Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies | Tagged: emma thompson, exclusive, interview, Jemima Khan, lily james, Shabana Azmi, Shazad Latif, What's Love Got to Do With It

What's Love Got to Do with It? Writer Talks Multicultural Rom-Com

Jemima Khan (Impeachment: American Crime Story) talks to Bleeding Cool about the multicultural romantic comedy What's Love Got to Do With It?

Jemima Khan (Impeachment: American Crime Story) is experienced in making projects a reality as an executive producer. In Shout! Studios What's Love Got to Do with It? she made her screenwriting debut by adapting her life experiences on the screen. The film follows Zoe (Lily James), who's a documentary maker and dating app addict. She follows the example of her childhood friend and neighbor Kaz (Shazad Latif) for a potential arranged marriage to a complete stranger chosen by his parents, perhaps gaining a unique newfound perspective on love. Khan spoke to Bleeding Cool about how adapting her story into the modern contemporary romcom, director Shekar Kapur, and recruiting major stars from Britain and Pakistan for the project.

How 'What's Love Got to Do with It?' Works as Multicultural Romcom

Bleeding Cool: What inspired 'What's Love Got to Do with It?'
Khan: My experience living in Pakistan for ten years and having Pakistani and British-Pakistani kids inspired it. It was from living with a conservative family in Pakistan for ten years. My ex-husband's family, his sisters, their husbands, kids, and all of them had arranged marriages. I went there with some standard ideas about what an arranged marriage might look like and came away quite surprised. Having lived with…there were 26 of us in that house, a fair number of arranged marriages up close, some of them happy and sometimes even felt quite romantic. I wanted to make a story about that, having come back to the UK and talked to friends of mine who were kind of on dating apps and looking for somebody to settle down and have kids with. We talked about this, and I started the idea for the film came from me asking, "Who do you think if your parents were delegated to find with the task of finding you a father to your child or a lifetime partner, who would they choose? How would that look, and what would that be like?"

What made Shekhar the perfect director to tell your story
First of all, Shekhar was born in Lahore [Punjab, Pakistan]. He understands all these issues, and he's worked. He's an old-timer with a working title. He's a brilliant director. He also was not the apparent rom-com director, which we liked because he's more interested in the kind of truth and profound messages in a story which he brought to the project.

Can you speak about the diverse, talented cast and their performances?
We were so lucky with the cast. They're incredible. Emma Thompson playing opposite Shabana Azmi is sort of a dream come true because they're both iconic dames in India and Britain. To have them play opposite each other as friends was terrific. The same applies to Lily James playing opposite Sajal Ali, who's this massive star in Pakistan; having these two beautiful, incredible, strong, vibrant, and intelligent women playing opposite each other from Pakistan and Britain was terrific.

What's Love Got to Do with It?, which also stars Asim Chaudhry, Jeff Mirza, and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, is in theaters.

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