The director of new British comedy Polite Society has said that her leading lady was "sent by the movie gods" and that she wouldn't have been able to make the movie without her.
The film combines martial arts, a heist caper, Bollywood and a tale of family honour and stars Priya Kansara as Ria and Ritu Arya as Lena, two loving sisters who fall out after Lena decides to marry a very unsuitable boy, leaving her younger sister determined to go to any lengths to stop the wedding.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, Nida Manzoor, who has previously made acclaimed sitcom We Are Lady Parts, said finding the right young actress to play the lead role of Ria was quite a task.
"It was such a long search and until I’d seen Priya, I didn’t believe I had a film," she says. "The role is so demanding. It requires someone who can do the teen angst but can also do the heightened genre nods as well as carry the film and have that lovability and vulnerability.
"The part required a physicality and comedic timing, so it was such a tall order and Priya did all of that so brilliantly. I feel like the movie gods sent her down to be in this film."
Mazoor says that she drew inspiration from her relationship with her own sister to get the sibling dynamic right for the film and Priya says she was able to tap into her bond with her younger brother for the role.
"I have a younger brother and I also grew up in a joint household and I have two cousins and they are like my sisters," she says. "So yes, I have witnessed and been a part of many a sibling fight but there is also this protection and love as well between us all. We are each other’s ride or dies."
She adds, "I think that the other thing that is also fun to develop with Ritu was with siblings you have your own language, things that only you and your siblings find funny. You’ll just look at your siblings and know that this is that thing or we’re going to do this thing, or this thing really annoys them.
"So, developing that with Ritu was really fun. I honestly felt like Rishi was my sister."
The movie also stars Akshay Khanna as the seemingly perfect husband for Lena and Nimra Bucha as his scheming mother - a woman with a maniacal cackle that would turn Cruella de Vil even paler.
It’s camp, slapstick, madcap and very genre-fluid. East is East it is not.
"I grew up loving genres of different kinds and I wanted to celebrate all the cinema I loved with this movie," says Nida. "So, it was really key to mix and match all those genres I really loved. I love movies that takes risk with tone and that’s something I wanted to try and do myself."
Polite Society is in cinemas on Friday, 28 April
