He said, she said...

ALI FAZAL AND RICHA CHADHA MAKE FOR A DELIGHTFUL COUPLE WHO HAVE A KNACK FOR FINISHING EACH OTHER'S SENTENCES, FINDS JITESH PILLAAI

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I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with the incredibly talented actors Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal. Fresh off the joy of welcoming their beautiful baby, Zuneyra Ida Fazal, they took a break from their busy schedules, balancing parenting duties and promoting their latest film, Girls Will Be Girls, to have a long-pending conversation with me. It was a delightful chat that I had been eagerly anticipating. Richa has been a model and a theatre actor before venturing into films. Ali too was a theatre actor before breaking into films. Their love blossomed on the sets of Fukrey (2013). After nearly a decade of togetherness, they finally tied the knot in 2022. Their interfaith marriage goes in tandem with their political views. It’s a brave move, especially in the times of Love Jihad. The couple has learnt to ignore all that and is busy being the best versions of themselves for each other and for their daughter. Excerpts…

GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS IS ABOUT THE COMING-OF-AGE JOURNEY OF A WOMAN AND HER DAUGHTER. WHAT MADE YOU TAKE UP A PROJECT LIKE THAT?

Richa: Director Shuchi Talati and I are college classmates. We’d been in talks for a long time that we should do something together. Later she went to film school in the States and I went on to become an actor here. It just sort of worked out. If she had written something else, I would have 100 percent backed it too. Besides being my closest friend, another factor that also mattered was her script, which was so amazing. It went to so many script labs, on its own with no input from me. So she’s a really talented person. And I’m so glad this is our first.

Ali: We got nominated at the Indie Spirit Awards. We got two nominations, one for Best Supporting Performance for Kani Kusruti and the other one is the John Cassavetes Award, which is a prestigious one.