Richa Chadha reveals that the scene in Heeramandi for which she gave 99 retakes was not used

You are mistaken if you also believed that Richa Chadha’s iconic dance sequence where she took 99 takes was the one in ‘Heeramandi’. The actress's brief but captivating role as Lajwanti in the series has garnered a lot of praise from fans.


Taking to her Instagram Stories on Wednesday, the actress disclosed that her most-talked shot was not included in the final edit. Richa Chadha posted a screenshot of a fan edit of her song Masoom Dil Hai Mera on her Instagram stories. The screenshot read, “When she said she took 99 takes for this.. I totally agreed… like god look at her…”


In response to the same, Chadha wrote, “Let me try to explain this last time. The shot I needed 99 takes for has not been used in the show lol. It wasn't a good take. I probably sucked that day (tear-face emoticon). Bass. Samajh jao yaaron (That's it, now you all should know).”

In one of the episodes of ‘The Great Indian Kapil Show’, the star cast of ‘Heeramandi’ appeared as guests. Richa had questioned everyone present there, “What is your highest number of retakes?” to which Sonakshi Sinha responded, “I don't think I went over 12.” Aditi Rao Hydari added to this by stating, “In dance, it can go over 12-13.”


To everyone's surprise, Richa revealed, “I think my score is the highest. 99! I almost hit a century. You know, it's not easy. People think it's easy. Imagine that you're dancing with about 200 to 300 extras watching you, and you're unable to perform well. But when you overcome that, you feel like, ‘Wow, I didn’t know I could do this.'”


Heeramandi, which is set in the backdrop of pre-partition India, centers on the struggle for dominance between the British government, nawabs, and courtesans. Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the 8-episode series is available to stream on Netflix.