WION Exclusive: 'Polite Society' cast on fighting assassins in Indian bridal costumes 

Polite Society, which comes from a British writer-director Nida Manzoor, makes us experience what most of us have been witnessing for a long time. A coming-of-age drama, young girls choosing a path that's not favourable in brown culture. However, there are several sequences, which make us enjoy the film differently.

In an exclusive conversation with WION, Manzoor, and actress Priya Kansara, talk about their project and the need to include more South Asian writers in Hollywood.

The standout moments from the film were watching women in lehengas, doing action scenes. Can you comment on that?

Nida Manzoor: I wanted to bring to create a film that brought together all the things I loved. I loved action movies, Hong Kong, and kung fu, and I love Bollywood films and my own South Asian culture. I wanted to celebrate those two things together and so it was a no-brainer for me to make an action film that had lehengas and anarkalis flowing and flying.

Priya Kansara: Yeah it was very fun to shoot as well and I think it makes all of the action sequences look so much more dynamic as well because the costumes are so beautifully designed by PC Williams, our costume designer. It just like really married the movements within the fights and that was special to kind of see on screen.

So I read reports that you performed your stunts, just like Tom Cruise, and Brie Larson. Did any of them inspire you?

Priya Kansara: Yes, a little bit. I was like I want to be like them, I am going to do as many of my stunts as possible. It is such an important part of Riya's journey as well that I felt it would really help me understand her but also selfishly like a personal thing as well to kind of want to go and to try this new skill and see how much of it I could do. It was really fun and we had such an incredible stunt team behind us so I learned so much, I was empowered throughout the whole process so I feel really lucky that I got to attempt so much of it.

From the first draft to the final project. How many changes did the script go through?

Nida Manzoor: You know it has been sort of over ten years now in the making and the first draft was wild and wacky and all over the place. If you think the film is wild and wacky, it was a whole other level. I feel really lucky, it took ten years to make the film, I got to improve my skills as a writer, and I got to find my voice as a writer and as a director. So the film I was constantly honing it, finding it, shaping it, reshaping it, and that process continued in the edit, we were constantly cutting and re-cutting and seeing where the jokes worked, where we needed to push up the sister relationship. So it was a constant process of fine-tuning and finding the film that did not ever stop until the end of the edit.

So you have introduced us to siblings who fight like assassins but over burgers.

Nida Manzoor: It is but I feel like it is truthful to siblings. You can be cruel and you can be the worst of enemies but you can be the best of friends and there is a sort of interesting heightened feeling of being in a sibling relationship.

Can you talk about the current rise of South Asian prominence in Hollywood?

Priya Kansara: It is so special to see because I know that growing up I did not see a lot of it and I think living in Britain, growing up in London and not seeing yourself reflected on the tv screens and the cinema screens that you go to locally and watch, it can be quite a confusing feeling like not feeling represented and not knowing where you kind of fit. I am not Indian enough, I am not British enough, it is that kind of weird in between and so now to be able to see ourselves reflected feels like there are so many endless opportunities and things out there for us. You can't be what you can't see. So that is so wonderful to see that kind of representation within Western cinema.

Nida Manzoor: Yeah and I still hope that there's so much work to do, there's still not enough voices, people compare the film often to 'Bend it Like Beckham' although they are quite different, it was just... that film came out twenty years ago so it still feels like there is so much work to be done especially within Hollywood to kind of empower more south Asian writers, performers across the board.