Focus Features and Working Title have announced the wrap of production in London earlier this week for writer/director Nida Manzoor’s new action comedy, (Peacock series “We Are Lady Parts”) feature debut, Polite Society.
Priya Kansara (Bridgerton, Half Bad) and Ritu Arya (Red Notice, The Umbrella Academy) star in the film which centers on Ria Khan, a bolshy school girl and martial artist-in-training who dreams of becoming a world renowned stunt woman. When Ria witnesses her big sister, Lena, give up on her dreams by dropping out of art school and getting engaged, Ria’s world is shaken. She believes she must save her sister from the shackles of marriage in the only way she knows how, by enlisting the help of her friends and attempting to pull off the most ambitious of all wedding heists in the name of freedom and sisterhood. Polite Society is a merry mash up of sisterly affection, parental disappointment and bold and bloody action.
Polite Society also stars Shobu Kapoor (We are Lady Parts), Ella Bruccoleri (Call the Midwife), Seraphina Beh (Top Boy), Shona Babayemi, Nimra Bucha (Ms. Marvel), Jeff Mirza (We Are Lady Parts), and Akshay Khanna (Chloe).
Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner and Parkville Pictures’ Olivier Kaempfer are producing the film with John Pocock as exec producing. The creative team is composed of cinematographer Ashley Connor, as well as many of Manzoor’s “We Are Lady Parts” collaborators. Simon Walker serves as production designer, PC Williams is costume designer with Claire Carter on hair & make up, Robbie Morrison on editing, and Aisha Bywaters serving as casting director.
“Nida Manzoor’s fierce and funny vision of West London ‘polite society’ brilliantly brings so many of our favorite things to screen: Girls behaving badly, women behaving worse, teaming up with your best mates to possibly ruin your sister’s life and, of course, kung fu.” said Focus’s president of production and acquisitions Kiska Higgs.
Manzoor is represented by WME and Independent Talent Group. Kansara is represented by IAG Talent. Arya is represented by Grandview, Conway van Gelder Grant, ICM and Brecheen Feldman Breimer Silver Thompson. Kapoor is represented by Identity Agency Group. Bruccoleri is represented by Curtis Brown Group. Beh is represented by Greene & Associates Talent Agency and Insight Management & Production. Babayemi is represented by United Agents. Bucha is represented by International Artists Management. Mirza is represented by Simon & How Associates. Khanna is represented by Independent Talent Group.
Focus Features will distribute the film domestically and Universal Pictures will distribute internationally. Joe Toto and Julia Iglesias oversaw the project for Focus Features