Kolkata: The Sundance Film Festival crowd was pleasantly surprised that a feature film in competition sparked off conversations about sexuality and coming-of-age experiences of girls in an Indian boarding school. “Girls will be Girls” was awarded the Audience Award for World Cinema Dramatic Competition.
The icing on the cake was Preeti Panigrahi, an animation student of SRFTI, who played the lead in the film and won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting.
“Girls will be Girls”, the debut production of actor-couple Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal, follows the journey of 16-year-old Mira (Preeti Panigrahi), whose sexy, rebellious coming-of-age is disrupted by her young mother (Kani Kusruti) who never got to come of age herself. AS Krishna Swamy, head of SRFTI’s animation department, said, “An animator should be a capable actor too. This award is an indication of that. At the institute, we are extremely proud of her achievement.” Preeti, a former student of Hindu College in Delhi, was referred by a friend to send her audition tapes for this project. “When I read the script, I liked the fact that it triggered conversations about sexuality – something that we hardly see in our movies or in real life. During the course of shooting, I also had conversations about sexuality with my mother,” Preeti said.
The Sundance experience was memorable though initially she didn’t have an idea of what to expect from the festival. “It was snowing all around. I went for the first screening on Jan 20. It was nice to see how the audience slowly started to warm up to the film. They laughed and talked about how this indie film was different and tried to bring up issues that are often not spoken about in Indian cinema,” she said.
The fact that a female director helmed such a film and had so many women in the crew was also noticed. On being asked about shooting intimacy scenes, she said, “We used to have a close set whenever there was an intimate scene. And both the lead women on set - director Shuchi Talati and cinematographer Jih-E Peng ensured that we were okay with what was being filmed. Consent was their priority. It was a very safe space to become vulnerable.”
Unfortunately, Preeti had no idea that she would win an acting award. Since she had a flight to catch back home, she left the festival before the ceremony. “My director, Shuchi Talati, received the award on my behalf. I think I wouldn’t have been able to speak as well as she did if I were to give an acceptance speech,” she said.
Come mid-Feb and Preeti is waiting to return to SRFTI to resume her second year classes in animation. “I finished this shooting before I joined SRFTI. My friends are very happy,” she said.
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