Like many other genres or film categories, Christmas movies are starting to see a gradual shift in terms of casting, locations, and even the festive traditions explored on the screen. When it comes to English-language Christmas movies featuring South Asians, two that will likely spring to viewers’ minds are Netflix’s Christmas As Usual and Hallmark’s The Christmas Ring. But with South Asians on track to become the largest migrant community in Australia, it’s hard to believe that we haven’t seen a major Xmas movie made Down Under. 

That’s all about to change with Prawn Curry Christmas. Selected as the 2025 recipient of Screenwest’s West Coast Visions, the festive film has landed $1.5 million in production funding, and will be filmed in Perth and the South-West. It’s a dream come true for co-creators Yasmin Kassim and Menik Gooneratne. Both experienced actors and writers in Australia and abroad, the duo lean on their lived experience as South Asian Australian women to bring this authentic, feel-good story to life. 

“While most holiday movies would have us believe that everyone sits down to enjoy a roast on Christmas, in my family, it’s not Christmas without my uncle’s prawn curry,” Gooneratne tells Draw Your Box. 

It’s not just the food or Christmas decorations that deviate from the norm. Gooneratne says the movie also challenges the way South Asian families are often depicted on screen. 

“We are so excited to show  a warm and loving South Asian family with parents who are not only supportive, but deeply loveable,” she says. 

The film follows two estranged sisters (portrayed by Kassim and Gooneratne) living abroad, who rush home to Western Australia for one last family Christmas when a text message from their mother goes awry and they mistakenly think their father is dying.

Kassim, who has Indian Malay heritage, and Gooneratne, who is Sri Lankan, have developed the project with Sense & Centsability’s Founder & Creative Producer Leanne Tonkes and Head of Development Melissa Russo. 

They have also joined forces on the film with emerging Western Australia director Charmaine Murray and Mike Cowap from Princess Pictures.

“Prawn Curry Christmas is the kind of story we don’t often see on Australian screens—festive, female-led, and unapologetically multicultural,” says Tonkes. “It’s warm, messy, funny, and full of heart. And just like all great comedies, it’s built on deep emotional truths.”

Sense & Centsability – a production company known for championing diverse talent and stories – is also backing another of Gooneratne’s projects, Written in the Stars – a rom-com directed by Fawzia Mirza, starring and written by Gooneratne. 

Murray’s involvement in Prawn Curry Christmas is pivotal for the director herself. This will be her first feature film, and her appointment is fitting given the West Coast Visions initiative provides production funding for first-time feature film directors in Western Australia. Screenwest provides successful recipients with production funding of $1 million via grant funding from Lotterywest and the Department of Creative Industries, Tourism and Sport, and Screen Australia has pre-committed $500,000 in equity to the initiative.

Having the support of a production house like Sense & Centsability, as well as the injection of external funding for Prawn Curry Christmas, is a big win for both Kassim and Gooneratne. Not only have they forged names for themselves in Australia by starring in major projects such as Neighbours, but they’ve both lived and worked in Los Angeles. They’ve since been very open about the challenges of navigating Hollywood as brown women.

In 2023, the pair co-created and starred in the short film, To The Death, which followed two South Asian women in LA who must ‘fight to the death’ for a role. Why so extreme? Well, because usually only one brown woman can get the role. The satirical piece reflected their real-life experiences of being typecast or facing immense competition at auditions.

It’s exhilarating and empowering for the actors to come back to Australia and now create a film that challenges the notion that brown women are merely tokenistic, sidekick characters. 

“Yasmin and I have been given the very privileged opportunity to use our voices to elevate and amplify our communities,” says Gooneratne. 

“Prawn Curry Christmas will be the first South Asian-Australian Christmas film on the market. Yasmin and I are thrilled to be able to lead the way and rep our cultures in this space.”

While a theatrical release isn’t slated until Christmas next year, nothing’s stopping us from celebrating this well-overdue news by trying a delicious Sri Lankan prawn curry in the meantime. 

Top image source: Supplied/Franklin Marian