Richa, just like her name, is rich in every single way! She is awaaz ki gunee, she is adaaon ki gunee, full of warmth, and totally genuine — not even 1% put-on!
Firstly, she was our first guest who came on time, and told us she’d been practicing since a week to wake up early (since most artists like to catch up on sleep as they do live shows all over the world and have late-night recordings too) and hit the gym for six days so that she wouldn’t get late for this Musical-E-Azam (MeA). A true Virgo I guess – dedicated, and how!
She was so honest about everyone in the industry, that we were totally charmed by the fact that she wasn’t being modest like the typical Bollywood… types!
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Her bachpan ki kahaani was very interesting. Richa told us that when she was just three months old, her mother was holding her up to burp her after feeding, and that was just when her priest father started to sing from behind them, and Richa shot her head up in the direction of her father’s singing voice! That was when her father announced in a satsang that his fourth daughter would be a name to reckon with, and he would be remembered as Richa’s father, and not the other way round.
The best example of Richa’s brusque honesty was when she observed how a one-hour-long making-of-film for Zor ka Jhatka did not have even a single mention of the music director, the lyricist, or the singers involved I guess that’s why she was so happy that Music gets its due on MeA.
She totally wrapped us in her Krishna bhajan that she dedicated to her parents and her mandir in Faridabad, as she is working on converting half of her house into a temple there, since her siblings don’t live there anyway.
She recalled her beautiful experience with A R Rahman. She had heard of the young maestro back in 1999 and how he gives opportunities to newcomers. So she actually sourced his address from Mayapuri magazine, and then recorded her voice on the home tape recorder and sent him an audio tape.
She then waited to get a call from Rahman’s office. And guess what? She actually received a call from his office in five days! It was Sukhwinder Singh who had suggested her to Rehman, and she was called to sing Ni Main Samajh Gayee with Sukhwinder. Surely, this was the perfect her favourite actor SRK’s dialogue coming true for her: Jab koi cheese dil se chaho to poori kaynaat usse aap tak pahunchane ke liye jutt jaati hai!… (When you wish for something from the bottom of your heart, then the entire universe gets to work to bring it your way). And she also sang this dialogue in a song.
Richa is an excellent mimic too, but we couldn’t get her to imitate any filmi type. However, the film world is definitely impressed by her mimicking talents. Richa told us, The Zor Ka Jhatka nasal tone is actually inspired from Radio of the bygone era…. It so happened that while generally testing the mike before the recording, she remembered the way the actors sounded in the radio plays of the olden days, and began to mimic the nasal tones. That’s when the music composers jumped and said, Hey! This is great! Let’s record the song in this tone. And that,… Richa told us, is how Zor Ka Jhatka happened!
Well while Richa really perked up MeA with great singing (oh that soulful rendition of Allah Tero Naam at the beginning!) and trivia and insights into her personality, another Zor Ka Jhatka is in the offing tomorrow morning, with music heavyweight — the charming, talented, ever patient and affable Bappi da lights up the studio and our lives. Tune in from 7 to 11 am tomorrow, Thursday, on Radio City 91.1 FM for a khoob bhaalo time!
Meanwhile, if you did the unthinkable and missed MeA this morning, worry not. Just log on to Fun Ka Antenna on www.planetradiocity.com this evening, at 5 pm.
