Richa Chadha, who plays the character of courtesan Lajjo in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Heeramandi, revealed that she tried gin to get her drunk dance perfect in the series. Richa also confessed that she doesn’t drink at all. Richa told Zoom, “On the first day, I wasn’t getting it, to do the drunk dancing. So, after 30-40 takes, I thought let me have a quarter and see what happens. I did have some gin. I drank a little bit, but it made things worse. I didn’t want that lethargy in the body movement, I wanted some of it, maybe the precision can go but I didn’t want to let go of the grace.” FYI, Richa AKA Lajjo has an elaborate dance sequence at the wedding ceremony of Nawab Zoravar Ali Khan (played by Adhyayan Suman), whom Lajjo is in love with.
During the same conversation, Richa added, “I was better off pretending to be drunk than actually getting a little tipsy. It is a technical job, no matter how much I dance, my dress is so heavy, I have to hit that mark, interact. It was fun for me to do.”
Richa and the Heeramandi cast recently appeared on The Great Indian Kapil Show. On the show, Richa revealed she gave 99 retakes to shoot for a song. Richa said, “Mera jo best day tha, wo mera worst day bhi tha (My best day was also my worst day) My worst day became the best day of the shoot. My score is the highest when it comes to retakes… during the dance sequence. 99. Main century maarte maarte ruki hoon (I stopped just before hitting a century). It’s not easy when you are dancing around 200- 300 extras who are watching you and you are failing. But when you overcome that, then it’s really a ‘Wow, I didn’t know I could do this’ moment. And that’s a great feeling.”
Produced by Bhansali Productions and Prerna Singh with the concept credited to Moin Beg, the series stars Manisha Koirala, Richa Chadha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sharmin Segal, and Sanjeeda Shaikh, Fardeen Khan, Shekhar Suman, Adhyayan Suman, and Taha Shah.
