PA
Filmmaker Gurinder Chadha has revealed she is making a Christmas Carol-style festive film which stars “an Indian Tory that hates refugees”.
The Bend It Like Beckham director discussed the state of the independent movie industry in the UK as part of the first session in the Government inquiry into British film and high-end TV.
Appearing in front a Culture, Media and Sport Committee at Westminster on Tuesday, Chadha said it is still more difficult to get films made with a cast of colour as she feels there is a perception that viewers do not want to see films that do not “culturally reflect them”.
Reflecting on an independent Christmas film she is trying to get made, she said: “I’m making (Charles Dickens’) A Christmas Carol, but my Scrooge is an Indian Tory who hates refugees – but then we go on that journey with him, and hopefully they have reclamation.”
She added that she has told the Prime Minister about the project and he claimed he said: “‘Oh, don’t make me look bad.’ And I said: ‘I don’t have to do that for you, Rishi.’”
Chadha said the film is “fun” and “British” and “very close to Dickens’ original theme” due to the cost-of-living crisis.
However, she revealed she has “struggled to get it off the ground” partly due to the lead being Indian.
She added: “By making it an Indian Scrooge it changes everything in terms of how I get it financed. People suddenly go: ‘It’s not commercial.’”
Chadha rose to prominence after creating Bend It Like Beckham, starring British actress Parminder Nagra – who is of Indian Punjabi descent – and Keira Knightley as two young girls who desire to be professional footballers, despite their parents’ wishes.
She is also been behind other hit films including Bride And Prejudice and Blinded By The Light.
Asked if this pushback against commissioning films with Indian leads is “naked racism”, she said: “I think, yes, it’s this perception that people won’t want to see a film that doesn’t culturally reflect them, which is why I always push for it.
“I’m always trying to push what is British culture.”
Exploring why she feels it is still hard for her to get a film starring an up-and-coming Indian actor greenlit despite her track record, she said: “It’ll be much easier if you have a white cast than a cast of colour to make films.
“You can talk to any person of colour filmmaker and they will tell you.”
Asked if this just related to Indian talent, she clarified that is also happens with black actors.
She said: “How much home-grown black independent films do you see? There’s a few, definitely, don’t get me wrong, there’s been (a few) recently.
“And I think with BFI support, definitely.”
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