Picture This director Prarthana Mohan explained how her new Prime Video rom-com ended up having the perfect Sєx Education in an interview with ScreenRant. The movie is inspired by Five Blind Dates, which focused on a Chinese-Australian protagonist, but screenwriter Nikita Lalwani applied the concept to an Indian-British family. Bridgerton’s Simone Ashley plays Pia, whose sister’s upcoming wedding has reminded their mother that Pia herself would rather focus on work than find a man. She is tasked with going on blind dates picked out by her family members just as the ex-love of her life waltzes back into the picture.

Pia’s mother Laxmi is played by Sindhu Vee, who previously guest starred in Sєx Education season 2 as the mother of Ashley’s character Olivia. It’s a coincidence that not only offers audiences a fun behind-the-scenes fact but also breathes additional life into the already stellar family storyline of Picture This. Of course, Pia’s romantic history with Charlie (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) is a large part of the movie’s appeal, but the way she navigates her family often feels like its heart.

ScreenRant interviewed Mohan about getting her dream cast for Prime Video’s Picture This, as well as whether she looked to the previous movie for inspiration. Finally, the director revealed which of Pia’s blind dates was her favorite to shoot and why.

Simone Ashley & Sindhu Vee’s Sєx Education History Added Depth To Picture This

“We Were So Lucky To Get Who We Wanted”

Mohan revealed that when she laid out her dream cast for Picture This, “Sindhu Vee was number one for Mom.” While the scenes Vee had shared with Ashley on Sєx Education were a big part of the reason Mohan found her perfect for the role, it was also one of the reasons the director worried she wouldn’t accept. “I’d already seen how they are together, so I wasn’t sure if Sindhu would want to do it again,” the director explained. “But she loved the script, and she was totally down to doing it.”

One of the reasons Vee was totally down was “because of how much more she got to do in this.” After all, it’s rare for a romantic comedy to cede so much real estate to the bond between a mother and daughter. While the first act sets up an adversarial situation, given their opposing views on marriage, their progress through the movie unveils rich layers of love and support that make for a delightful combination – and a funny one.

The director was overjoyed at how Ashley and Vee played off one another, and emphasized that “having worked together helped, and they brought so much more of the humor and the warmth and the quirkiness and the silliness between them.” But she also pointed out that getting one’s dream cast is no easy feat. “We were so lucky to get who we wanted, which is so rare.” The industry is so often full of rejection, so the caliber of talent in Picture This is already a testament to the script’s spark.

Picture This Borrows Five Blind Dates’ Concept In A Unique And Culturally-Specific Way

“I Didn’t Want, Even Subconsciously, To Have Anything Seep In”

Picture This came into being when Tara Erer, Head of Amazon Studios Originals for the UK and Northern Europe, asked producers Erica Steinberg and Ben Pugh to play with the concept of Prime Video’s Five Blind Dates. When Mohan came onboard as director, she had the opportunity to read the predecessor’s script but ultimately opted not to for a very simple reason. “I did not want to be influenced in any way by the original material,” Mohan said.

I do plan to watch it, I do want to watch it, and I’ve connected with the writer of that script online. We’ve become sort of social media buddies. But I was very mindful about not doing it prior to making this film because I didn’t want, even subconsciously, to have anything seep in.

Naturally, Mohan is aware that “there are a lot of similarities in the plot,” but she is confident that she and her team have made it their own. “It has to be because it’s a different family,” she added. “I think Nikita did a good job of bringing parts of that and then making it her own. Then, obviously, we all took it from there.” The changes to setting and cultural background already require approaching the story through a different lens, and the echoes of that are felt in every aspect.

The blind dates themselves, for example, could not happen in the way they do if an Indian family wasn’t the one sending Pia on them. When asked which of the many outrageous romantic escapades was her favorite, Mohan did not hesitate to elaborate. Though “they all were really funny for different reasons,” she highlighted Asim Chaudhry’s role as Sid in particular as absolutely “bananas.” Getting him to agree to the film was a story in and of itself: “We all wrote him letters and made videos, and Simone made a really cute song for him.”

Once Chaudhry was cast, he “workshopped his character” with the creative team so that “it wasn’t exactly the way it was written.” While filming, Mohan revealed, “We wrote up all his ideas, and then we went back and rewrote the scene, and we improvised like crazy on set because he is just unstoppable. The energy is apparent in the final cut, and he perfectly sets the tone for the zany energy of Pia’s romantic life. I only hope Prime Video offers deleted scenes, because it sounds like some of the funniest bits had to hit the cutting room floor.

Check out our other Picture This interview with:

• Simone Ashley, Hero Fiennes Tiffin & Luke Fetherston

Source: Screen Rant Plus