the role, the actor said that in the Anurag Kashyap film, she was not the only one whose character was aged.

“In Gangs of Wasseypur, I never felt that I would be singled out. Everyone’s story was 30-40 years ahead. They didn’t put any spotlight on me. Call it our industry’s sexism or society’s sexism, they highlighted it. The truth is that Manoj Bajpayee, Huma Qureshi, Piyush Mishra, all of them had undergone ageing in that film,” said Richa.

Richa Chadha will be next seen in Anubhav Sinha’s Abhi Toh Party Shuru Hui Hai. The cast of the film also includes Saurabh Shukla, Pankaj Tripathi, Vinay Pathak, Pavan Malhotra, Divya Dutta, Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, Dilip Prabhavalkar, Cyrus Broacha, Prateik Babbar and Shriya Pilgaonkar.