Richa Chadha: ‘Our roots are the same’

Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar

The female characters Sanjay Leela Bhansali has crafted in Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar are fierce, manipulative and audacious. In contrast, the creator paints a picture of vulnerability with Richa Chadha's Lajjo, who drowns herself in alcohol and delusion after being dumped by her lover. Over the past few days, the actor has been winning love for her part, which echoes well beyond its two episodes.

Chadha notes it is Lajjo's pain that is resonating with the audiences. "Lajjo is a human reflection of this world's pain, of people's loneliness. She suffers from lack of love and wants to belong to someone desperately. People have always seen me play a tomboy or a boisterous part. This is a shift," smiles the actor, who stars with Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sanjeeda Shaikh and Sharmin Segal in the series.

A lot of her love for Lajjo comes from the sheer joy of working with Bhansali. Giving shape to the creator's vision of the character has been both exhilarating and demanding. "He juices every ounce of you. I love being pushed to my extreme, feeling like, ‘Oh my God, I know nothing.' On a bad day, you are destroyed. But the next day, you rise with a new confidence. Working with him is an ego-destruction exercise. People on other sets will tell you that you're an amazing actor. When you come here, he'll say, ‘Faltu! Kya hai yeh?' With him, I went back to the rasa of acting. Once I caught [my character's sur], I understood why it felt like a raw wound. Playing her felt like being in a world of ghazals. Sanjay sir is carrying forward the torch of storytelling in this subcontinent that represents greats like K Asif and Kamal Amrohi. This is a way of preserving our heritage."

But many actors in Pakistan feel Heeramandi, which tells the story of Lahore's courtesans, is an attempt at appropriation. Bhansali admitted that when it was conceptualised as a movie, he had considered casting Mahira Khan and Fawad Khan. Chadha defends the show, saying, "I don't see it as appropriation. My character's name is Lajwanti. My grandfather is a Punjabi from Lahore, Sharmin's grandfather studied in Lahore University. Our roots are the same. Most of us would love to see a world without borders, [bound] by a spirit of love. Appropriation would be Rooney Mara playing Tiger Lily in Pan [2015]. In the original story, Tiger Lily was a princess from the Piccaninny tribe, native Americans who inhabit Neverland. Here, we are the same race."