Richa Chadha: Felt Shakeela's life story is cinematic

In 2018, Richa Chadha had told mid-day that she had decided to turn down the Shakeela biopic as she walked into the narration (Shakeela is a classic case of #MeToo, Nov 3). Cut to the present: The actor, being blown by the script, has lived the story of Shakeela over the past two years as she stepped into her shoes for the eponymous biopic. “When I heard the script, my first reaction was that her life story is cinematic,” says Chadha, recounting how she was sold on the script before director Indrajit Lankesh had completed his narration.

Shakeela

The more Richa Chadha familiarised herself with the soft-core star’s journey in South films, the more she understood the struggles of a woman finding her feet in a male-dominated industry. While looked down on by the elite, Shakeela’s films would reportedly outperform those of megastars in the early ’90s. This didn’t go down well with the superstars of the Malayalam industry, sparking her eventual decline. “From being humiliated to celebrated, to even having someone trying to get you killed, [she saw it all]. All the while, her loved ones continued to use her fortune and fame. I wanted to experiment with this story,” says Chadha as the teaser drops today.

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