Art & Entertainment

'Ms. Marvel' Directors Say Show Reflects Their Own Multicultural Identities

Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who have co-directed the streaming miniseries Ms Marvel featuring the first South Asian superhero, recently spoke about the show's multicultural aspects.

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Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who have co-directed the streaming miniseries Ms Marvel featuring the first South Asian superhero, recently spoke about the show's multicultural aspects.

Talking about their roots and how they perceive the world around them, Adil and Bilall said in a statement, "We are Moroccans, and we are Muslims who were born in Belgium."

Drawing a parallel between themselves and the titular character, Adil said, "We were born in a Western country, and somehow as teenagers, we never felt 100 per cent Belgian, but if you drop us in Morocco, we also will never feel 100 per cent Moroccan."

He added: "In a similar fashion, Kamala Khan feels that she's not 100 per cent American because she's a Pakistani girl, but if you drop her in Pakistan, you can be sure that she doesn't feel she is 100 per cent a Pakistani girl as well."

Bilal said they wanted to tell the story in a non-stereotypical way.

"For Ms Marvel', we knew we didn't want to have the old conventional Hollywood characterisations of a Pakistani South Asian Muslim family. We wanted to make them realistic, modern, nuanced people who everybody could relate to," Bilal said.

Ms. Marvel' is streaming on Disney + Hotstar.

[With Input From IANS]