Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal's debut production Girls Will Be Girls secures funding from CNC Cinema Du Monde

Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal's maiden production venture, Girls Will be Girls, via their banner Pushing Buttons Studios has won the 'Aide aux cinemas du monde’ grant that supports foreign filmmakers.

Variety writes that this grant will cover about 25% of the film's production budget.

According to a press release, besides Pushing Buttons, the feature is backed by Sanjay Gulati and Pooja Chauhan of Crawling Angel Films and Claire Chassagne of Dolce Vita Films. 

Girls Will Be Girls is set in a boarding school in the hills and will centre around a teenage girl’s tumultuous but loving relationship with her mother. Newcomer Shuchi Talati is attached as writer and director of the coming-of-age drama.

"Richa and I are thrilled that being new producers, we're making the correct choices for our first production. We're grateful to our French co-producers, Claire from Dolce Vita Films and Shuchi for their efforts in securing us this prestigious grant. It makes our maiden production an Indo-French one." said Fazal in a statement. 

Chadha had previously said that the shooting will take place in Uttarakhand's Dehradun, Mussoorie and Nainital, locations she found apt for the story. She had also spoken about how she had wanted an all-female crew, explaining that a feminist story is always “refreshing” when told by a female voice.

Girls Will Be Girls was selected as India’s entry for Berlinale Script Station and Jerusalem Script Lab this year. It was also presented at the recently concluded market, Gotham Week which took place in New York this September.