Actress Richa Chadha recently celebrated 11 years of Anurag Kashyap’s cult classic Gangs of Wasseypur and remembered how American film critic Roger Ebert had described her role in the 2012 crime drama as “noteworthy”.
Sharing a reel on Instagram on Thursday, the 36-year-old actress wrote, “Happy #11yearsofgangsofwasseypur ! This film is cult legit and I am proud that this risk paid off, cuz I have a career! Whenever I feel low I think of the time that Roger Ebert decided my work was noteworthy and I become ok really quick. Thanks for loving this film! Always tell haters, underestimators, alligators that talent is immune to erasure.”
The video, filled with behind-the-scenes moments and scenes from the film, also carries Richa’s note about her character. “For the longest time I believed that I was only cast as Nagma Hatun because perhaps someone else turned it down. Well, my good luck because I thoroughly enjoyed playing a feisty, angry woman who was wronged but was not a victim. It was great to work with such a stellar cast. It is no surprise that the film went on to become a cult classic. For me it was a risky part playing someone so much older but it is definitely a risk that paid off. I am still here doing cool things,” she wrote in the video.
The actress played the role of Nagma, the wife of Manoj Bajpayee’s Sardar Khan in the film. Also starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Pankaj Tripathi, Huma Qureshi and Tigmanshu Dhulia, Gangs of Wasseypur went on to become a cult classic and was screened at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2012. The film explored themes of gang wars, brutality, generational conflicts, vengeance in the small coal mafia-ridden town of Wasseypur in Jharkhand.
Manoj Bajpayee also took to Instagram on Thursday to celebrate 11 years of the film and shared a video filled with moments from the gangster drama.
Gangs of Wasseypur released in two parts in theatres in the same year and went on to win several awards and critical acclaim despite being declared a flop at the box office.
