10 years of Fukrey: Richa Chadha reveals the entire cast knew about her and Ali Fazal being close

Fukrey will always remain the most special film in actor Richa Chadha’s career as it changed things for her in more ways than one. Not only it gave her one of the most loved characters of Bholi Punjaban, but also for the fact that it was on this film set that she met the love of her life, her now husband, Ali Fazal.

“My relationship with Ali happened very organically and gradually. Initially, we’d just hang out and talk. [Among other cast members], Manjot (Singh), and Varun (Sharma) would mostly discuss video games and Pulkit (Samrat) was more into fitness. So, the only person I would have a lot of conversation on the set would be Ali and at times Pankaj Tripathi. Ali and I became really good friends on the set and then after a few years, we started dating,” says Richa, recalling how one of the most beautiful love stories started for her.

The 36-year-old adds that she and Ali would mostly bond over conversations about cinema, art, music, poetry, and all other artistic things. “We’d also talk about what the two of us were planning to do with our life and career. And by the time Fukrey 2 happened, we had kind of realised that there was a liking,” she says, and quickly adds, “But there was no formality and we had not disclosed anything to the world. It gets difficult also because we were not paired opposite each other in the movie. So we let it be.”

It was in 2017 when Richa officially announced her relationship with Ali. Ask her if it was difficult to keep the special bond with Ali under wraps on the set of Fukrey and the actor says, there was nothing to hide. “The entire cast on this film was pretty close to each other. So they all, sort of knew about us being close,” says the Gangs of Wasseypur actor.

While every character in the film has its separate fan base, her role of Bholi Punjaban, who runs all kinds of illegal businesses, became iconic like none other. She defines it as a “crazy” but “fun and mischievous” character, which was not written for women by that time. “Negative characters for women were mostly restricted to saas bahu dramas. That’s why, I always thought that Bholi Punjaban was very unusual,” she notes.

As the movie clocks 10 years, Chadha is overwhelmed to see how the film has become a comfort movie for the audiences. “I love how Fukrey brings so much joy. People can forget about their worries for two hours and laugh a lot. These are the things that attract me to the project. You know how we listen to old Hindi songs because they give us a feeling of comfort, a feeling of familiarity and bring us together without us even realising,” she ends.