Focus Features and Working Title partner on Nida Manzoor’s Polite Society

Nida Manzoor

Focus Features and Working Title announced their latest collaboration POLITE SOCIETY, which recently wrapped production in London.  The film marks the feature debut for its director/writer Nida Manzoor, creator of the hit Peacock series “We Are Lady Parts” which was just picked up for a second season. POLITE SOCIETY is produced by Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner and Parkville Pictures’ Olivier Kaempfer, with John Pocock as executive producer. The creative team is composed of cinematographer Ashley Connor, and many of Manzoor’s We Are Lady Parts collaborators, production designer Simon Walker, costume designer PC Williams, make up & hair designer Claire Carter, editor Robbie Morrison, and casting director Aisha Bywaters.

POLITE SOCIETY is a London-set anarchic action comedy that follows 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. 

Priya Kansara

POLITE SOCIETY features a cast led by and introducing Priya Kansara (Bridgerton, Half Bad), Ritu Arya (Red Notice, The Umbrella Academy), 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).

Focus’s president of production and acquisitions Kiska Higgs said, “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.”

Ritu Arya

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.