Jemima Khan, an English screenwriter and producer, has recently shared her candid views on the central theme of her forthcoming film, What’s Love Got To Do With It? In an interview with the Gulf News, Jemima Khan talked in detail about the old-age concept of arranged marriages, modern love and romantic-comedy (rom-com) films.

Sharing her opinion about rom-coms, Jemima said, “I’m ruined by romantic comedies, I feel like they have destroyed my whole life and that includes all my friends’ lives too!”

Talking about the central idea behind the story of her new film, she said, “It originated from an idea that I had ten years ago when I came back from Pakistan to London at the age of thirty. I spent a lot of time reflecting on marriage after seeing many successful arranged relationships in my ex-husband’s extended family, which was pretty conservative. Our marriage was only the non-arranged one,” she added.

She further said, “At that time, I had a lot of friends who wanted to settle down and have children but were finding the process quite difficult. So, it really started from there. I would go up to them and say, ‘Okay, so who would your parents choose for you? And if that doesn’t work out, let me set up your marriage for you’. This also got me thinking, ‘What if I hadn’t gone to Pakistan at the age of 21 and instead had an arranged wedding?’ How would I even get to the point of accepting this? How many heartaches or frogs would I have to kiss to get to the point where I would tell my parents that I’ve messed up and it’s their time to shine now?”

“Well, I think there is a huge difference between forced marriages and assisted ones. There is no place for the first one in the modern world. Whereas you can call anything an assisted marriage. It’s everywhere around us, it’s basically a set-up by the ones who hold you dear and know you the best. It’s not that far different from your friend setting you up with someone or a dating application. It’s just a different style of courtship, helping you meet the right person,’ according to her.