Jemima Goldsmith, who penned the screenplay for the movie “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” heaped praise on Sajal Ali and expressed excitement for the Pakistani actor’s part in the film, which will be released in the UK on January 27.
“I love her, @Iamsajalali. Can’t wait for people to see her in our film,” Jemima tweeted. She also shared a short interview clip of the ‘Alif’ actor at the Red Sea International Film Festival, currently taking place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, until December 10.
I love her ????????????@Iamsajalali
Can’t wait for people to see her in our film. pic.twitter.com/Emvsh3K4NO— Jemima Goldsmith (@Jemima_Khan) December 4, 2022
The writer also posted pictures of herself with members of the cast.
What’s Love Got to Do With It, a movie by Goldsmith that also premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year, opened the festival. With Lily James and Shabana Azmi in the lead roles, it tells the tale of a documentary filmmaker (James) and dating app user (Azmi) whose eyes are soon opened to the possibility of an arranged marriage when her childhood friend Kaz (Shazad Latif) travels to Lahore to wed a stranger chosen by his parents (Ali).
????@AzmiShabana @Iamsajalali pic.twitter.com/dDO4Uqutwd
— Jemima Goldsmith (@Jemima_Khan) December 4, 2022
Writer-director Goldsmith said she wanted to challenge the “preconceptions that a lot of people in the west have about arranged marriages” when she tackled her first script for the movie, Deadline reported her as saying earlier.
Speaking at Deadline’s Red Sea Studios along with actors Shabana Azmi and Ali, Goldsmith added that her preconceptions about the concept of arranged marriages shifted after she spent time in Pakistan.
“I saw a lot of very successful arranged marriages.”
“I had wanted to make a film that showed Pakistan in a more colorful and hospitable and positive light than perhaps we usually see in our screens in the west,” she continued. Goldsmith lived in the country for a decade after marrying Imran Khan, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan.
“It was very much a lament of friends of mine in Lahore when I lived there that the only films that win awards in the west are the ones that denigrate their country,” she added.
