Gurinder Chadha gets ready to shoot, score and laugh

March 5 2014

Filmmakers old and new share experiences with fans and fellow professionals…

• First ever British Asian Film Festival concludes
• Gurinder Chadha talks about Partition film, musical stage adaptation of “Bend It Like Beckham” and “It’s A Wonderful Afterlife“
• Meera Syal calls for stronger support for British Asian film industry
• Festivalgoers respond well to scenes from new film, “Amar, Akbar and Tony“

FILMMAKER Gurinder Chadha said she is just waiting to cast an actor for the role of Lord Louis Mountbatten to begin shooting on her epic Partition drama.

The director of the hit film “Bend It Like Beckham” (2002) also told an audience gathered at Watford Palace Theatre on Saturday (March 1) it wouldn’t be like anything they had seen before on Partition. In August 1947, two different nations were created from the sub-continent – India and Pakistan – and it led to one of the bloodiest episodes in 20th century history, when whole communities were displaced.

“It’s looking at exactly what happened at that time and it is based on top secret documents that tell a very different story from the one we have been told,” Chadha disclosed at the inaugural British Asian Film Festival.

She spoke on the second day of the three-day of the festival, which also screened two of her films, “Bend It Like Beckham (BILB)” (2002) and “Bride & Prejudice” (2004).

On the first day, festivalgoers saw early cuts from a new British film, “Amar, Akbar and Tony” and heard its the director Atul Malhotra and the main male members of the cast as well as Rishi Rich, who composed music for the film.

Pravesh Kumar, British Asian Film Festival director and moderator with Atul Malhotra, Martin Delaney, Rez Kempton and Rishi Rich

It is currently being edited and Malhotra hopes it will premiere at the London Film Festival in the late autumn.

Festivalgoers were also treated to Meera Syal talking about her work with festival director and moderator Pravesh Kumar on the first night.

On the second, Chadha also revealed that she had just completed writing a Christmas drama involving a mixed race couple whose relationship “is undone and put together” and explores Asian identity in a comic and entertaining way.

Describing it as a “romcom”, she said: “It’s going back to the world of “BILB”, and being truthful about life as it is for us (Asians).”

She also described how she has been adapting “BILB” for a musical stage version and said it had led her to an even deeper understanding of the themes behind her smash hit film.

“It’s about the first generation and their dreams and hopes for their children and finding out their children have their own dreams and aspirations and they are not the same.”

She told Kumar the musical stage version was “embellishing and enriching” the original.

“In two hours you get a beautiful song and dance (drama) and it’s a different journey and it’s incredibly emotional and touching.”

She hopes to workshop it next month and get reaction from theatre owners and believes it could hit the stage either at the end of this year or the beginning of next.

She also told the audience she had been offered to direct “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”, which went onto become a big huge hit for its producers and director John Madden. A sequel is now being made.

Chadha said she had not been comfortable about the portrayal of the Indian characters in an early draft, but said the final film was different.

She spoke also about her last film, “It’s A Wonderful Afterlife” (2010) saying it had been somewhat misunderstood and needed to be viewed as “a Punjabi comedy horror film” or appreciated as a “B movie”.

It fared less well than her previous films and it highlighted how tricky it could be to pick and select what films to make, she conceded.

She said her experience of “Bride & Prejudice” – loosely based on the Jane Austen classic novel, “Pride and Prejudice” had been positive and showed that a Bollywood style movie made for Western audiences could work.

“The question for me always is ‘Who is my audience?’ and ‘Who am I making a film for?’.”

On the previous evening, Syal in her talk, said she wished there was stronger structure to support Asian filmmakers and suggested that the community look towards black America for inspiration.

“You do your story and tell it with as much integrity as you can and people will come. It will transcend labels,” she said.

She felt more taboos needed to be broken and that while “Bhaji on the Beach” (1993) had started the process, it was a little dated now and narratives were changing.

Pravesh Kumar and Meera Syal

“My daughter’s will be different to mine,” she said, welcoming the shift.

After her talk, festivalgoers enjoyed a screening of the film, “Anita and Me” (2002), the film version of her award-winning novel of the same title.

On the final day, film fans got a chance to hear from actor-writer Harvey Virdi and see “West is West” (2010), the sequel to the phenomenal “East is East” (1999) and “Brick Lane” (2007) in which Virdi appeared.

The festival was organised by Rifco, an award-winning theatre company, in partnership with Watford Palace Theatre.

Picture: Brigid Larmour, artistic director Watford Palace Theatre, Gurinder Chadha and Pravesh Kumar