'Konkona just walked up, and both of us froze. She was tearing up, and I was like this is unbelievable.'
'We had Tannishtha Chatterjee, Divya Dutta, Rasika Dugal, Dia Mirza... women I've idolised.'
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?
I think she is doing very well. She is a confident woman and always takes risks but also very calculated risks.
She will research before stepping into anything.
By the end of the film, she took a very wise decision.
I feel like she would also end up somewhere like me. But she's a science student, I'm a humanities student. So she might have gone into research somewhere.
If she becomes an engineer, which I would not want her to become, I think she would have this great life of traveling on the side, meeting new people. Also being regularly in touch with her mother, and probably helping her mother run up a business on the side.
I do think of Mira every time I watch the film but I think I look at it more from my performance perspective, not as a character perspective.
But I also think of Mira every time anyone reaches out and tells me that they feel very seen. So, Mira exists in all of these people.
Usually, actors say that they don't like to watch themselves on screen because they tend to get very critical of their performance.
Yes, the first time I watched the film I didn't like it because I was very critical of myself.
I was like, no, this is not nice. Why am I so bland here?
Why is my face so quiet here? I should be doing something.
Now whenever I watch it, I watch it for the audience. I feel like I'm sitting with a bunch of people and I want to constantly engage with their reactions.
And every audience is a new audience. So every audience has a fresh reaction. It's like watching the film all over again.
There's a video from the screening where we see the likes of Dia Mirza, Konkona Sen Sharma crying and hugging you after watching the film. What was that moment like? What did they say to you?
It's so difficult to put into words.
We just got done with the screening and I was just standing near the exit and everyone just stopped everyone and started clapping.
That's when Konkona just walked up, and both of us froze. She was tearing up, and I was like this is unbelievable.
There we had Tannishtha Chatterjee, Divya Dutta, Rasika Dugal, Dia Mirza... you know, all of these women I've idolised and grown up looking forward to their work and everything.
I was really happy because it was just a bunch of powerhouse women, like all these heroines and not heroes.
I mean, of course, you can look up to your male role models, but I think I was very happy that I had a bunch of female role models in that moment. It felt like a very protected environment.
The industry can become a competitive space but I really look up to the people who make it not a competitive but a collaborative space.
They look like they were all kind of sheltering me. They had this touch, which was like, we will take care of you.
It' a very, very, very beautiful moment in my life.
You have done a few commercials before this. How did you get to know about Girls Will Be Girls?
Because of the pandemic, we weren't going to physical classes in college.
I was at home and that is when a lot of work was happening in the industry.
Whatever ads or short films were coming my way, I could do them, without missing my classes.
Later, I got to know about Girls Will Be Girls right when my college had finished.
I'd given my final exams and a friend reached out to me. She was interning with the casting director and had seen my commercials.
She said they are doing a film and that, why don't you send your introduction.
I used to think this was Dilip Shankar's (the casting director for Girls Will Be Girls ) first directorial. I was very excited for it because he's a legend.
While speaking about your audition, your director Shuchi Talati once said she liked that you didn't bat an eyelid while most other girls were coy in their audition. There was this quiet confidence in you already, as she said. Did you ever ask Shuchi or Producer Richa Chadha what they liked about you?
I remember the first time I met Shuchi, which was in Bombay, she told me that it's surreal to see you finally, in flesh and bones. She had only seen my videos till then.
I was like, wow, she already likes me so much. (Smiles)
I got to know about the producer's reaction way later. That was in Sundance.
But in between, there was one time right before the shoot when we were doing some look test. That's when Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal were getting married.
They had come for a very brief visit to see how things are going on. That's when Ali Fazal walked in and said, 'Hey, how are you? You're amazing.'
I was like, wait, this person? This is huge! I'm a big fan of Guddu bhaiyya (Ali's character in Mirzapur).
The film was the last screening at Sundance and I was supposed to leave in a couple of hours. We had we just got done with the screening and it was a very emotional screening.
When we were walking back home, Richa said I just saw Preeti walk down the aisle for the Q&A and the thought suddenly flashed in my head when we were watching her audition and just froze for a second because we knew we'd got her.
It sounds extremely cinematic and dramatic but this is how it happened.
It's just a lot of things happening at the right time.
Were you always sure of making a career in films?
Yes. Just to have like a security backup, I was focusing on academics too.
I was pursuing history honours in my graduation.
Right now, I have also enrolled in animation. This is not like a backup plan. I always wanted to learn how to make films and finally I'm getting that opportunity to do it.
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