Ali, Richa open up on wedding docu ‘RiAlity’: ‘Life is stranger than fiction’

In October last year, the duo shared the first glimpse of the documentary. It is directed by Rahul Singh Datta.

Chandigarh: Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal, opening up on their wedding documentary titled ‘RiAlity’, said it is a cheeky little attempt and a ‘life is stranger than fiction’ kind of thing.

In October last year, the duo shared the first glimpse of the documentary. It is directed by Rahul Singh Datta.

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In a conversation with Naman Ramachandran, international correspondent of the global entertainment magazine, ‘Variety’, at the Cinevesture International Film Festival 2024 (CIFF), Richa and Ali talked in detail about their wedding video.

Ali said: “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.

Looking back, Ali recalled how Rahul had said to 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.”

Picking up the threads, Richa said: “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.”

Richa continued: “It was just a funny ‘life is stranger than fiction’ kind of thing. We started off with fun and games but it became much more than some celebrity wedding video.”

Ali added that they have not seen the video yet. “Five of these beautiful people have shot it, and they are the ones who see us,” Ali said about what he called ‘a working class story’.

“So we haven’t seen any of it, and we won’t see it till the end. And that’s our promise to him (Rahul). It’s a story of working-class people. There’s not too much on that.”

On when and where the documentary will be released, Ali said: “I don’t know. We have to ask Rahul. But he is editing right now.”

Richa added: “We are kind of beholden to the director because we don’t know what he shot, only he knows what he shot.”