Priyanka Taslim's "The Love Match," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Love Match by Priyanka Taslim.

The entry begins:

The Love Match begins with a prologue explaining tropes in Bengali natoks—the Bangla-language equivalent of Bollywood. Like a Bollywood movie or natok, this young adult romantic comedy is meant to feel cinematic, full of tropes, twists, turns—and even a musical number or two. The Love Match stars Zahra Khan, a Bangladeshi American teen who schemes to fake date the boy she’s set up with to keep both of their families happy, even as they sabotage the relationship from within. However, her real, growing feelings for a new coworker at the neighborhood tea shop where she waitresses might ruin all her plans.

Because I wrote The Love Match to feel like an American natok, I’ve pondered a potential cast to play the characters often. In an ideal world, there would not just be a large pool of South Asian diaspora actors to choose from, but specifically Bangladeshi actors, especially actors who can play teens, but since that’s not the case, I think Zahra would best be played by someone like Charithra Chandran, who became known after the second season of Bridgerton. Charithra has a Bambi-eyed, almost Disney-princess-ish disposition, but she seems spitfire beneath the surface as well, which is perfect for Zahra.

Nayim is the easiest answer for me because I always took inspiration from...[read on]

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My Book, The Movie: The Love Match.

--Marshal Zeringue