Richa Chadda
Richa Chadda

On Friday, reports began doing the rounds that Richa Chadda has been dropped from Indo-British film Bombariya, allegedly because she left them in a lurch after telling them her dates have been given to Saif Ali Khan-Kangana Ranaut starrer Mr. Chalu. The film’s producer, Michael Ward, released a statement in the media saying that they’ve chosen to “let the actress go” and recast so that they could begin shooting on time. Here’s what he said:

We had to move our schedule twice to accommodate Richa’s new commitments. After shifting around dates for the second time and moving our schedule to mid-December to accommodate Pooja Bhatt’s film with Richa (Cabaret), we were suddenly informed that we would not have enough dates to shoot with Richa as she had committed her dates to Excel Entertainment (Mr. Chaalu) as of mid-January and that she would be shooting for that film for five months! Bombairiya is our first production here and we have timelines to adhere to as well. Pia Sukanya the director and I took a collective call to let Richa go and start the recasting process. Due to her management playing havoc with our schedules, the schedules of other actors and technicians attached to the film have been affected too. We now start shooting in Mid April when we are able to get all the other actors’ combined dates.

Richa Chadda
Richa Chadda

Richa, however, has released her own statement, going in depth to explain why there were date issues in the first place and how they’d never given her a contract:

I was approached by Beautiful Bay productions in August 2013 to play the lead in their next film. I agreed because they had a phenomenal script. I stood by them as they found producers and line producers. Sometimes enthusiastically took them to meet people- funders, producers, music heads from the industry that may be of help. I did all this with no signed contract, happily.

The shoot was initially to start in January 2014 , then April, then July. Finally in August Michael Ward mentioned that he needed more prep time and I told him I had prior commitments till December. After some adjustments on both our parts we were ready to roll in December. They paid me a token to say we intend to make the film. Before leaving for my shoot of Masaan on October 19th, 2014, I had a little get together for everyone to get to know the entire team of Bombairiya. (The picture from that cake from that is still on my instagram.)

While I was away shooting, Michael demanded a change in the schedule yet again. At this point it began to clash with a prior commitment in January, which he was aware of. I was the first one on board, and both the primary actors Akshay Oberoi and Siddhant Kapoor are aware of the situation AND the fact that the last change of schedule has come from Beautiful Bay and not me. We tried to work this out, and were still hoping to meet midway when i woke up to a one-sided article in the paper today. I have waited for the film to take off for more than a year and a half so its a tad unfair to expect me to not honour other film commitments. All the correspondence is available on email, hence there is no question of being ambiguous. These are the facts in chronological order. People are free to draw their own conclusion.

As for Bombairiya, I am thrilled that they have found a lead actress and I wish them all the best for their project. 🙂

Bombariya cake
Bombariya cake

I like how the actress has handled the entire situation, being rational in her response and not unnecessarily lashing out. It’s sad we won’t get to see her in Bombariya, but here’s wishing both parties all the best for their upcoming projects.