What does love have to do with it movie

A pitch perfect ballad of emotions, this romantic comedy (from the makers of Love Actually and Four Weddings and a Funeral) follows a filmmaker who decides to document her best friend’s journey toward arranged marriage. Moving between London and Lahore, this is a story of love, friendship, tradition and iconoclasm.

How do you find lasting love in today’s world? For documentary-maker and dating app addict Zoe (Lily James, Rebecca, Darkest Hour), swiping right has only delivered an endless stream of Mr. Wrongs, to her eccentric mother Cath’s (Emma Thompson, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande) dismay. For childhood friend and neighbour Kaz (Shazad Latif, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), the answer is to follow his parents’ example and opt for an arranged (or “assisted”) marriage to a bright and beautiful bride from Pakistan. As Zoe films his journey to marry a stranger, she begins to wonder if she might have something to learn from a profoundly different approach to finding love. Striking a touching balance between respect for cultural customs and belief in the power of romance, What’s Love Got to Do with It? offers an impassioned take on the notion of love, romance and finding that special someone.

DirectorShekhar Kapur

CastLily James, Emma Thompson, Shazad Latif, Sajal Ali, Rob Brydon, Asim Chaudhry

Festivals and Awards

What's Love Got To Do With It? is an upcoming British cross-cultural romantic comedy. The story follows Zoe, an award-winning documentarian, as she finds a new subject in her childhood friend Kaz. He has recently announced his imminent arranged marriage (a concept that Zoe fails to understand). In an effort to document the events of an arranged marriage and wedding, she slowly expands her understanding of love. Set in London and the Pakistani city of Lahore, the film showcases a beautiful romance amidst dynamic, diverse cultural representation.

The screenplay was written by Jemima Khan and pulls from her own experiences of marrying a Muslim man and living in Pakistan in her early adulthood. In a Deadline interview, Khan explained how her cultural identities converged and inspired the movie. Incidentally, her experience parallels the character Zoe, as both women started out with similar ideas.

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"I lived in Pakistan for 10 years. I went there when I was 20 and I came back when I was 3o, And I went with, I suppose, some sort of preconceived ideas about arranged marriages. I ended up seeing lots of really happy arranged marriages, including my ex-husband's niece, who was living in the same house with us and whose arranged marriage I watched up very close when she was in the selection process. I came back to England and saw some of my friends kind of struggling. And [I thought], 'You know, maybe I could arrange a marriage for you..'"

With the film releasing in theaters soon, here's everything to know about What's Love Got To Do With It!

What's Love Got To Do With It: The Plot

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The official synopsis is as follows.

"How do you find lasting love in today’s world? For documentary-maker and dating app addict Zoe (Lily James), swiping right has only delivered an endless stream of Mr Wrongs, to her eccentric mother Cath’s (Emma Thompson) dismay. For Zoe’s childhood friend and neighbor Kaz (Shazad Latif), the answer is to follow his parents’ example and opt for an arranged (or ‘assisted’) marriage to a bright and beautiful bride from Pakistan. As Zoe films his hopeful journey from London to Lahore to marry a stranger, chosen by his parents, she begins to wonder if she might have something to learn from a profoundly different approach to finding love.”

Related: Which Netflix Romance Shows and Movies are Worth Watching?

What's Love Got To Do With It: The Cast & Crew

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The film stars Lily James (Hulu's Pam and Tommy, Cinderella, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again), Emma Thompson (Nanny McPhee, Sense and Sensibility), Shazad Latif (Rogue Agent, Star Trek: Discovery), Sajal Aly (Mom, Zindagi Kitni Haseen Hay), Shabana Azmi (Halo, Fire, Arth), Asim Chaudhry (People Just Do Nothing, Click & Collect), Mim Shaikh (Freehold), Jeff Mirza (Eternals), Iman Boujelouah (Kal & Cambridge), Mariam Haque (Finding Alice, This Is Going To Hurt), and Sindhu Vee (Starstruck, Matilda).

The film is written by Jemima Khan (The Case Against Adnan Syed). It is produced by Nicky Kentish Barnes (About Time), Tim Bevan, and Eric Fellner. It is executive produced by Ron Halpern, Anna Marsh, Joe Naftalin, Sarmad Masud, Sarah Harvey, Lucas Webb, and Katherine Pomfret. The film is produced by Khan's Instinct Productions and Working Title Films (Bridget Jones, Love Actually, Notting Hill).

Notably, this film is directed by Shekhar Kapur, marking their first foray into the rom-com genre. Kapur explained why they signed on to the film during a 2022 Toronto International Film Festival panel.

"The inherent quality of humanity is what drew me. And: if I could go in and find a way to extract that humanity first for myself, and then fall in love with all my actors and then extract it from them, and, if we could all fall in love while we were making the film; what you would see there would not be constructed. It would come to all of us being in love, being very honest. That's how real emotion works when everybody on the set is in a circle of love and trust, That's what happened. Because we all believed."

What's Love Got To Do With It: The Release Date

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What's Love Got To Do With It debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2022. The film will have a theatrical release in U.K. cinemas on January 27, 2023, with a subsequent worldwide distribution. The premiere date for the United States has not yet been released.

Related: Best Leading Men in Romantic Comedy History, Ranked

What's Love Got To Do With It: Everything Else

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This is not the first collaboration between Shazad Latif and Lily James. Both actors met when Lily starred in a play with Latif's former roommate and later in the 2021 BBC miniseries The Pursuit of Love. Latif reflected on their working relationship in a 2022 Variety interview.

"Lily is one of my closest friends. She's like a sister to me. I read [What's Love Got To Do With It?] a while back, then it disappeared, then it suddenly started racing towards being made because Lily wanted to be involved. I keep telling Lily I owe her my whole career now, 'cause she's done a movie with me."

While Latif gives earned praise to costar Lily James for her role in getting the movie off the ground and into production, Shazad Latif's statement of "owing her my whole career now" after their collaboration is a vast overstatement. Shazad is cast as Captain Nemo in Nautilus, an upcoming Disney+ series that delves into the origin of the famed protagonist of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, serving as a prequel to the famed Jules Verne story. His upcoming role, collaboration with James, and booked schedule show a rise in leading-man roles for Latif.

The film's score is also created by Nitin Sawhney, an Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement Award-winning and Mercury Prize-nominated composer. Alongside Sawhney in the film's soundtrack, a British-Pakistani songwriter and producer named Naughty Boy will feature several tracks.

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