Ali Fazal, Richa Chadha's Indo-French Co-Production "Girls Will Be Girls" Begins Filming (EXCLUSIVE)

"Girls Will Be Girls", a female drama written and directed by debutante Shuchi Talati, began principal photography in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand.

The film is set in an elite boarding school in a small town in the Himalayan hills of northern India. India and follows the story of a 16-year-old girl, whose rebellious coming of age is hijacked by her mother who never reached adulthood.

The Indo-French co-production is produced by Indian studios Pushing Buttons, a company founded by Indian actors Ali Fazal ("Death on the Nile") and Richa Chadha ("Gangs of Wasseypur") and co-produced by Sanjay Gulati of Crawling Angel Films in India (Berlinale 2020 selection "The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs") and Claire Chassagne of Dolce Vita in France Films (2019 winner of Venice and Cairo "A Son").

Malayalam film actor Kani Kusruti ("Pada") plays one of the leading roles and the film also marks the debut of emerging actors Preeti Panigrahi and Kesav Binoy Kiron who also have leading roles.

Earlier this year, the project won the Arte Kino Prize and the VFF Talent Highlights Award at the Berlin co-production market and in 2021 he received a production grant from Aide aux Cinémas du Monde in France and was selected for the Jerusalem Script Lab and presented at the Gotham Week project market in New York.

Talati said, "I'm understandably overwhelmed by the process and very excited to be doing my first film. I have confidence in the script since I received the validation thanks to the many grants that our project received. I hope that I can live up to the expectations. I work with a group of fantastic actors and a team great, so I'm grateful."

Chadha said: "I am grateful for these humble beginnings because I always wanted to be behind good quality indies. Shuchi and I have been friends since college and I'm happy to be a part of her journey. I'm sure she'll make a great feature film that has huge international prospects."

Fazal said, "We started this creator lab with the goal of nurturing new talent. 'Girls Will Be Girls' is the appropriate first step in the film for us in that regard."

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