Actress Richa Chadha, who has been breaking barriers for doing unconventional roles right from her first film, is at it again. The Masaan actress is busy shooting for her next film, a biopic on Shakeela, the adult film actress. Meanwhile Richa is also gearing up for her next release Tabrez Noorani's Love Sonia.
The film has been well received at all international festivals where it was screened and is slated to release in India on September 14. The film touches on a very sensitive subject, the international crisis of sex trafficking. Richa plays the role of a brothel owner. This is the first time the actress is playing a sex worker on screen. Richa says she was inspired by Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil's roles from the classic film, Mandi.
"Shabanaji and Smitaji essayed their roles with such ease and perfection. I idolise them in my real life too and I have great admiration for their work. When Love Sonia came to me, I watched Mandi specifically. For anyone who has seen this film, will know the nuances it essays so well. The world created in Mandi was a great reference point for me. The diction, the body language, the behaviour of the characters on screen, it really help me do justice to my role of Madhuri in the film. I tried to copy Soni Razdaan's body language as well! Actresses like Anita Kanwar were so uninhibited," says the actress.
Her role in Love Sonia, is Richa’s ode to all the brilliant actors who were in Mandi. They helped change the way Hindi cinema looked at sex work, the lives of sex workers and the paradoxes within society that lead to their marginalization.
Love Sonia also stars Manoj Bajpai, Mrunal Thakur, Frieda Pinto, Sai Tamhankar, Rajkummar Rao, Anupam Kher and Demi Moore.