Speaking about their wedding documentary, “RiAlity,” Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal described it as a humorous little attempt and a case of “life is stranger than fiction.”
The two unveiled the documentary’s first look in October of last year. The filmmaker is Rahul Singh Datta.
Richa and Ali discussed their wedding video in-depth with Naman Ramachandran, the international correspondent of the worldwide entertainment magazine Variety, during the Cinevesture International Film Festival 2024 (CIFF).
“This is being ‘thopoed’ on us because in our defence it’s our cameramen and a very close friend, Rahul. He brought four to five friends of his, they started shooting, documenting our lives. That started documenting us one or two months before our wedding.” Ali Zafar said.
Looking back, Ali recalled how Rahul told them: “I don’t want you guys to talk sitting on a couch as if you are doing interviews.” Ali then went on to say: “We were not interviewed throughout that entire process. It is from the perspective of everybody who was shooting.”
He added: “It was actually very funny, and wrong on so many levels. But it’s about two artists and they could be anywhere in the world, just struggling to make this wedding happen, and make our families happy. And at the same time doing things that we do, taking up jobs that we don’t want to take up but that’s what is going to pay the bills, and for this thing. So yeah, it’s a cheeky little attempt.”
Richa added: “We got approached by some channels, who were like ‘aapki wedding ke liye kuchh interactive programme banate hain’. So, I went to these couple of meetings and you know these kinds of shows apparently, they do very well, because India is a marriage-obsessed country.”
Continuing her story, Richa said: “So, initially it started as fun and games, like both of us documenting each other’s lives. I remember I was shooting for ‘Heeramandi’ at that time, so I was joking that being in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s costumes is a great practice for being in a wedding trousseau, because they are so heavy. Ali was shooting for ‘Mirzapur’, so that is why he had that haircut during our wedding.”
