EXCLUSIVE: Germany’s Rohfilm, which co-produced The Lunchbox, is continuing its association with South Asian cinema by co-producing Iram Haq’s What Will People Say.

Produced by Maria Ekerhovd of Norway’s Mer Film, the film tells the story of a Norwegian-Pakistani girl who is forcibly taken to Pakistan by her family after she is discovered with a Norwegian boy.

What Will People Say, which has been selected for this year’s Co-production Market at Film Bazaar, is expected to start shooting in Norway and the Indian states of Rajasthan and Punjab towards the end of next year.

The producers are in talks with India’s Sikhya Entertainment, also a producer on The Lunchbox, to collaborate on the film.

Rohfilm co-founder Karsten Stoter said was impressed by Haq’s debut film, I Am Yours, which premiered at Toronto in 2013, while he described her new project as a “heartbreaking female personal drama with culture clashes between two different worlds.”

Stoter added that The Lunchbox’s success had proved that South Asian-themed films could work in multiple markets. “Since Germany has a [co-production] treaty with India the possibilities for bilateral co-productions are even better.”

Rohfilm also recently co-produced Hiner Saleem’s My Sweet Pepperland, Emir Baigazin’s Harmony Lessons and Rodrigo Moreno’s Reimon.

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