By Sanya Pandey

New Delhi, Aug 15 (UNI) Independent minded Bollywood actress Richa Chadda who has made a mark for herself with a wide variety of roles in movies like 'Gangs of Wasseypur', 'Sarbjit' and 'Fukrey', says that despite all the talk of women empowerment women in India are not independent even 70 years after independence. Talking to UNI, the actress who was here in the national capital to launch the teaser of her upcoming movie 'Jia Aur Jia' said," I don't think women are independent even today. The case of Varnika Kundu shows that women are still not independent. We have to be careful about what we wear, how we eat, whom we meet, where we go. Women can't even hangout in the day, recently they were attacked in a Bangalore's pub." Expressing her views on the condition of women 70 years after Independence, Richa, who is known for her independent views and choice of unconventional roles, said, 'everytime something goes wrong people are first blaming the victim instead of the culprit, they say that the woman was asking for it, even if its the child, they always blame the women. So women are not independent in India. Its a joke. Only a very few women from the priviledged class are quite free . The rest have to think 20 times to express or barter their opinions." Talking about her film which also features Kalki Koechlin, Richa said it is not a women oriented film. "It is a movie about two girls and not a women centric or oriented movie. We should start looking at the films normally without any labels. The movie is just about two girls who are out to have a trip and they meet a boy and then what happens is the story," she said. Richa said the movie was shot in Sweden because we have a Swedish line producer. Whether she fears being typecasted as a bold and liberated character, Richa said," I think its from the media that the typecast had come. Everytime I do something different media says that audiences remember me as a bold character. How does media know that. Its me who talk to the audience. I have done a lot of films which feature me as character with depth and silence like in 'Masaan' or somebody who is very tormented in 'Sarbjit', but people only want to remember the bold kind of stereotyping and a lot of this comes from the press. ' When asked that if its difficult for women to survive in the industry without a tag, the 'Masaan' actress said,"its difficult for everybody--women or men who don't have any godfather, famous boyfriend or mentors its very difficult to survive but its not impossible if you have talent and if you are willing to work hard you can get the goals." Richa said that as an actor she wants to keep improving everyday. 'As an actor I want to keep evolving. Trying to learn more skills, try to better myself, may be learn music or dance, whatever will help to improve my professional abilities. My target is to be happy and be content with the movies I do and to keep doing better movies in the future,'she said. 'Jia Aur Jia' is based on the life-changing journey undertaken by two very different women.The film is about a road trip along with these two strangers played by Richa and Kalki. The movie also introduces Babrak Arslan Goni as the male lead. The two girls are travelling the span of a foreign country thousands of miles away from home and they discover that life no matter how short or complicated can still be a one big deal. This film is being distributed and released by Bluefox Motion Pictures on October 13, 2017. UNI PY/AR ADG 1151