Director also explains long wait at the London Film Festival...

BAFTA Award-winning writer, Ayub Khan Din, today revealed that East Is East fans can expect a third film to follow his 2011 sequel West is West.

Talking at a press conference following today's London Film Festival screening of West is West, Ayub explained the cause of the film's decade-long delay : “I wrote East is East in 1981/82 at drama school, and then in 1990 a film which was kind of a follow-on. After East Is East there are a lot of unanswered questions, and people wanted to know more... about the other wife and daughters in Pakistan... Having seen lots of sequels that didn't quite capture the original was a stumbling block. What was important was to create a film in itself that was a stand-alone. For me it had to move forward both emotionally and comically.”

A semi-autobiographical culture-clash comedy, East Is East followed the woes of the Khan family in Salford, whereas West Is West predominantly moves the action to Pakistan, focusing on George's relationship with his youngest son, Sajid, and the first wife he abandoned more than thirty years ago when he moved to England.

Probed by curious journalists, Ayub admitted that he's “thinking” about commencing work on the next part in the trilogy either later this year or early next year and plans on setting it “around the time [he] left school – 1977/1978” but wouldn't reveal content ideas, vaguely suggesting it will focus more on George reaching an understanding with his older sons.

West Is West shows as part of the London Film Festival in venues across London from October 19-22 and is on general release from February 2011.

For tickets and venue information check the BFI site.

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