Two strangers with the same name embark on a life changing road trip in picturesque Sweden and become best of friends. While the subject of friends on road trips may not be as novel, the fact that Jia aur Jia is based on two women undertaking a journey is probably a first in Bollywood. With this film, Richa Chadha and Kalki Koechlin hope to break the stereotypes surrounding female friendships and bonding. There’s conflict when Chadha’s Jia Venkatram, an uptight banker meets Kalki Koechlin’s Jia, a go-with-the-flow girl. Their personalities are as different as chalk and cheese but when thrown together, they bond and become friends.
Both Koechlin and Chadha have known each other professionally (they have worked on the play, Trivial Disaster ) and personally for many years, translating into an easy on-screen camaraderie. Their mutual love for travelling, exploring a new place and local cuisine made the film relatable for the duo. “My character is very sorted. She is a businesswoman but due to some setbacks, she is clinically depressed. She has some secrets from the past and there is a lot of pent-up anger in her. She is very different from what I am in real life,” says Chadha adding that most of the characters she has played on screen are not relatable. “Ninety percent of the time, you will not be able to relate to the characters you play. I just go with the script and the director’s vision and [don’t] apply method acting,” says the actor who has played a bossy girl in Fukrey (2013), an angry old housewife in Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) and a celebrity cricket team owner in the Amazon Prime show, Inside Edge (which will have its second innings soon) among her noteworthy performances.
Role playing
Chadha’s performance in Inside Edge has been noticed for her role as Zarina Malik, an actress who is also the owner of a premier league cricket team. Needless to say, questions about her character being inspired from Preity Zinta or Shilpa Shetty are inevitable. But she is quick to dismiss such comparisons and says that people assuming such notions should watch the show. “The only thing common is that I play an actress, who owns a cricket team and the comparison ends there. Also, it is very pompous and arrogant of people to assume that the character is based on them. We have fine writers and there are so many stories and characters in the world,” says Chadha adding that the character she plays is that of an ambitious woman who is empowered yet dignified.
With a slew of successful women-centric films getting recognition, Chadha believes that the past couple of years have been good for female actors as they are getting to experiment with different kinds of roles. “I want my work to be as versatile as possible and essay characters starkly different from each other,” says the St Stephan’s alumna reiterating how her Jia is someone unsure of herself while her next role as Bholi Punjaban ( Fukrey Returns ) is high on confidence. Of her Fukrey character she says, “I never thought that the character will become so iconic. Women want to be like her and men want to date her. It was a delight to play the character and I have lived vicariously [through] her.”
Chadha’s journey in Hindi films began with the short yet memorable role in Dibakar Banerjee’s 2008 comedy, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye where she essayed the role of Dolly. She then went on to play the spirited and foul-mouthed Nagma Khaatoon in Anurag Kashyap’s noir gangster saga Gangs of Wasseypur . But it was in Neeraj Ghaywan’s Masaan (2015) , that her role brought her recognition and validation. “My journey in Bollywood hasn’t been easy. There are some films you do for money, some you do for prestige and yet some you do for both. There are films that come to you such as Gangs of Wasseypur. Similarly, Masaan is a very special film for me. Masaan is a universal story and that it won awards at prestigious film festivals only further validates our belief in the film,” she says.
Shifting gears
The actor recently turned producer with short film Khoon Aali Chithi. The short is set against the backdrop of Khalistani movement, with a narrative that traces the manner in which the political turmoil exploded and the repercussions of the same on the locals. Directed by her close friend Rupinder Inderjit, Chadha agreed to back the project the very first time it was pitched to her. “It just happened by accident. I never consciously considered the idea of turning producer,” she says.
