MUMBAI: Bollywood actress Richa Chadha made her Cannes Film Festival debut in 2012 with the film Gangs of Wasseypur. Once again, she took a plane to the French Riviera for Masaan and Sarbjit. She went to the film festival with her husband Ali Fazal last year to find collaborators for their growing production company. Girls Will Be Girls will also be making its premiere at the film gala this time around.
Although the Cannes Film Festival is touted as a Mecca for films, it has also drawn attention as a melting pot of fashion over the years. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Aditi Rao Hydari, and Sobhita Dhulipala were among the numerous Indian celebrities who graced the red carpet for this occasion. Richa discusses the fashion development game at the film festival in an interview with a well-known news outlet. She also shares two particularly noteworthy looks from Cannes over the years.
“I think Nandita Das, who got invited to be on the jury for Cannes several years ago, held her own in a simple saree,” she tells us, adding, “There was a lot of critique and ridicule for Mallika Sherawat at that time but if you look back those pictures from 15 years ago, she looked great! She knew what she was projecting. She knew how to make use of her full body and fitness. She created her own persona.”
Interestingly, last year, fashion police Diet Sabya too lauded Malaika’s Cannes appearances and wrote, “Body was bodying. Sexuality was owned. Media against her. The film industry refused to acknowledge her. Had the desi janta scandalised… quaking in their boots. I feel there’s a certain @mallikasherawat erasure, when it comes to discussing desi gworls at Cannes and maybe credit is due? Acknowledgment is pending? (sic)”
Any kind of judgment made on style sensibilities, Richa believes, is pervasive in the fashion industry. “The fashion industry is also very, very classist. They’ll brand you as an independent actress. I don’t really bother with people [who judge] because you aren’t in vogue with them till you are,” she smirks.
Richa says that the "classist" nature of the film industry is what stopped top designers from lending her their works initially; it was only during Masaan's promotional campaign that she was able to hire a stylist.
“If you emerge from a film like Oye Lucky Lucky Oye or Gangs Of Wasseypur, they assume you to be the character. Only when they have a real conversation with you do they understand your pedigree. Pedigree doesn’t only have to come from Bandra or from a film family. I think I’ve tremendous cultural capital,” she states.
The soon-to-be mother never steps down from a conversation and admits that she's still learning the whole jingbang.
“It took me a year during Gangs Of Wasseypur to understand how the game works. I may not have had the best HMU team. I may still be learning all those things but I understood that if there’s a press event, I need to get a stylist to source clothes for me,” she says.
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Credit- News 18
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