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Richa Chadha on playing ‘Shakeela’ in biopic

Richa Chadha is fiercely dedicated to her upcoming film ‘Shakeela’. The film is a biopic about adult film actress Shakeela, which is attracting a lot of discussion around its potential similarities with ‘The Dirty Picture’ (2011).

Chadha spoke about the comparisons, as quoted by IANS, “Comparisons will happen but we can’t do anything about it. I can’t escape that. I thought about it but now I’m not going to fight it. Shakeela became a star when Silk Smitha killed herself. Within two years of Silk’s death, Shakeela was a superstar. She was a ready replacement of somebody who had just passed away. It’s the same period, the aesthetics, the visuals and technically too things are same. The two films will appear similar to the inexperienced eye. But the two are very different. It’s in a different zone. At least they will compare me to Vidya Balan and the film to a blockbuster like ‘The Dirty Picture’.”

Speaking about her character, she said, “She knows her career and personal life have suffered because of the courageous decisions she has taken to stand up against oppression of any kind. She knows she’s paying the price for it. I could imagine any person in her place as being bitter, angry, suicidal or dependent. Going to school and learning feminism is one thing and living feminism is another. She has done the latter.” The film is directed by Indrajit Lankesh and stars Rajeev Pillai and Pankaj Tripathi.