Richa is the daughter of New Delhi-based vocalist and playwright, Sushma Ahuja, and a Pakistani Hindu father. Richa Ahuja acted in several plays right from her childhood through her acting career on screen. She made her first film appearance in Praying with Anger, an experimental English film, which also marked the directorial debut of M. Night Shyamalan during his days as a student. She then moved on to perform in Hindi and English theatre as well as projects in Chennai, where she lived. She also trained under Ebrahim Alkazi, the founder of the National School of DramaNew Delhi, when he formed the Living Theater Academy of Drama and featured in six of his productions. Subsequently, she began to receive offers to play roles in Hindi televisions serials and appeared in Parampara, Safar, Sathya and Shanti. She then got an offer for a Tamil serial, Suzhal and relocated to Chennai, after which she also featured in Oviyam and Panam Penn Pasam. Richa had been looking to get a breakthrough in film roles, and an offer from Mani Ratnam also did not eventually materialize. She then appeared in her mother Sushma Ahuja's directorial venture, the 1998 romantic filmUyirodu Uyiraga, featuring Richa alongside Ajith Kumar. Richa took up the offer, after another popular actress had opted out of the role due to date issues. Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, with whom Sushma worked in the silent moviePushpak, encouraged Richa to take up this project. The film was reportedly based on a real event which had occurred in the early 1990s. The film released to positive reviews from film critics. A reviewer praised the film as "a clean movie with no masala stuff" but criticized the "weak story-line", while also praising the performances in the film. During a holiday to France, she became involved in a French adaptation of Girish Karnad's play Hayavadana and subsequently learnt the language and appeared on stage for the play 45 times. She then relocated to France to feature in a film titled Le Mystère Parasuram, which took two years in production. Despite the average success of her previous Tamil film, her next venture, Mani Ratnam's Dumm Dumm Dumm saw her feature alongside Madhavan and Jyothika in a secondary supporting role.
