Kani Kusruti, Preeti Panigrahi And Kesav Binoy Kiron On Their Remarkable ‘Girls Will Be Girls’ Journey

It’s been an astonishing few months for filmmaker Shuchi Talati’s coming-of-age drama Girls Will be Girls, ever since it premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Opening to rave reviews, the film which is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video, also recently picked up two nominations — the John Cassavetes Award and Best Supporting Performance for Kani Kusruti — at the upcoming 40th Independent Spirit Awards.

Set amidst the Himalayan foothills, Talati’s indie is centered around high-schooler Mira (Preeti Panigrahi) whose sexual awakening takes shape after a new student Sri (Kesav Binoy Kiron) enters her life, even as she continues to navigate a complicated relationship with her mother Anila (Kani Kusruti).

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As Girls Will be Girls continues its dazzling run in the streaming space, we speak to the cast of the film — as well as co-producers, actors Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal —on their experiences working on the project, what the film's acclaim means for independent cinema in India, and more.

Edited excerpts:

Richa, you have known the director Shuchi Talati right from your days in college together. From the time she introduced you to the original draft of the script, to the film that Girls Will Be Girls has become today, the project has been through a six-year journey; how much did it evolve during this process?

Richa: So, in 2018 we went to the Film Bazaar that happens in Goa, that is facilitated by the government to find co-producers specifically from Europe, and then we applied for grants. We took full advantage of the three years of the COVID-19 pause that happened in everyone's lives, and spent it in making the script better.

Shuchi, specifically, single-handedly sent it to different script labs, and it was not an easy process at all. It’s like applying for an immigrant visa forever; that much paperwork, submissions, writers’ notes, producers’ notes, actors’ notes, vision for the film, it just goes on and on. But it was totally worth the effort. (smiles)

The script just kept getting more and more refined; it found its voice, honesty and empathy. And it's very original in that empathy, which is in the gaze of the maker. I think that the director herself went through a healing process, because this kind of writing is very cathartic. For instance, I assume that her relationship with her mother maybe got better as an impact of going through this.

COVID-19 was horrible for all of us, but perhaps for some creative people who made use of the isolation and the solitude, it worked out! So, I wouldn't say that the script went through a sea change, because the kernel of the idea was already there, but it got into these script labs and just became better and better.

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Ali, you have spoken about the fact that it was challenging to match the expectations of different co-producers across different countries, as everyone had varying sensibilities. How did you balance this out?

Ali: I think we played mediators, and pretty good ones. Especially Richa, because she had it all the way from the point of inception. But being first-time producers was a very big learning experience for us. There were issues, and we tried to tackle everything to the best of our abilities. Our entire objective was to get this vision on the floor somehow and just plan it. And even then after that, there were so many obstacles that just came and you just have to face them.

Preeti, a lot of the script is inspired from the director’s own recollection of her adolescent years, the books she’s read, and the experiences in school that she’s had. How much time did you spend with her and what kind of workshopping was done to match her ideologies with yours?

Preeti: Firstly, when I read the script, it really felt like, 'Wow, this is me!' It started from that point on; there was also a lot of dialogue and note-sharing that happened while we were on set, because there were a bunch of women present during the shoot, and everybody had their respective experiences.

Speaking of the workshops, we had one with Dilip Shankar sir, who also cast us, and it was a lot of introspective performance; all the emotions, all the notes, all the intentions, everything that was inside us. We just had to work on how to tap into that. So that was a really fun process, and it added a lot to who I am and how I approach acting now. Though Shuchi wrote about the school experience she had back in the ‘90s, I could resonate with a lot of things though I come from a very separate generation. I believe that these experiences are very universal.

In an earlier interview, Shuchi said that she had a mentor, Clare Downs, who really unlocked everything for her in the script when she addressed the boyfriend character: ‘He’s very charming. And underneath charm there is sometimes a river of contempt.’ Kesav, was this how she described Sri to you?

Kesav: Oh wow, well… it wasn't put that way, at least to me. She said, ‘You don't have to put him in a spectrum of good and bad; he's also figuring out himself.. just as she is.’ What really helped me was that the outline of this character is very similar to mine, in that I've also stayed outside India for a few years and then come back. But I did need answers on how then am I (Kesav) different from Sri.

This is when Dilip sir and Shuchi ma’am helped by making me realise that maybe I am a very simple person, but Sri is more complex. Like Preeti said, the workshops really helped to go within and just keep layers of multiple intentions which is common in everyone.

Kani, you were reluctant to come on board this film initially. And people who have only watched the trailer understand why perhaps — it almost feels like there is going to be a predatory nature to your character of Anila. How did you overcome this hesitancy?

Kani: Yes, that was my initial reaction too, but after I read the entire script, I didn't feel like that's what she was doing. But I still wasn’t able to get a sense of Anila and why she acted this way. How can you play someone if you don’t completely understand them? We tend to put most people in a box, but the truth is that everyone can have grey shades and many complexities. Shuchi somehow managed to pen that into the script, but my hesitancy came from me thinking I would fail in interpreting this character.

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Shuchi was confident that I could pull it off, but it took me time and it was a slow process. I have been in the same boat before as a theatre actor where sometimes, you just have to blindly trust your director and a character comes out of it. 

See, playing a character with shades of grey is not the problem, but this was an unfamiliar shade of grey even for me. It’s not that I have to have experienced that personally, but as an actor, you want to at least know or hear of someone who has been in that zone.

I’m super aware of the greys within me, and I'm also extremely open to my close friends. In fact, there is complete nakedness, and there is no mystery left in me (laughs). But that is not to say that I’m simple; I’m complex, but my complexity is very transparent to my friends and to myself.

So, whenever I come across something or someone that is new, I immediately observe it. Anila, for me, was someone I was totally unfamiliar with. However, so many people have texted me after watching the film and told me how they could relate to Anila or that some of their mothers have been that way! I wish I’d known earlier; I’d have talked to them and gotten more insight.

It’s been an important year for independent cinema in India with not just the success of Girls Will be Girls on the international awards circuit, but also what All We Imagine As Light has accomplished. Do you think the events of 2024 will herald some sort of tangible change in how the film industry functions in the years to come?

Ali: I wouldn't call it validation, but a sign in the right direction I suppose was when a big producer said he’d love to do this next script with me — and in the same breath, also asked, ‘Will you guys co-produce it?’ That was really cool. Maybe some sensibilities might be aligning after all.

Preeti: But it's also very difficult to identify it with the year per se. 2024 turned out to be like this, but in 2023 we had no idea it would be this way. We have to see this as a longer part of changing cinema, because there have been such great independent films before, so maybe with these current films, we'll reflect back on those earlier titles and bring them up. Hopefully it creates a journey where more independent cinema can come into the frame.

As young debutant actors, how much did the presence of several women technicians on set help towards making it a safe space for you, especially during the intimate scenes?

Kesav: Honestly, it did help a lot. In the beginning, I wondered what difference it would make. And then suddenly, in one such scene, there was one of the spot boys on the set, and I just felt his eyes… it felt so uncomfortable. I spoke to Shuchi ma’am, and he was immediately asked to leave. It was a very closed set, and somehow there was this comfort. We were allowed to see the monitor for every intimate scene, and only if we were fine with it, would it then go ahead. That really helped towards building our trust.

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Preeti: Since the very beginning of this project, our producers, our director and casting director were very transparent with us. They informed us about everything that's going to be there in the script and how we were going to perform it.  Just having all these women around me made me feel like anything that I do here is okay, and that I could take it on to my own personal life; that this awkwardness and vulnerability is okay. The kind of intimacy we have usually seen in cinema is just so glamorised and made to be quite perfect. When we don't get the same thing in our personal lives, we're very disappointed. But here, it's a changing intimacy that we see in the film, which is quite a gift.

Kesav: I want to add that we had an exercise even for the intimacy scenes, just as we had for the dance scene or any other sequence. It was considered a standalone scene in its own right, and the emotions and intentions behind it were practiced. We had rehearsed it, so that helped a lot.

Finally, Ali and Richa, what has been your biggest lesson from turning producers for the first time?

Ali: Make sure the food truck reaches on time. No set will ever function if the people are not fed. That's my biggest takeaway; they should be fed, and the food should be good, by and large. (laughs)

Richa: I think it's very humbling to be on this side for sure. What I've learned is that the journey for any kind of production is so long that you better like the people you're working with. You have to sort of get along, because the journey is sometimes longer than the output.

Of course, the film is forever. But whoever you’re working with on a day-to-day basis — the co-producers, international collaborators, and so on — you definitely have to be friendly enough to spend that chunk of time together without getting into each other's heads or ego clashes, because that really disrupts the creative process.

The reason this film has turned out the way it has is because Kesav is not insecure or intimidated of the women in the film, and vice versa. None of them got in anybody's way; they all gave each other space, and they were all there for cues. They were all just there for each other.

Girls Will be Girls is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video