Actor-producer Richa Chadha says independent movies may often struggle to find their audiences in theatres in the presence of big-budget blockbusters supported by distribution and publicity channels but releasing her debut film production Girls Will Be Girls digitally was not a compromise.
Richa, who has backed the acclaimed film along with actor-husband Ali Fazal via their banner Pushing Buttons Studios, said one cannot think of shaking up the entire system right in their first film.
Directed by Shuchi Talati, Girls Will Be Girls started streaming on Prime Video from December 18.
Asked if it would have been a wise decision to release the film in cinemas, the debutante producer said their primary goal with the movie was to reach as many viewers as possible.
"I want to nip this in the bud. When you tell a story, there are structures like exhibition, distribution, number of screens, publicity and advertising... How the big films work... The choice for us, as filmmakers, is whether to tell the story, make the story accessible and have more people see it, or change the structure,” Richa told PTI in an interview.
"You can't do everything in your first film. You can't change the structure and tell the story. In (terms of) the big films that are hit films, none of them have changed the structure. They take the structure and they exploit the structure. We are not interested in changing the structure, we want to tell the story,” she added.
Girls Will Be Girls, starring Preeti Panigrahi and Kani Kusruti, has garnered acclaim at several international festivals, including the Cannes Film Festival, Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, and MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2024.
At the upcoming Independent Spirit Awards, the movie has received twin nominations: John Cassavetes Award and Kani for best supporting actor.
Sometimes films end up changing the "structure" but it's not intentional, added Chadha.
"With this (film) being accessible to more and more people, via Amazon Prime is what we wanted, it's not in any way a compromise. This is what we wanted, and this is what we were going for...” she said.
"We are very small fry right now. This is our first film, we can make tall statements here but the reality is that this was the best move for the film, and we have to do justice to the film,” she concluded.
