‘Both father and mother have to raise their boy together. Beta padhao, beti bachao’: Richa Chadha | Eye News

Suvir Saran: Richa, why do women have to shoulder the responsibility of raising their sons right while such expectation is not had of men?

Richa Chadha: It takes a man and a woman to have a child and it takes a man and a woman to educate the child. The way parents conduct themselves, the way they come across to the world are all signs of our upbringing. What Gisele Pelicot (who was drugged by her husband and raped by dozens of men he recruited in France) said was amazing. She said, “Let shame change sides. It’s not the woman who should be ashamed of rape. It should be the man who has lost control.” So I think it’s not just women who have to raise their sons better, men ought to raise their sons better. Beta padhao, beti bachao.

Suvir Saran: Richa, you studied history. Now we are changing our history, rewriting it. What are your views?

Richa: History is like a chashma (glasses). You see the world a little bit better. You understand why you are sometime ashamed to speak in the vernacular, why we underplay our heritage, why colonialism coloured the choices we make today. History also teaches you that history will repeat itself. So you have to be smart enough to not let that happen, warn the others. My views are simple. The truth is like the sun. It will come out no matter what.

Suvir Saran: You grew up with a father who was in the Middle East. You once said you had issues with your father.

Ali: I had a communication issue, quite literally. Those days nobody was just a phone call away. You had to make an effort to walk to the STD and ISD booths and watch your allowance shrink after every call. But I think it’s very harsh to blame a child. Even that man who’s a father today has been a child.

Suvir Saran: What language do you speak in with your child? Who sings rhymes?

Richa: Right now we are just talking gibberish. Because our daughter is doing “gugu gaga” right now. “Kaun hai woh chocolate ka doggy?” That’s the nonsensical song I sing to her. She gets very happy.

Suvir Saran: Did your inter-faith marriage face any challenges? My parents defied all odds and married in 1965. Is it as difficult or easier?

Richa: See, there’s always an establishment view and then there’s the truth. So you have to live your own truth.

Suvir Saran: Both of you are outsiders in Bollywood. Did you have contacts, find it difficult to get in?

Ali: We had no contacts. We are working class people and acting is just another profession. Of course, it is becoming democratic. But there’s no calling card except talent. I went to good schools but that doesn’t mean that I am elitist or part of a privileged club that should guarantee or justify my entry.

Jyoti Sharma Bawa: Your first film as producers, Girls Will Be Girls, is much acclaimed. Did you ever think about releasing it in theatres instead of OTT, so that more people could watch it?

Richa: We did want it to be a wider experience. With independent films, there is a cost to theatre release. Yet we want the film to be accessible. Then again, you may want to watch it alone as it could get a bit embarrassing to watch with your father. Watching it at home in privacy is the best option. Strategically, we took the right call.

Ali: It was a wise decision. Of course, it has had theatrical releases in other countries. And we’re up for the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Awards in the US. Kani Kusruti, who is the other lead of our film, has been nominated for Best Supporting Actor and, of course, her other film, All We Imagine As Light, has created history at the Golden Globes already and continues to do so.

Suvir Saran: Are the Oscars everything they’re meant to be? Should we be so excited by them considering you have already won awards at Sundance?

Ali: This year has been record- breaking. About 80 to 90 per cent of the films nominated have been festival films. So a huge gap has been bridged. The trickle-down effect of that is always felt in other film industries.

Richa: And it’s not a tamasha. Nobody’s uncle is deciding ki isko dena hai (There’s no nepotism). People lobby for their films for sure. It takes money to campaign for an Oscar. But in the end, Academy members get to watch the films and then vote. Ali is also an Academy member who does this.

Jyoti Sharma Bawa: In a year, when our biggest hits, Pushpa and Animal, are male-driven, that too stereotypical, how did you think of Girls Will Be Girls as a counterpoint to the “boys will be boys” argument?

Richa: So basically Shuchi Talati, whose brother went to IIT, came up with this title. I think it’s quiet, defiant and rebellious. But when you watch the film, you’ll know why. Girls also have desires, love, embarrassment and awkwardness.

Suvir Saran: In a society that shies away from gender issues or alternate sexuality, what role can cinema play in generating conversations around it? What are your views as producer?

Richa: I think society also gets a bad rap. When you’re walking on the road in Delhi, you can still see men holding hands, or holding their pinkies, or putting their arms around each other. Straight boys do that too. We are a touchy-feely country, and that’s totally fine.

Suvir Saran: What we need in India are serious conversations about serious films that are raising the bar. What is your opinion on this?

Richa: It’s not serious, it’s sweet.

Ali: By the way, it is not a boring, slow film. It works like a thriller almost. It’s a love story, a coming-of-age film about a teenager, her relationship with her mother, an absentee father or the other way round.

Jyoti Sharma Bawa : What’s happening with Mirzapur, the movie? Also how did Munna Bhaiyya resurrect himself?

Ali: We’re actually very excited about the film. When you see me without all this hair, you’ll know I’m filming that. And a little buffed up. Also, we are going back in time and it’s the OG cast. So there’s Abhishek Banerjee, Divendu, we are bringing back everybody.

Jyoti Sharma Bawa: So Ali, tell us about your Hollywood journey, working there and working here, what is the difference? And do shed light on residuals.

Ali: So residuals are the royalties you get. There, even technicians get some royalty every time the film plays on television or wherever. There unions are stronger, the system is shaped better. They are designed for technicians, not just actors or producers.

The economics is different in Hollywood. I’ve been part of big studio films; so even a small-budget or a medium-budget film there would be equivalent to the highest budget films here.

Jyoti Sharma Bawa: Talking of bootstrapping and making films out of jugaad remind me of the making of Gangs of Wasseypur.

Richa: Gangs of Wasseypur is obviously a cult film today. But when we were making it, I don’t think anyone realised it would be such a huge hit. A lot of subjects like Mirzapur originated in the belly of Wasseypur.

BREAKOUT ACTORS

‘The script didn’t change between reading and execution, there was unlearning too’

THE FILM Girls Will Be Girls marks the debut of Preeti Panigrahi and Kesav Binoy Kiron. Preeti received the Special Jury Award for Acting at Sundance Film Festival for her performance as a high school student, navigating the complexities of adolescence and societal expectations.

Jyoti Sharma Bawa: Preeti, yours is a beautiful, vulnerable performance. You had to shoot intimate scenes, too. Did the film’s all-women crew help you with your anxieties as a debutante?

Preeti: I started out performing in college fests and IIT’s Rendezvous. Before the film, I had interacted with people from the same craft spread out across theatre and universities. The process was quite comforting, there was transparency. Saari baate khul kar hoti thi. Aisa kuch nahi tha ki script mein jo hai woh change ho jata tha baad mein (We had frank discussions. The script didn’t change between reading and execution). It is not just about intimacy but actors are also vulnerable emotionally. However, the women on sets kept a calm atmosphere that was comforting. I cried when I saw the first visuals. In my school, I was the head girl but was not allowed to take the pledge because of some politics. In the film, I also take the pledge as the head girl. Cinema is immortal, so taking that head girl’s pledge symbolically mattered to me.

Suvir Saran: Kesav, were you nervous?

I was also part of a theatre society and looked up to other theatre societies, particularly those of IIT. I was nervous because there is a lot of unlearning I did before the film. I started from zero and just surrendered myself to the director.

Questions From the Audience at IIT-Delhi

What is your greatest ‘reframe the rules’ moment?

Ali: Making this film, we had to reframe a lot of rules along the way. Actually there’s another programme that we created. We were looking for girls as heads of departments but there were no girls in the light department. So we approached Light and Light, a filming equipment company, and they gave us their studio. We got a grant from the Berlin Film Festival and hosted the first of its kind light-training programme for girls from across India. They are all working now.

Do you think one international outing is enough exposure to get funding?

Richa: India has a lot of co-production treaties with many countries, including Argentina and Estonia. You can get funds for editing or digital intermediate processes. For example, our film was edited in France.

Ali: Funds should not be your first go-to word when you are ripe with an idea. We should pat ourselves on the back ki hum jugaad mein number one hain (We are best in innovation). We managed on a shoestring budget and had to break some of our FDs (fixed deposits).

These days we see that some films do well on the festival circuit, become popular and are then pushed for a theatrical release. What about the future of cinema halls?

Richa: Earlier, there used to be single screens, you could get a rear stall ticket for Rs 50 and a balcony ticket for Rs 80. I watched so many films at PVR Saket and Chanakya in Delhi. Today, single screens are being replaced and an entire class is cut out from watching cinema. We need to make movies affordable.

STORY BEHIND THE PICTURE

Richa Chaddha with Shabana Azmi, Dia Mirza, Urmila Matondkar and Tanvi Azmi. (Express Photo)

RICHA: This was 10 or 11 days after the birth of our baby and these wonderful women came with blessings and flowers to meet our child. I am fortunate to have so much talent in one frame — Shabana Azmi and Tanvi Azmi are behind me. Flanking me are Diya Mirza (left) and Urmila Matondkar (right). It was raining heavily and we had got vadas.

Richa Chaddha with Ali Fazal at their wedding. (Express Photo)

RICHA: This is from our wedding album. We wanted to do something that represents the diversity of our union. There’s that headpiece that Ali’s naani had given to me. It’s more than 120 years old, passed through generations. Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla had done our outfits.

Ali Fazal with Paul Walker. (Express Photo)

ALI: This one is from a behind-the-scenes album on the sets of Hollywood action-thriller Furious 7. This was taken on actor Paul Walker’s birthday. And we lost him after that to a car crash.

Richa Chaddha with Abhay Deol. (Express Photo)

RICHA: This is a scene from Dibakar Banerjee’s film Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! I was doing a play with Barry John called Baghdad Ka Ghulam. Banerjee had an assistant called Kanu Behl, who has just completed the series Despatch. Watching me perform, he said, ‘We’d like to audition this girl.’ And I got the part.