My role was chopped off in Sarbjit: Richa Chadha

My role was chopped off in Sarbjit'

Richa Chadha swears she won't do any more supporting roles

Subhash K Jha

After her experience in Sarbjit the talented Richa Chadha, who will soon be seen in the central role in Pooja Bhatt's Cabaret, has vowed never to do a supporting role. Richa explains, "It's not about the length of the role. It's just that one works so hard on a film. It's heartbreaking when some of your best scenes get sacrificed on the editing table."

This is what happened when Sarbjit needed to be pruned down. Says Richa, "Some of my best scenes had to go. The one scene that I still have towards the end where I am shown bonding with Aishwarya's character has no context since all my scenes showing my kinship with her are gone."

In an early sequence, Dalbir Kaur (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) after being physically abused by her husband and thrown out of the house, was shown being motivated by her sister-in-law Sukhpreet (Richa Chadha) to not take the abuse quietly. In a later sequence, Sukhpreet was shown doing a job as a sweeper and toilet cleaner after her husband's disappearance to make ends meet.

Says Richa, "That sequence vividly showed my character's financial and emotional humiliation in her husband's absence. Unfortunately, it had to go. But I shouldn't be complaining. Every actor except Randeep Hooda had to suffer the same fate in the film, and that includes Aishwarya." A sequence showing Dalbir's marriage was edited out. In one sequence we see Ash with a black eye. But we don't know how she got it.

Sighs Richa, "I am not saying I was singled out for role-chopping. All I am saying is that after so much work it's frustrating to have just one scene for yourself. I don't need to do this after Masaan and now Cabaret where I have the central role."