Director/ Book
Gurinder Chadha is an award-winning Film Director & Producer.
Gurinder began her career as a BBC news reporter. She went on to direct award-winning documentaries for the British Film Institute, BBC and Channel Four. Her first feature, Bhaji on the Beach, won numerous international awards including a BAFTA Nomination for ‘Best British Film of 1994’ and the Evening Standard British Film Award for ‘Best Newcomer to British Cinema’.
In 1995 she directed Rich Deceiver, a two-part drama for the BBC, watched by 11 million viewers.
What’s Cooking? – the Opening Night Film of the 2000 Sundance Film Festival – was the first British script to be invited to the Sundance Institute’s Writer’s Lab. The film was voted joint audience award winner in the New York Film Critics’ 2000 season (tied with Billy Elliot), and Gurinder won the award for Best British Director in the London Film Critics’ Circle Awards.
In 2002, Bend It Like Beckham was the highest grossing British-financed, British-distributed film, ever in the UK box-office (at time of release). The film was a critical and commercial success internationally, topping the box-office charts in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland and South Africa, and winning audience favourite film awards at the Locarno, Sydney and Toronto Film Festivals. The film received a Golden Globe Nomination for Best Picture (Musical or Comedy), a BAFTA Nomination for Best British Film, a European Film Academy Nomination for Best Film, and a Writers Guild of America Nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
Bride & Prejudice – a film which marries Jane Austen with Indian and Western musicals – was the first film ever to open at Number One in the UK and India on the same day. In Paris, Je t’aime (2006), Gurinder’s short film, ‘Quais de Seine’, sat alongside shorts made by Alfonso Cuaron, The Coen Brothers, Alexander Payne and Gus Van Sant. Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging – based on the international bestseller – was released worldwide by Paramount Pictures in 2009. And It’s a Wonderful Afterlife premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, before releasing internationally in 2010.
Gurinder’s next film, Viceroy’s House, is an epic drama on Indian Independence, which she is producing with Pathé, BBC Films, BFI and Reliance.
Gurinder was awarded an O.B.E. in the 2006 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for her services to the British Film Industry.