Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal turn producers, announce first venture
Actor couple Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal have now turned producers. Their first project will be a coming-of-age story called Girls Will Be Girls. It will be produced under their newly-launched banner Pushing Buttons Studios. The film will be directed by debutante filmmaker Shuchi Talati. It is the only Indian script invited to the prestigious Berlinale Script Station 2021, said reports.
The film is set in an elite boarding school in the north of India. It will follow the story of Mira, a 16-year-old girl, whose rebellious nature invites problems for her. Mira and her mother will be shown growing up together as the movie advances. Understandably, the mother-daughter relationship will form the heart of this movie.
Talking about Girls Will Be Girls, Chadha said the movie is "relatable, often cruel but never hopeless." "It's honest awkwardness will make you chuckle, not weep. It's full of relatable, lived-in episodes that one finds oddly satisfying... The mother in our story routinely dodges the self-sacrificing stereotype of the typical Indian mom — she's complicated, grey, and not a martyr," her statement read.
The Berlinale Script Station is a creative lab that selects 10 projects from across the globe every year. The film's script also holds the feat of being the only Indian project at this year's Jerusalem Script Lab. It will be presented at Jerusalem Film Festival in July. The movie has Sanjay Gulati of Crawling Angel Films and Claire Chassagne of French banner Dolce Vita Film as co-producers.
Notably, Talati recently won the New York State Council on the Arts Grant for the script of Girls Will Be Girls. She and Chadha have been longtime collaborators. As students of Mumbai's Sophia College, the duo had co-directed a documentary about adults living with autism and Down's syndrome. "She is definitely a filmmaker to watch out for," Chadha said about Talati.
Fazal and Chadha have joined the long list of actors who have become producers. Actress Anushka Sharma's Clean Slate Filmz has been lauded for its projects like Paatal Lok and Bulbbul. Recently, Alia Bhatt also announced her production house Eternal Sunshine Productions. The first project being produced by Bhatt is Darlings, which features Shefali Shah, Vijay Verma, and Roshan Matthew.
