Nitya Mehra: I was told, just add boys to your story

A still from Big Girls Don’t Cry

Years before she entered the film industry, Nitya Mehra knew one thing for certain - that one day, she would tell the story of her childhood spent in a boarding school. Big Girls Don't Cry is the realisation of that long-cherished desire. Mehra's idea took a concrete form during the pandemic, when she gave birth to a baby boy. "I didn't know when the time would be right to tell this story. When I got pregnant four years ago and was convinced that I was having a girl, I thought, ‘Oh my God! I'm going to leave something for that little girl.' I had a boy, which is even better because he will learn everything about girls through this show," smiles the creator-co-director.

Nitya Mehra. Pic/Yogen Shah

Big Girls Don't Cry - starring Avantika Vandanapu, Dalai, Akshita Sood, Lhakyila, Afrah Sayed, Aneet Padda and Vidushi - tells the story of a group of friends in an all-girls boarding school, as they experience sisterhood, rivalries, heartbreaks and discover who they are. To the creator, the series is significant for the simple reason that there are hardly any stories told about young girls. "There are no all-girl stories out there. I am not talking about older girls. There is Four More Shots Please, and I am so happy about that. But where is the story about girls, who are on the cusp of adulthood and navigating their identity? How often do we see authentic representation of school life in India? I don't want an entire generation of Indian girls saying, ‘Where are shows about us?'"

But making the series wasn't easy. Before Prime Video put its might behind her creation, Mehra shopped it around and heard what served as a glaring reminder of the industry's gender prejudice. Mehra, who co-directed the show with Sudhanshu Saria, Kopal Naithani and Karan Kapadia, recalls, "I was told, ‘We like it, but just add boys to your story. Make it 50-50 and it will be amazing.' I was appalled. I thought, ‘Do you not see how unique this will be? You haven't heard the story of girls; nobody has. The disparity between stories of all-men and all-women is crying out to you loud!'"