Lately, the Indian film industry has seen the female lead take on many forms. However, the off-screen divide continues. Recently, actress Richa Chadha, in an interview with a news portal, said that sexist behaviour is a ‘default setting’ of our society and she hopes to change it with her little initiatives. The Fukrey actress started a production company, Pushing Buttons Studios last year with her boyfriend and actor, Ali Fazal. For the maiden project of the company Girls Will Be Girls, the couple was looking for an all-women team on-screen as well as off-screen. However, during their search, they noticed the lack of female members in the lighting department.
Speaking to Hindustan Times, Richa Chadha opened up about the sexism and difference female technicians face. The actress told the portal, “Sexist behaviour is the default setting of our society. It’s very common behaviour. We hope to change that a bit by slowly and slowly by including women in the workplace. That’s how change literally begins. That’s what I want to do.”
To overcome this gap, the couple along with Girls Will Be Girls’ director Shuchi Talati has now taken the initiative to train ten women in the lighting department. They will be conducting a workshop called the Undercurrent Lab for the women and will provide them with hands-on training. Not just this, the team will also hire two of them to work on their debut production.
The actress wishes to bring a change and feels this workshop is a great way to bring the female crew on board. She further added, “The experience is great. This is basically a field where there were few women to no women. That’s why we started this, and now because the girls are really learning, we are really feeling happy. We hope to continue this, not just for lighting, but maybe for some other department next.”
Apart from this, Richa is busy shooting for the third part of her blockbuster film, Fukrey. As per reports, the actress’ production debut Girls Will Be Girls is expected to begin in October this year.
