Richa Chadha remembers getting rejected for Dev D despite doing well during audition; was told, ‘You don’t know how to…’

The actor also recalled someone making an ‘off-hand remark’. “Someone from his team told, and it was an off-hand remark, ‘You don’t know how to pose for the camera, you don’t know about the camera, why don’t you do a pageant?”

However, in her opinion, Richa did well in the audition, but the main reason why she didn’t get the part was because she looked quite similar to Mahie Gill, who essayed the role of Paro in Dev D.

“They probably didn’t take me because the other girl in the film was Mahie Gill, who is a North Indian Punjabi girl, and they wanted someone very visually different from her,” said Richa.

Dev D was a modern-day take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s classic Bengali novel Devdas. Directed by Anurag Kashyap, it became a cult hit and brought fame to those associated with it, including the lead actor, Abhay Deol. It also won several Filmfare awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Kalki Koechlin for playing Chanda.