Interview with Avneet Kaur: Choosing to portray a family drama and giving it the twist of a love story is intriguing, to say the least. There are too many things here that one needs to take care of – family dynamics, the shape of eccentric characters, and the blossoming relationship between the leads – a cocktail that only a few have gotten right to this date in Bollywood! The first that comes to mind from the recent past, which stole the audience’s heart, is Bareilly ki Barfi (2017). Needless to say, I walked into ‘Luv ki Arrange Marriage’ with the same curiosity, and I am happy to report that it has passed my expectations.
Directed by Ishrat R. Khan, Luv ki Arrange Marriage (2024) follows the story of Luv (played by Sunny Singh) and Ishika (played by Avneet Kaur), who are an arranged marriage match for each other until Ishika rejects Luv during their first meeting. Soon after, they – along with their families – are forced into confinement together as a riot breaks out in the city. While initially turbulent, Luv and Ishika start to like each other, but there are two other people who also develop feelings for each other in the meantime – Luv’s father and Ishika’s mother, both being single parents. Which of the two love stories finds actualization? Well, you can catch the film now on Zee5 Global with your family and enjoy a thoroughly comedic ride from your drawing rooms!
We had the opportunity to quickly catch up with Avneet Kaur, the film’s lead actress, about her latest release as follows:
Ahendrila Goswami: Hello Avneet! Congratulations on your upcoming film, Luv ki Arrange Marriage. Your film is all set to premiere on the OTT platform Zee5 Global. Do you think, post-pandemic, we, as an audience, are finally in the space where we give equal importance to OTT releases and theatrical releases?
Avneet Kaur: I feel yes. I think post-COVID, everything has completely changed in terms of OTT. People have started watching more content on OTT because you can access it easily, and there’s so much variety, I think, when it comes to content. So…yeah, and I personally love to watch something on OTT as well. Not that I don’t like going to theatres, but I love to watch something at home, in my space, when I’m just not in the mood to go out. So, I think that has completely changed; OTT has completely changed that after COVID.
Ahendrila Goswami: What, according to you, would be a good recipe for a romcom and why?
Avneet Kaur: A recipe for rom-com? Personally, I really like rom-coms, but I think a rom-com can include, like a story, a beautiful message also at the same time. I like it when there are happy endings, obviously. So these are some of the things…but something that really makes our film completely different from a normal rom-com would be the fact that has a beautiful story and that there are family values that are shared; and at the same time, there are beautiful messages that are conveyed throughout the film – there’s sacrifice, there’s love; there’s so much life to it, so much realness to it – I think that’s what makes our film a little different.
Ahendrila Goswami: So, since you have now worked in both spaces – the television industry and the film & OTT industry – how do these spaces differ in terms of the demands from an actor?
Avneet Kaur: Differ… I don’t think it’s different. I think…are you talking about the format or…what?
Ahendrila Goswami: No, in terms of just preparation as an actor, story and…
Avneet Kaur: See, I have done a daily soap myself. I have done a show myself, and I took like two-three months to get into the character, I remember when I was doing a warrior-princess. It wasn’t an easy character because it hadn’t been done before. I literally had to do horse riding. I had to learn sword fighting. I had to learn gymnastics. There are so many that were involved at that time and there are so many things I learnt for this specific character itself. I feel like, no, it’s not like that, you have to work on the character as well. I have done that in the past, and I have done a similar sort of thing where I did a movie too. So, the time that was taken was the same. I had to take two-three months for the character, and I did that. I did workshops for a daily soap. I have done workshops for an OTT film as well.
Ahendrila Goswami: Considering the action-heavy drama, propaganda films and films like Animal that seem to be sweeping the theatrical space, do you think rom-coms have the capacity to make a comeback on the big screen?
Avneet Kaur: Absolutely! Who doesn’t want to watch a nice rom-com? And I think it has a lot of potential, but somehow, it is not…there yet. I think people should be writing more scripts in that sense, in that way. And I feel like, yeah, there should be a theatrical release for a proper rom-com like how Animal was because people love watching that content; people love watching rom-coms, and they feel much happier; they feel much lighter. So, I think we should be writing more scripts.
Ahendrila Goswami: Is the character of Ishika from the upcoming film similar or different to the real-life Avneet and why?
Avneet Kaur: Ishika is definitely different from what I am in real life, and that is what interested me, that is what got me hooked to this character because I wanted to do something different. I wanted to play someone who is very brave and confident and then she’s very outspoken. She has her own thoughts, and she’s not scared at all. She is a complete extrovert when it comes to gelling with people, which I sort of am not, honestly, in my real life. I think Ishika is completely the opposite of how Avneet would be, and I love that fact… I love when you get that chance to sort of become somebody else for, you know, some time. I enjoyed doing that, for sure.
Ahendrila Goswami: What will be that one happy memory you look back upon when you think about the filming days of Luv ki Arrange Marriage?
Avneet Kaur: There are so many things I feel…everyone was so happy on the set, and everyone was giving their best for this project. But something that made me happy personally was the connections I made; I felt like family on the set, and I felt like we were all working as a team, as a family, and I got to know so many people. I genuinely felt like I was with my family. The relations that I have made, I think, will last forever, so this was something I really enjoyed.
Ahendrila Goswami: Lastly, congratulations on your Cannes moment this year! Could you call your next project, Love in Vietnam, a dream project?
Avneet Kaur: Yes, I think I could definitely call it that! I got a chance to represent my country, and it was such a historic event when we launched the poster of Love in Vietnam at the Cannes Film Festival because it hadn’t been done before. There has not been a film in which India and Vietnam have come together and collaborated; this is gonna be the first time that it’s ever going to happen, and that was a very proud moment for me to be involved in such a historic event. Then, later on, we created history again when I walked the red carpet at Cannes. I did not really know at that point that I would be the youngest Indian actress to walk down the red carpet. I got to know it a few moments before that, so I was really happy and nervous at the same time. But I enjoyed representing my country there at the Cannes Film Festival, and I couldn’t be more proud and couldn’t feel more blessed.
