New Delhi: Mindy Kaling’s acting and writing career is filled with stories of office romance. Her character in The Office, Kelly Kapoor, was in love with Ryan, played by BJ Novak, and in The Mindy Project, she fell for a fellow doctor, Danny Castellano, played by Chris Messina. Since it is right on the topic, her real-life romance with co-writer and co-star Novak has also been written about in every tabloid. In a recent interview with PopSugar, she said that it is inevitable to fall for someone at work.
“It’s so hard not to fall in love at work. Seeing someone be competent at their job is the number one aphrodisiac, in my opinion,” she said, adding that workplace romances are especially common among people in their 20s who spend much of their time with colleagues of a similar age. Even so, she said she would not recommend dating a co-worker.
Hollywood’s office romances
Kaling’s relationship with B. J. Novak—something neither has publicly defined—has long fascinated fans. In recent years, the internet has largely labelled it a “situationship”, as the two continue to appear in each other’s lives while declining to clarify the nature of their relationship.
Kaling’s remarks coincide with the upcoming release of Netflix movie Office Romance, starring Jennifer Lopez and Brett Goldstein. Lopez, playing the president and CEO of a firm, ends up breaking her own rules of in-office fraternisation and starting an affair with the newly-hired lawyer played by Goldstein. The streaming platform has called the movie a “saucy rom-com and a secret office romance and the chaos two workaholics get into following their hearts.” Apart from the obvious name for the movie, Office Romance has received a fairly great response at the release of its trailer.
This is Hollywood’s latest offering in the genre that has dominated many romantic comedies. Recently, Sasha Baron Cohen and Rosamund Pike’s comedy Ladies First also worked around the same theme. Two very unlikely people—who actually don’t like each other at all—hook up as they fight for the CEO chair. But it is not a movie about workplace romance. The movie has been praised and criticised equally for the way it depicts the gender war. Another film that is creating buzz at the moment is Curry Barker’s Obsession. The two main characters also happen to be working together at the same workplace.