Jemima Khan spills the beans on her 'biggest critics'

Since kickstarting promotions for her movie "What's Love Got To Do With It?" recently in London, United Kingdom, British screenwriter and film producer Jemima Khan has been on a roll.

The 48-year-old shared anecdotes from the pre and post-production of the movies, in her latest interview with Geo News. 

She also shared the responses and reviews she has received from critics, friends, and loved ones following the movie's private and limited screenings.

Jemima — who is most famously known in Pakistan as the first wife of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan — also shared what her children, Qasim Khan and Suleman Khan thought about her film. 

When questioned whether they had seen the movie and how they reacted to it, the British national said her sons' reaction has been the "highlight of my whole experience" and they are her "biggest critics".

"They are not rom-com lovers and don't like those kinds of films. They are my biggest critics," Jemima said.

She added that her sons are British-Pakistani and Muslim kids, so whether they liked the film or not was very "important to me".

"I got them to see it [the film] and [...] at the end of it, I could see them being like a little tearful and I also heard them laughing and they said 'Amma we're so proud of you'," Jemima shared on an emotional note.

She maintained that her children knew how hard their mother had worked on the project.

"I literally thought 'Oh well, if no one likes it, this is the moment I'm proud of'," she said.

She also further spoke about wanting to show another side of Pakistan to the world through her movie.

“I wanted to show the colourful, beautiful, joyful place that I knew when I was in Pakistan as opposed to Pakistan we often see on the Western screens," the filmmaker said.

"You know quite often in films such as Zero Dark Thirty and Homeland, you see Muslims and Pakistanis depicted as the baddies and Pakistan is seen as a really scary, dark place," she said.

Jemima added that she got a chance to make the romantic comedy version of Pakistan, with Working Title Film that "invested in rom-coms, with a beautiful cast with Sajal Ali who is a beautiful Pakistani actress and very talented Shabana Azmi from India who is an absolute goddess and Lily James who is wonderful and Emma Thomson, Shahzad Latif, and others.”

Jemima shared that one of the best things that she learnt in Pakistan was to develop faith in "neeat" (intention) and she hopes that Pakistanis will judge her film through her "neeat" which is aimed at portraying them as "normal people and not scary creatures".