Richa Chadha on her travel show ‘Musafiri’: I wanted to reacquaint people with their cities

After years of turning inward to find truth in her performances, Richa Chadha sets her gaze outside as she debuts with her non-fiction travel show, Musafiri. With the aim to unravel lesser-known local histories of cities, the show features her talking to people and experts to make sense of what was and what remains. The first season of the show begins with Mumbai, a city Richa has inhabited for the larger part of her life. “I have lived in Mumbai more than I have lived in Delhi, which is my native place. So, now I feel like I want to understand more of the city,” she says.

Initially, the decision to feature Mumbai was also guided by practical reasons. “As a producer, I don’t have to add to the travel and boarding costs if I shoot in Mumbai,” she says. However, along the way, Richa realised that there were many things she didn’t know about the city. “Many people don’t know how Mumbai and its people have played a role in the banking system of the world. It has also benefited from historical events such as the American civil war, which was happening far away, but left an impact on the cotton trade. That is how mills started in Mumbai. I like to look at these historical connections,” says the actor-producer.

Musafiri took shape from the research material of a book that Richa was planning to work on, for which she was documenting information. “Then I thought it might work better in a visual medium since knowing a city is so much about experiences, visiting monuments, and looking at places,” she says. That is when she began writing it as a 40-minute documentary film. She realised along the way that the duration was not enough to make sense of everything she had gathered over the years. Ultimately, she thought of turning it into an episodic series.

Richa Chadha in ‘Musafiri’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Richa’s decision to make the show was also partially guided by the changes in her perspective after she became a mother. She says, “I started looking at everything differently, right from the sustenance of life. Are we living in a polluted place? How are we going to adapt through a changing climate? How are we going to document things that are disappearing around us?”

In the first episode, Richa mentions about feeling the need to redefine her existence. “It happens to many women after delivery. You get confused about where you are because life has suddenly changed, and you are responsible for another human being. You have to feed them every two hours and it happens at your cost. I felt that identity crisis too,” she says.

That way, the series is a way for Richa to reconnect with the city and what it means to her. There is admiration in her outlook and also a deep-seated concern for what Mumbai is slowly becoming. All of this is reflected with a touch of quirk as the show makes space for curiosity without being heavy-handed. “I wanted people to reacquaint themselves with their cities. And with the younger generation reading lesser books, I wanted the show to pique their interest and act as a starting point,” Richa says.

There is familiarity with which she walks around the lesser-known corners of the city, speaking to auto drivers and passer-bys with a sense of ease. Richa recalls her first experience of being in Mumbai as a student living in a hostel: “I was fascinated by the freedom women have in this city. You can take a cab at night without worrying. That is something not seen in other cities. Having grown up in Delhi, that is the first thing that jumps out at you in Mumbai. It just lets you be.”

Richa Chadha in ‘Musafiri’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Richa finds the city fascinating for its cosmopolitanism and multicultural roots. “In the older part of the city, you get to see Bohri Muslims, Parsis and Arab-owned eataries having the writing in Arabic but they are actually people from the Jewish faith, who came in the 19th century. So many people have come here,” she says, adding how different people lend it a distinctive energy.

“I love the working-class ethos in Mumbai. At 4a.m., there is liveliness outside a nightclub and people are ending their day. And just a few metres away, some people start their day at Dadar Flower Market. Sometimes you don’t have this freedom in other Indian cities to roam around at night,” she says.

Richa wants to take Musafiri beyond Mumbai and travel across India to different cities and towns. She has already started the recce for the next season. “I want to do it as a pan-India project. The world deserves to know that one-fifth of the population lives in this subcontinent. There are so many ways the country has shaped the world through food, architecture, arts and science. I don’t think people know enough. It is important to bridge that gap,” she says.

Three episodes of Musafiri are currently streaming on YouTube, with new ones dropping every Friday.