One Doesn't Need to be an Activist to Call Out Wrong, Says Richa Chadha

Actor Richa Chadha says her determination to be a ”decent human being” motivates her to take a stand on sociopolitical issues.

Chadha, admired for her power-packed performances in movies such as ”Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!”, ”Gangs of Wasseypur” series, ”Masaan” and ”Fukrey” films, is known for taking unflinching stands on key issues that have often made her a target of trolls on social media. The 34-year-old actor, however, has no plans to mellow down as she said that she will continue to speak her mind.

”I think everybody wants to speak their mind and they used to. They used to be able to speak their mind and be honest and comment on fuel price rise or something or the other. And I think it comes from wanting to be a decent human being,” Chadha told PTI in an interview.

Staying silent, especially in the face of something wrong, is not a ”good idea”, the actor said.

”You don’t have to be an activist or somebody who’s very outspoken. But if something wrong is being done to another person, you’re just staying silent because you’re afraid of something, then that’s not a good idea.” Chadha recently launched a social media initiative, The Kindry, with an aim to amplify the everyday positive stories from society amid the pandemic.

The actor has started a dedicated Instagram page with her friend and entrepreneur Krishan Jagota, where they will highlight people and their acts of positivity.

Chadha said she started the page in response to all the horrific stories that she heard and read about during the devastating second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in India in April and May this year.

”Day in and day out I was reading news about some or the other tragic thing happening around us. I felt that it would start affecting our collective psyche as Indians. ”Sometimes, we get lost in the overall cacophony of everything. So, we wanted to highlight those people who are doing good deeds, make them famous, talk about real life and that’s how this initiative started,” she added. One of the reasons behind the campaign was to spread ”kindness”, something that she believes was diminishing from society, especially due to the polarised social media world.

That is why, Chadha said, there is no Twitter handle for The Kindry.

”When I go on Twitter, I feel like that it only encourages people to be provocative. It is a medium where people are encouraged to be provocative, make jokes at others expense… ”I’m not going to lie because even I have been guilty of that. If a troll has said something stupid to me, sometimes to make an example out of that, I have also responded. So it also depends on the medium you’re using and that’s why we don’t have a Twitter handle for The Kindry. We exist only on Instagram.” The actor, however, made it clear that she doesn’t want to present a utopian idea of the world to the people and just wants to divert their mind from negativity.

”Kindness needs to be shared and it has the same effect actually. When you read about something nice that someone else is doing, you feel the same effect like those cat and dog videos. You feel slightly better and you feel like, ‘No. The world is not ending.’ ”We are not saying that bad things are not happening in society. We are not promoting a fantasy world where people are just pretending that everything is ok,” the actor added.

Chadha further said that The Kindry will celebrate people, irrespective of their political beliefs.

She added that the initiative will look at ”anybody who’s doing good work and not just people who agree with me”.

”I don’t know the political opinion of these people who are helping each other out. People can keep talking about India, India and the idea of India. But we have to understand that India is essentially made up of Indians.

”Now you can disagree with them, but they are still people who are born in the same country, who eat the same foods. Yes, there are differences of opinions but that doesn’t mean that if I disagree with somebody and they’re doing good work in society, that I will not talk about it,” Chadha added. On the work front, the actor will next be seen in Voot series ”Candy” and third season of her Amazon Prime Video show ”Inside Edge”. She will also soon start working on the third ”Fukrey” movie.

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