Original-Cin Q&A: Rom Com Writer, Star Explore Arranged Marriage Though Modern Lens

By Bonnie Laufer

The lighthearted new romantic comedy What’s Love Got to Do with It? from director Shekhar Kapur gamely crosses cultures while featuring a starry cast including Lily James (Pam & Tommy), Shazad Latif (Star Trek: Discovery) and the reliably good Emma Thompson.

Written by British writer Jemima Khan — who calls it a love letter to Pakistan — the movie centers around Zoe (James), a successful documentary filmmaker who also happens to be a dating app addict.

For Zoe’s childhood friend Kaz (Latif), the answer to romantic success is to follow his parents’ example and opt for an arranged or “assisted” marriage. Zoe films Kaz’s journey from London to Lahore where he plans to wed a stranger, a beautiful law student chosen by his parents.

Read our review of What’s Love Got to Do With It?

Pakistani director Kapur’s 40-year career includes acclaimed films like Bandit Queen and multi-Oscar nominee Elizabeth. Screenwriter Khan, meanwhile, formerly lived in Pakistan for 10 years with her then-husband Imran Khan, the Pakistani ex-cricketer who became the country’s prime minister in 2018.

Our Bonnie Laufer spoke with writer Jemima Khan and actor Shazad Latif ahead of the film’s Canada-wide opening on May 19.

ORIGINAL-CIN: Jemima, this film, which premiered last fall at TIFF, is not an autobiographical film. But there are parts of you in the lead character Zoe. What inspired you to write this and have it made into a film?

JEMIMA KHAN: As you say, it is not an autobiography, but it is inspired somewhat by my time spent living in Pakistan for 10 years. I married a Pakistani man with British Pakistani kids, and what I experienced and saw whilst I was there. Pretty much most of the characters or anecdotes or lines in the film are somewhat pilfered from real life and so yeah, it's inspired by real-life.

O-C: Shazad, it was nice to see this change of pace for you. We are used to seeing you in shows and films that are a little darker. What did you like about this script and how did you connect to your character, Kaz? Did you see a little bit of yourself in this guy?

SHAZAD LATIF: Oh, definitely. I think he's a dutiful son who is trying to do the right thing. It's always nice to do something completely opposite from what I am used to doing. My last film, Profile showed a darker side of our culture, so this was refreshing to take on. The storyline was something I related to. I've got cousins who have had arranged marriages and assisted marriages, and it's always nice to try and put the truth on screen.

O-C: Have you ever had the pressure put on you by your family?

SL: Very much (laughs). My uncle mentions it practically every week! He literally called me a few minutes ago and left a long voicemail. He sent me a lovely text after saying, now I've been married on screen, I've sort of done it.

O-C: Jemima, arranged or assisted marriages have been around since the beginning of time in practically every culture. What’s your take on them and do they really work?

JK: There's a whole range from forced marriage through to just an introduction by your parents, but I sometimes think it's kind of just as weird in some ways as a random algorithm on a dating app directing you to a stranger. The people who know you best and love you most are just trying to do their best. I guess there's pros and cons to all different approaches.

O-C: Shazad, it must have been so much fun to work on this film with your pal Lily James.

SL: She’s fantastic and we did have a lot of fun. I've known Lily for just over 15 years so our friendship and what you see on screen is real. It was one of the nicest filming experiences I’ve had so far in my career.

O-C: Your director Shekhar Kapur has a good track record but had never done a rom-com before. Jemima, it must have been a treat watching him bring your script to life.

JK: It's amazing because it's such a collaboration of visions. The first iteration of this is so different from what it ended up being. I think that Shekhar did an extraordinary job. A lot of people have asked him how he enjoyed the process because he'd never really made comedies, but I think that gave it an extra layer of thoughtfulness and truth. He's very interested in the emotion and the truth of the scene, and I think that we might not have got that if it had been directed by a more straightforward, broad comedy director.

O-C: Shazad, you spoke earlier about being the dutiful son. Your character has gone above and beyond in my eyes: he’s a good son, he’s a doctor yet his parents are adamant about fixing him up. He doesn’t object, just goes with the flow…

SL: I think what he was doing was interesting because on the surface everything's sort of blasé and he just goes with it. Ultimately, he's just doing it for his parents, but what he's trying to do is hold his family together because he's had this experience with his sister being pushed out. Internally, he’s going through so much and covering it up so really, he's going through a lot of pain. I think it's about whether I choose to please my family or follow my heart? Those two things going on at the same time is why it was an interesting character.

O-C: It takes an outsider to show the family that maybe you shouldn't excommunicate your children because they didn’t marry someone the parents didn’t “approve” of.

JK: One of the nicest things in this whole process for me has been the British Asian response to the film, particularly here and in Pakistan and so many people on social media. Watching the film has elicited conversations with their family and different intergenerational conversations that have been incredibly helpful and moving and revealing.

Personally, I come from a long line of unsuitable matches, both my parents went against their parents’ wishes. I was never going to have any version of an arranged marriage. I think the initial premise for this was having seen a lot of happy arranged marriages. I actually lived with my ex-husband’s entire family. I lived with his father, his sisters, and their husbands in one house and they'd all had arranged marriages. Some of them were happy and some of them were very ostensibly romantic, and that confounded some expectations that I had around arranged marriage.

When I came back, part of me was thinking, ‘What would it have taken to get me to the point where I'd say to my mom I've messed up so many times maybe this assisted marriage thing is worth a try?’ I don't think that would ever happen, because I'm not sure I'd have trusted my mom's judgment. That was the initial premise for the film. At what point would that be a possibility?