EXCLUSIVE! Richa Chadha on Girls Will Be Girls: ‘We chose not to take the box office pressure’ | Not Just Bollywood

Girls Will Be Girls has garnered significant acclaim both nationally and globally, including at its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won two awards.

Girls Will Be Girls  is a psychological drama and you will realise that gradually. Deeply engaging, Shuchi Talati’s movie explores the psychology of the young adults and a mother who is craving for love and attention. The film is much more than a mother-daughter relationship. It isn’t a frivolous teenage love story. You will realise that the teenage minds can be hugely complex.  Girls Will Be Girls  follows the 18-year-old Mira, played by Preeti Panigrahi who falls in love with Sri (Kesav Binoy Kiron) a diplomat’s son who is new to the school.

An Indo-French joint production, Girls Will Be Girls is a coming-of-age drama produced under the banner of Pushing Buttons Studios, Dolce Vita Films and Crawling Angel Films. Produced by Richa Chadha, Claire Chassagne, and Shuchi Talati with Ali Fazal serving as executive producer. Girls Will be Girls is now showing on Prime Video.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

Richa how is motherhood treating you? Is you baby girl letting you sleep?
She’s letting both Ali and me sleep well (laughs). In fact  I was having sleepless night because of Girls Will be Girls.

What does it feel to be a female producer?
It doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman. This is only our first film. Maybe I’m speaking too soon. Maybe I will find out if it makes a difference or not. In this case it has only made a positive difference. We have an all-girls production so we are very mindful of where they are going, what time they get home. If their needs are met, their mental health is okay.

How did you convince Kani Kusruti on being a part of this film?

I tried to interact with Kani but she just snubbed me. She was like ‘I go to Cannes very often, who are you?’ (Laughs). I didn’t interact much with the young actors because we felt they might get a little intimidated. Ali was always dying to talk to them, but I used to be like, “No don’t disturb their process of acting.” Because I know how hard somebody’s first film can be.

What do you have to say about women’s roles changing in cinema? Not like Mother India or Pakeezah because the arc is very different?

I hate the term, female centric cinema. People who made Mother India or Pakeezah, they are all men. People who made Mandi are also men. It’s not like men cannot tell women stories well. Recently, a filmmaker called Rahul V Chittella made Gulmohar. There are some female directors, whose work may not be appreciated like in the 80s like Sai Paranjpye, but one has to remember that there is a tenderness to the storytelling. And this year has been great for that reason. Both Shuchi Talati and Payal Kapadia’s films travel and make us proud. And a platform like Amazon supports a release like this is amazing.

What about the box-office pressure?

It was a conscious choice. We chose not to take the box office pressure. Because box office pressure is a real thing you need to have footfalls in cinema halls. My parents used to take me to watch a Shyam Benegal films at an open air theatre in Delhi. But when we used to have a family outing, we used to watch Coolie No.1.