The Girl Who Made A Huge Splash 'In 2024'

I was like this is unbelievable. 'We had Tannishtha Chatterjee, Divya Dutta, Rasika Dugal, Dia Mirza... women I've idolised.'

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As someone new to the screen, how many times do you think Preeti Panigrahi would have seen her debut feature film, Girls Will Be Girls?

“I recently watched it for the 17th time,” the 22 year old says in a bashful voice. “It’s been an insane number of times.” Preeti won the Special Jury Award for her performance at the Sundance Film Festival. Since then, she has been touring festivals and special screenings to gauge audience’s reaction to the film. In Girls Will Be Girls -- backed by actor-couple Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal and directed by Shuchi Talati -- Preeti plays a high schooler named Mira in a tender and empathetic coming-of-age tale of her romantic and sexual awakening. “My dad has a ritual that every Sunday he will watch at least four films. This Sunday, he watched my film four times and he called me and he’s like, ‘Wow, how did you do that?’ ‘What was that reaction that you gave?’ ‘How are you so controlled?’,” Preeti -- who critics consider the standout actor of 2024 -- tells Mayur Sanap/Rediff.​com in a two-part interview.

Do you still think about Mira? Where do you see her now?