‘Female-oriented’ films will be a thing till they become a norm: Richa Chadha

Richa Chadda despises the term “female-oriented” films but the actor says the phrase will continue to be relatively novel till such movies become a norm.The 31-year-old actor says she started hearing the term when Sridevi’s “English Vinglish” released in 2012 but adds actors like Nutan to Rani Mukerji have been the face of their films from a long time.
“I never buy this ‘women-oriented’ term. I don’t like it. I have been hearing this term since 2012 that ‘English Vinglish’ is coming. I always turn around and say ‘You never call the other things male-oriented’. But I guess it’ll be a thing, till it becomes a norm.”Be it Nutan, Nargis Sridevi or Rani (Mukerji), these women have done films which they have carried on their shoulders completely. There was an entire alternate cinema movement with Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Deepti Naval, Mita Vashisht and Neena Gupta… These are great actresses and they have done some excellent work,” Chadha told DIN in an interview here.The actor is currently in the city shooting for her next, “Shakeela”, the eponymous biopic on the popular Malayalam adult star.Directed by Indrajit Lankesh, the film narrates the rags-to-riches-to-rags story of Shakeela Khan, who ruled the South Indian cinema of the ’90s. She has acted in several adult films in languages spanning Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.Year 2018 saw films like “Padmaavat” and “Raazi”, fronted by women, emerge as some of the biggest money-spinners and Chadha says the audience has always been ready for a female star who would drive the crowd towards the theatres.”I think it’s the producers, distributors and exhibitors who have not been ready. It is an issue. “Men control the business and they say the film is female-oriented and it won’t work till its ti*s and as*. But you don’t know, a good story connects somewhere,” she adds.”Shakeela” is already being compared to Vidya Balan’s critically-acclaimed hit “Dirty Picture”.