Gurinder ChadhaBirth Place: Kenya Heritage: Indian Famous for: Director of 'Bend It Like Beckham' (2002) Contact Gurinder Chadha | 
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Bend It Like Beckham Background: “Writing film scripts is the hardest thing in the world. A script has to go to five or six drafts and you need the feedback of other people and to keep coming back with a fresh eye, honing it down.” Gurinder Chadha British director, screenwriter and producer of Indian descent Gurinder Chadha is best known for her work on the Golden Globe nominated drama “Bend It Like Beckham (2002), for which she netted nominations at the BAFTA and WGA Awards, among other nominations. The film was also a major commercial success. Starting out as a radio journalist, the Kenya-born, England-raised Chadha began directing her first short in 1990 with “I'm British But...,” but did not gain wide acceptance until she debuted on the silver screen with “Bhaji on the Beach” (1993), which won her an Evening Standard British Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer. She also helmed the films “What's Cooking” (2000), “Bride and Prejudice” (2004), “Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging” (2008), “It's a Wonderful Afterlife” (2010) and a segment of “Paris, I Love You” (2006) called “Quais de Seine.” Chadha often collaborates with her filmmaker husband Paul Mayeda Berges. Chadha was awarded the O.B.E. (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2006 Queen's Birthday Honors List thanks to her service to the British Film Industry.
Childhood and Family: Born on January 10, 1960, in Nairobi, Kenya, Gurinder Chadha was raised in Southall, England, after her family moved there when she was 2 years old. Her father, an accountant, was unable to find work in his field as the result of discrimination and took jobs at a local bakery and rubber factory to make ends meet. He later became a postman and worked on the gas board before finally starting his own general store. Gurinder was educated at the Clifton Primary School in Southall and later studied politics and economics of developing nations at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, Norfolk, England. After graduating, she pursued a post-graduate diploma in radio journalism at the London College of Printing. Gurinder is married to Japanese American screenwriter, film producer and director Paul Mayeda Berges (born on September 11, 1968). Their twins, daughter Kumiko and son Ronal, were born in June 2007.
Career: Gurinder Chadha kicked off her career as a radio news reporter for BBC in the mid 1980s, but soon quit. She shifted to the small screen and directed several television documentaries for BBC, Channel 4 and the British Film Institute. Her first short film, “I'm English But...,” was released in 1990. Also in 1990, she founded her own production company called Umbi Films and produced, under the Umbi Films banner, her spouse’s Paul Mayeda Berges' short film “Blue Funnel.” After directing the documentary film “Pain, Passion and Profit” and the eleven minute film “Acting Our Age” (both 1992), Chadha made her feature directorial debut with the dramatic comedy “Bhaji on the Beach,” which was scripted by Meera Syal and based on a story by Chadha and Syal. The film starred Kim Vithana, Jimmi Harkishin and Sarita Khajuria. Premiering at the Toronto Film Festival on September 11, 1993, “Bhaji on the Beach” marked Chadha's first critical success. It won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and Youth Jury Award and a Golden Leopard nomination at the 1993 Locarno International Film Festival and earned an Alexander Korda nomination for Best British Film at the 1995 BAFTA Awards. Chadha was also nominated for the Most Promising Newcomer Award at the 1995 Evening Standard British Film. In 1994, Chadha returned to short films by releasing “What Do You Call an Indian Woman Who's Funny,” which she directed and produced. She also helmed and wrote the screenplay of the eleven minute length drama “Nice Arrangement” (1994). The following year, she directed the BBC two part drama “Rich Deceiver,” based on a novel by Gillian White and starring Lesley Dunlop and John McArdle. Chadha made her screen acting debut in 1996 when she made a cameo appearance in the British/American comedy “The Stupids,” which was directed by John Landis and starred Tom Arnold, Jessica Lundy, Bug Hall and Alex McKenna. Chadha revisited feature films by directing and co-writing (with her husband) the British/American drama “What's Cooking” (2000), which starred Mercedes Ruehl, Kyra Sedgwick, Joan Chen, Lainie Kazan, Maury Chaykin, Julianna Margulies, Alfre Woodard and Dennis Haysbert. The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2000, and was nominated for a Humanitas Prize that same year. It went on to receive an Artios nomination for Best Casting for Feature Film, an Independent at the 2001 Casting Society of America and a Black Reel nomination for Theatrical - Best Actress, while Chadha won an ALFS Award for British Director of the Year at the 2002 London Critics Circle Film Awards. Two years later, Chadha directed Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley and Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the sport themed “Bend It Like Beckham,” which she co-wrote with her husband and Guljit Bindra and co-produced with Deepak Nayar. About a girl who becomes fond of soccer while trying to balance her parent’s demands, the film met with generally positive reviews from critics and was nominated for a 2004 Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. It collected many other wins and nominations and Chadha took home an Audience Award and a Special Jury Award at the 2002 Bordeaux International Festival of Women in Cinema, an Audience Award and Golden Hitchcock nomination at the 2002 Dinard British Film Festival, an Audience Award at the 2002 Locarno International Film Festival, and a Special Jury Award and Golden Star nomination at the 2002 Marrakech International Film Festival, to name a few. “Bend It Like Beckham” was also a financial success. Chadha next directed and co-scripted (with her husband) the musical film “Bride and Prejudice” (2004), which was a Bollywood style adaptation of Jane Austen's “Pride and Prejudice.” Starring Indian star Aishwarya Rai and Martin Henderson, the film earned good reviews from critics although it failed to achieve the same level of commercial success as its predecessor. In 2005, Chadha contributed to the screenplay of her husband’s film “The Mistress of Spices,” an adaptation of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's novel of the same name. She also served as a producer on the Aishwarya Rai and Dylan McDermott drama. The next year, Chadha collaborated with her husband on the screenplay and directed “Quais de Seine,” one of 18 short films included in the Cannes premiered “Paris, je t'aime” (“Paris, I Love You”). Other directors who took part in the film projects included Joel and Ethan Coen, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuarón, Alexander Payne, Gus Van Sant and Gerard Depardieu. In 2008, Chadha returned to the director's chair to helm Georgia Groome, Eleanor Tomlinson, Aaron Johnson, Alan Davies and Karen Taylor in the comedy “Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging,” which she also co-produced and co-scripted. The film was based on two popular teen novels by Louise Rennison, “Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging” and “On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God.” It received primary positive reviews from critics and brought Chadha a Best Nordic Children's Film for Audience Award at the 2008 Buster International Children's Film Festival. The film has since collected nearly $15 million worldwide, including $10.6 million from the U.K. alone. Recently, in 2010, Chadha directed, produced and co-wrote the screenplay (with her husband and producing partner Berges) for the British film “It's a Wonderful Afterlife,” which starred Shabana Azmi, Sally Hawkins, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Zoë Wanamaker and newcomer Goldy Notay. So far the critical reception to the film has been negative.
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