Actors Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal launched their production house Pushing Buttons Studios and said that their venture’s first project is Girls Will Be Girls.
The film will be helmed by Brooklyn-based filmmaker Shuchi Talati, Variety reported. The film is the only Indian film invited to the on-going Berlinale Script Station this year and has also been selected for the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film Lab.
The Berlinale Script Station is an annual summit and networking platform of the Berlin International Film Festival. It selects 10 projects each year to support and showcase.
According to the report in Variety, the film is set in an elite boarding school in a small Himalayan hill town in northern India and follows the story of a 16-year-old girl, whose rebellious coming-of-age is hijacked by her mother who never got to come-of-age.
Talking about the project, Fazal told Variety, “This is the first time that Richa and I are collaborating on a film as producers and the experience so far has been very rewarding. This film being our first is close to our hearts. I am also excited that our studio will enter the market with such a progressive, female-led story. We hope to be able to tell thought-provoking and universal stories with humour and love.”
Chadha told Variety that the film’s story is relatable and “often cruel”. She added that the film’s “honest awkwardness will make you chuckle, not weep”.
The film’s director told Variety that she likes her work to “challenge dominant narratives around gender, sexuality, and the Indian identity”.
Recommended
According to the official Berlinale Script Station page, Talati’s most recent short film, A Period Piece, was selected for the South by Southwest Film Festival.
Crawling Angel’s Sanjay Gulati and Pooja Chauhan and Dolce Vita’s Claire Chassagne will co-produce the film, along with Chadha and Fazal.
Chadha and Fazal were supposed to get married in April 2020 but had to postpone the wedding due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.