'Polite Society' director: 'Some wanted me to make movie on white family'

Polite Society filmmaker Nida Manzoor said in the film's early development; she was pushed to shift the movie focus to a white family instead South Asian.

During an interview with Digital Spy, the 33-year-old said she faced several wrinkles in the initial phase of the film, which happened more than a decade ago after the script's first draft was prepared.

“Early on, when I was trying to get it made, I had people wanting me to make it about a white family rather than a South Asian family,” she added.

“I had people wanting to take out the action: you know, kind of bizarre requests. she continued. "I realised I was developing it with the wrong people, where it was like: ‘Can you make it more traumatic?’ They wanted the older sister character to be more in a forced marriage situation. I was like, ‘Stories about South Asians don’t only have to be about trauma and misery.’ [They] can be about joy.

“I realised early on I was in the wrong space,” she said. “I feel very lucky to have Working Title, Focus Features, and Universal behind the film, who really just empowered me to lean into the genre and the joy. So I feel like I got to make it right in the end, even if it took a while.”

Polite Society is set to open in theatres on April 28.