Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

From delivering fiery performances to lending their support to crucial causes, speaking their mind and sifting through the bullsh*t stardom brings along, Kalki Koechlin and Richa Chadha prove that they’re real-life wonder women. 

- Meghna Sharma

This is a very special shoot for us—in over 250 issues in the last 21 years, Cosmo India has never featured multiple Bollywood celebrities on a single cover. But it’s different with Kalki Koechlin and Richa Chadha. They are the stars of a rare female centric Bollywood film (Jia Aur Jia just dropped), and two of a handful of B-town actors who are outspoken feminists. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that they are thick friends—a fact that puts the cover shoot crew at instant ease.

“Yawn,” says Kalki when we prod her about whether or not female actors are always secretly competing with each other. “Since the time I’ve been in the industry, I have never seen that. I have never been in a catfight either,” she assures us. Richa doesn’t completely agree, but says it’s true in Kalki’s case. “We’ve done a lot of work together, and because of that we are quite comfortable around each other. Even the film (Jia Aur Jia) turned into one big holiday,” Richa tells us. “That’s true,” Kalki quips. “There’s a crazy wavelength that we tapped into. She’s a weird mix of extremely intelligent, and at the same time, she can be in la-la land and talk about fairies and random things!”

As we chat between shots, it’s clear to see that this ‘mutual admiration society’ between Richa and Kalki is not an act.

“I really respect her as an actor,” Richa tells us.