Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal’s maiden production Girls Will Be Girls shares a history with the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2021, the Shuchi Talati-directed venture was chosen for the Berlinale Talents Script Station, and a year later, it won the VFF Talent Highlights Award and a grant that enabled the new producers to train 10 aspiring women gaffers. This year, Chadha and Talati attended the international film festival to present the coming-of-age movie to prospective international collaborators.

Chadha, who launched Pushing Buttons Studios with Fazal, considers it a huge honour to be a part of the world-renowned festival.

“Our script was in the Berlinale Script Station in 2021, and won the Arte Kino and VFF Talent Highlights Award in 2022. It feels surreal to be on the other side. While we are still [taking baby steps] as producers now, such encouragement helps in setting our long-term goals as filmmakers. It felt cool to say that I came to Berlinale to take important meetings with collaborators,” laughs the actor-producer. 

Paris-based Luxbox, which works towards international sales of movies, represented Girls Will Be Girls at the festival officially. Set in a boarding school in Uttarakhand in the late ’90s, the film — starring Malayalam actor Kani Kusruti, Preeti Panigrahi and Kesav Binoy Kiron — revolves around a 16-year-old girl who shares a difficult relationship with her mother.

Abhinay Deo’s latest web show, Brown, featuring actor Karisma Kapoor, has been included in Berlinale Series Market Selects section of the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival. While the filmmaker admits that such honours add gravitas to a director’s filmography, they aren’t the be-all and end-all. 

“Given the kind of importance Berlinale holds in the festival circuit, it definitely adds weight. Making it to an event that’s known for the honesty with which they run the festival and choose films from across the world certainly adds value to your filmography. Having said that, it does not define a filmmaker. What defines us is what we create. When our work gets appreciated nationally and internationally, it feels great. Film festivals are a feather in the cap, not the cap itself,” says Deo.

Brown happens to be the Blackmail (2018) and Delly Belly (2011) director’s first web series. Talking about it, Deo goes on to talk about another project, 24, which he did with actor Anil Kapoor.

“24 was like a web series, but it aired on TV as there was no OTT in our country back then (in 2013). But conceptually, 24 was my first web series. It had limited number of episodes, was made on a high budget and was well-thought-out. In that sense, Brown is my second web project. But purely from the OTT point of view, it is my first,” he ends.

Director Abhinay Deo couldn’t have imagined starting the year on a better note. His maiden web series Brown, led by Karisma Kapoor has been included in the Berlinale Series Market Selects 2023 that will take place between February 20 and 22.

Deo who is thrilled with the selection, enthuses “It’s an honour for me that my upcoming series Brown has been chosen to be showcased at the Berlinale Series Market Selects, one of the 16 shows chosen from across the world. The entire cast and crew has worked tremendously hard for the series and I’m glad that India debuts at the Berlinale film festival with this series.”

The filmmaker adds, “The list of [the selected] series is incredible. One of them is the new show from the makers of Euphoria.” Deo's Brown is based on Abheek Barua’s novel City of Death, and sees Kapoor as a cop investigating a high-profile murder case in Kolkata.

As much as she was gripped by the subject, Kapoor was initially skeptical about fronting such a dark show. “Karisma has always been a glamorous actress and in this series she has done a complete 180 degrees flip to portray a realistic character and has gotten into the skin of the character,” says Deo.

The filmmaker is currently working on a slate of feature films and web series under his production house, RDP Pulp Fiction Entertainment, with Neeta Shah.

Sonakshi Sinha’s debut web show, Dahaad, is set to premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival that will be held next month in Germany. The actor, who plays a cop in the show, cannot contain her excitement.

She says, “The series is so special. We have been waiting for it to release, but I guess the producers were waiting for the right moment. And the news of the show going to the Berlin International Film Festival is the best news for us. It is huge. It’s the best way to bring our show to the world and Indian audiences.”

Besides Dahaad, actor Karisma Kapoor’s web show, Brown, has also made it to Berlinale. It will be a part of Berlin Market Selects 2023. Ask if doing the rounds at such fests lends gravitas to a project in India and the 35-year-old agrees: “It is great for everybody involved in the project. But as far as a viewer taking a project more seriously because it has travelled to a festival is concerned, I think it’s subjective. A viewer will decide that for themselves when they watch the show. For us, Berlinale is a big deal. I hope the viewers also enjoy watching the show as much as we enjoyed making it.”

She is currently busy with another OTT project, filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Heeramandi. She also confirms being a part of Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, co-starring Akshay Kumar: “I will start working on it soon.”