Fourteen years ago almost to the day, a low-budget movie written by and starring little-known actor/ comedian Nia Vardalos, hit the screens and went on to become a major box office success and one of the most beloved romantic comedies of all time.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding, based on Vardalos’ real-life experiences, struck a chord with audiences worldwide thanks to the extremely relatable characters and the very familiar familial situations presented in a warm and humorous way.

The critical and commercial success of the film (€368 million against a production budget of €5 million) paved the way for a sequel, but it took its sweet time in coming, with Vardalos busy with her private life in the interim.

Although the actual film only went into production in 2015, the idea came to Vardalos many years prior. As she explains in the film’s production notes, she and her husband, actor Ian Gomez, adopted a daughter and she threw herself wholeheartedly into motherhood.

On the first day of her daughter’s kindergarten, Vardalos recalls: “I was crying so hard at the idea of my daughter starting school. Another mom, I think in an effort to calm me, said: ‘In 13 years, they’ll go off to college and move away from home’.”

That instant, she says, was the spark that ignited the idea for the long-awaited sequel. “I was struck by such panic and fear at the thought of my daughter leaving me that I realized I had morphed into my own overbearing, bordering-on-suffocating, Greek parents!”

In the same way that that original film successfully captured the joys, trials and tribulations of large families; My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 chronicles the struggles faced by Toula Portokalos-Miller (Vardalos) and her husband Ian (John Corbett) 10 years following the events that closed the original film. They are still very much in love, but raising a child, now a teenager, has taken its toll on the couple.

Our film isn’t just about Greek communities, it’s about all families

Their daughter Paris (Elena Kampouris) is 17 years old and on the cusp of adulthood and Toula and Ian try to avoid smothering her and let make her own choices and mistakes. Added to that are the pressures faced by Toula in taking care of her aging parents Maria and Gus (Lainie Kazan and Michael Constantine), with the inevitable presence of her extended family and friends. Thus the screenplay, which Vardalos wrote over a period of four years, began to take shape.

“I wanted to show that the pressure that accompanies the female-parenting experience is tremendous and self-defeating. I know I can’t be volunteering at my daughter’s school, and at work, and have time for my family and my parents. I can’t be everywhere, and yet I keep trying,” she explains, no doubt echoing the sentiments of millions of people everywhere, who may find much to enjoying in the comedic look at parenthood.

That Vardalos brings her own personal experiences into her writing is what makes the story resonate so strongly with moviegoers, the drama within arising from the characters’ own experiences.

“I don’t necessarily like to write a villain, because I think the conflict is usually within the internal struggle of a family, so it’s common in all of them,” she explains. “There isn’t a terrible boss or a horrible situation. It is just that this is a family problem, which needs to be solved. And getting through something difficult with someone is what brings us closer.”

Director Kirk Jones concurs: “Everyone who goes into the movie theatre has had an experience with family. Our film isn’t just about Greek communities, it’s about all families – brothers and sisters, parents and children. Everyone sees their own family onscreen.” With a subplot concerning Toula’s parents Maria and Gus, the director adds: “This time out, the film is about three generations of relationships and it’s saying that if you enter into a relationship, you can never take it for granted. Remember, wherever there is drama, there is comedy as well.”

Vardalos reiterates that, what My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 is ultimately about, is family. “What surprises me over and over again is how everyone sees their family in this (on screen) one. The ethnicity doesn’t matter. They’re not relating necessarily to a Greek family, they’re relating to their family. It was a happy accident. I was writing about mine, and I found out I was writing about theirs, too.”