Richa Chadha

Biography

Richa began her career as a model and then she moved to theater. She has performed plays touring in India and Pakistan. Later, she also received her training under Barry John

Richa acted in the critically acclaimed movie Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! As the character of Dolly, both the movie and her role were well appreciated. 

She was cast by Anurag Kashyap for his movies Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 1 and Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 2 wherein she plays the pivotal character of Nagma Khatoon in the narrative. In the movie, she matured from 16 to 60 years of age. 

She got the name "Ms. Fire" for her spirited portrayal in the epic movie. This performance was well appreciated by the Critics. The movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012 and the entire cast was present at the event.

Richa Chadha, born on 18th December 1988 was brought up in Delhi, India. She is the daughter of Somesh Chadda who owns a management firm and her mother, Kusum Chadda is a professor at Delhi University, who has written two books and also works with Gandhi Smriti.

 After completing her schooling at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya in 2002, she graduated with Bachelor's in History from St. Stephen's College, Delhi. Later, she completed her PG Diploma in Social Communication Media from Sophia College, Mumbai.

She began her career as a model and then she moved to theatre. She has performed plays touring in India and Pakistan. Later, she also received her training at Barry John Acting School. This school provides professional training in acting for the past 15 years.

Her first film was Dibakar Banerjee's directed film, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! that released in 2009. She played a supporting role as Dolly and received notable reviews as a confident debut.

 Her next movie was a Bollywood debut which was a stepping stone towards success, she played the pivotal role of Nagma Khatoon in Anurag Kashyap's crime drama Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 1 and Part 2 which got her radiant reviews and recognized her as an actress of great caliber. 

In the movie, she portrayed the roles of a 16 to 60-year-old. She got the name "Ms. Fire" for her spirited portrayal in the epic movie. This performance was well appreciated by the Critics.

 The movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012 and the entire cast was present at the event. She was nominated in Filmfare as Best Supporting Actress category and won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress in 2013.

Her next release was with Mrighdeep Singh Lamba's comedy-drama film Fukrey, in which she played the role of female- don Bholi Punjaban and won Best Performance in a Comic Role in Screen Awards 2014.

 Later, she was part of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's movie Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela in a supporting role as Rasila. Even as a supporting cast, her performance was well-appreciated from prominent sources as she didn't have a major role in the movie but she possessed the scenes she strolls in with her inbuilt fire. She got nominated in the IIFA Best Supporting Actress category in 2014 for this role.

Later in 2014, she played the role of Babu, a criminal in Navneet Behal's film Tamanchey. Being compared to her earlier performance, this role received mixed reviews. 

She has also worked with the director Mira Nair; (known for her glorious movies -The Namesake, Vanity Fair, Salaam Bombay, and many more) for the film Words with Gods, which is a Mexican-American anthology directed by nine distinctive directors. 2015 was a splendid year for Richa Chadha. She gave us the movie Masaan.

Masaan (Fly Away Solo) was acknowledged at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and won two prestigious honors. The movie as well as her performance has received immense appreciation around the globe. 

After a massive acknowledgment for Masaan, she represented India at the 18th Marrakech Film Festival as a jury member alongside Hollywood filmmaker and screenwriter Francis Ford Coppola, the president of the Marrakech Film Festival. Followed by next release was a biopic of Charles Sobhraj, Main Aur Charles, she played a role of a law student and Charles's girlfriend.

In 2016, she is filming for Aur Devdas, which is a version of the Devdas saga by Sudhir Mishra, and also on Pooja Bhatt's film Cabaret as the main lead. She will also be seen in Omung Kumar's film Sarbjit which is a biopic on the life of Sarabjit Singh.