‘Girls Will Be Girls’ to premiere on Prime Video on December 18

Shuchi Talati’s Sundance-winning Girls Will Be Girls will premiere on Prime Video on December 18, the makers announced on Wednesday.

Shuchi Talati’s Sundance-winning Girls Will Be Girlswill premiere on Prime Video on December 18, the makers announced on Wednesday. An intricate coming-of-age, the film centres on high-schooler Mira (Preeti Panigrahi) and her romantic and sexual awakening. Kani Kusruti—radiant in All We Imagine as Light, the other buzzy awards title from India this year—essays the role of Mira’s controlling single mother. Kesav Binoy Kiron plays an international exchange student at the hillside boarding school who draws Mira’s affections. 

A debut feature by Talati, Girls Will Be Girls premiered in competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, winning two awards. The film was also showcased at Cannes, Toronto and the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival besides others. An Indo-French co-production, it is backed by Ali Fazal and Richa Chadha’s production banner, Pushing Buttons Studios, and is their maiden offering. 

Speaking at a trailer preview in Mumbai, Richa Chadha said the film is made for Indian sensibilities and deserves to be watched by domestic audiences. 

“Starting from Sundance, our film has won the Audience Award at major festivals which means that independent films can also be entertaining. They can make you laugh and chuckle and have a lightness,” the co-producer said, stressing that it is not a “message” movie. 

She cited the success of films like All We Imagine as Light, Santosh, Shameless and Nocturnes as proof of the vitality of Indian independent cinema despite constraints. “We are in a period of flux because of a lot of change in commercial cinema and streaming. But having said that, I am blessed that this is a direct-to-digital release because it takes a lot of pressure off independent producers.” 

Ali Fazal said he is fatigued with cinema that is obsessed with “largeness”, that relentlessly pump one’s adrenaline without texture or depth. The actor turned producer hopes to push envelopes with layered, intimate narratives like Girls Will Be Girls.

“This is the kind of cinema we have come up loving and we know that our audience loves it too. They are going to theatres to watch this content. It’s not something outlandish or unwarranted that we are offering,” Ali said.