BRADFORD actor Arif Javid is hoping a new film out on national release this weekend will be his lucky break onto the big screen.

The 50-year-old from Odsal plays the part of doting dad Tawheed in what is being billed as the first ever British Asian Rom-Com to make it into British cinemas.

Finding Fatimah opened last night at Bradford’s Cineworld and at the Leeds-Bradford Odeon in Thornbury, although it has been doing a tour of premiers around the country and sending proceeds to charity, benefitting the Penny Appeal’s Worldwide Orphans Fund. Arif Javid made sure he was among the first audiences in his home-city to see it.

Made by British Muslim TV, its cast stars Shobna Gulati, who is best known for playing Anita in Victoria Wood’s Dinnerladies and Sunita Alahan in the long-running soap opera Coronation Street, and also Denise Welch, of Waterloo Road fame, and British comedian Dave Spikey.

Shobna Gulati, who is currently appearing in a stage production of Grease in Dubai, plays Arif’s wife in the film, which tells the tale of a man who struggles to find love in the British Asian community because of the stigma of his divorce several years earlier.

Others already familiar to the big and small screens who appear in the film alongside Arif are Danny Ashok, from the 2010 film Four Lions, who is shy Shahid seeking love, and Nina Wadia, who was Zeyneb in Eastenders and plays the part of Shahid’s mum.

Filmed mostly in Manchester, the Indie comedy tackles the issue of divorce, which is a no-no in Shahid’s community, said Arif.

“He is also a Bangladeshi and not Pakistani which brings up other stupid prejudices. It’s a modern-day love story using internet dating following Shahid in his search for a permanent true love. My aim was not to make Fatimah’s father a dictatorial father, laying down the law - we’ve moved on from that. He has his own idea of a suitor for his daughter but eventually a switch is flicked in his brain and he gives his approval. It’s a feel-good film ,” he added.

Arif, who had a part in Kismet Road, a 13-episode medical soap filmed around St Luke’s Hospital in Bradford screened on Sky Digital and the Community Channel, is hoping for roles in two upcoming productions including a Sikh story called Boy With A Top Knot. He is also an actor with Theatre In The Dales travelling on open-air tours. He said: “Finding Fatimah will be big and I hope it will lead to me getting other roles. At a time when there is so much negativity around anything to do with Islam, this film is a breath of fresh air.”