Telling stories of Indian ethos

Richa Chadha

The world premiere of ‘Girls Will Be Girls’ was held at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20. When we took the film there, we were just expecting people to enjoy the film and understand it because, at its heart, it was an Indian film that was being premiered at an American or a world festival. We were overwhelmed with the positive response; it was very well-received and loved by the audience and critics alike.

I was recently asked if the two awards — The Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic category and the Special Jury Award for Acting for lead actor Preeti Panigrahi — were a vindication of my faith in the director, the story and the actors. Well, I don’t presuppose any resistance to the kind of stories we want to tell. If better stories are told, they will definitely find an audience. This has been proven time and again. You can spend millions on a poor script and not one person will buy a ticket. At the same time, you can make a small film with a good heart and it will always find its own audience. The director, Shuchi Talati, and I have been friends for over 15 years. We met when we were in college and did many student films together. I really think she has got a very special, fresh voice. She is going to have a very long and illustrious career.

I was deeply involved in the development of the story. It has come through in its present shape after going to three very prestigious script labs (one of them being the Berlinale Script Station 2021). I knew what it was going to be and it turned out the way we had imagined: a dual coming of age between a mother and a daughter. At the heart of the story is this relationship. How a young mother understands how to reach out to and relate with her daughter and vice-versa.

Indian films such as ‘All That Breathes’ (Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner and Oscar nominated), ‘Nocturnes’ (winner of World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Craft at Sundance 2024) and ‘Girls Will Be Girls’ have done well at Sundance recently. This success owes itself to the efforts of the independent filmmakers and voices. They don’t get any recognition and support from the mainstream film business in India and that is a fact. Unless there is somebody who comes on board later to either present the film or something, it is a very difficult scenario. It is purely the gumption of the independent filmmaker and the agencies and institutions that support independent films. To some extent, our film was helped as it was presented at the NFDC Film Bazaar. It was a part of the Co-Production Market in 2018.

This is my first film as a producer. The job of any producer is to protect the vision of the director to their best possible ability. I don’t think I did anything extraordinary, except defending Shuchi’s creative vision and hopefully providing her with whatever she needed to tell a good story, including the cast.

Thankfully, taking a film to the larger world is not that difficult today. There is an entire ecosystem that takes care of it: there is a sales agent; we had co-producers in France. It was a very rewarding journey and the victory lap of the film is still continuing as it is going to the SXSW (South by Southwest festival, held in America) next month.

Ali (Ali Fazal, husband and co-producer) and I have been very clear about the stories we would like to tell the world. These will be stories of Indian ethos that can work well with the global audience or Indian stories that can travel across India and outside India as well.

— Richa Chadha is an award-winning actress (As told to Sarika Sharma)

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