Gurinder Chadha hints at 'Bend It Like Beckham' sequel

The director of the iconic film "Bend It Like Beckham", Gurinder Chadha, has recently disclosed that she is working on its sequel after the England women's football team made it to the finals for the first time, during a distinguished tournament in August. She dropped this hint after over 20 years of the film.

Gurinder Chadha rediscovered the meaning of her classic film following the immense enthusiasm it created encompassing women's football, across the world. Her 2002 hit movie included stars like Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Archie Panjabi, and Anupam Kher amongst others.

"Bend It Like Beckham" is the story of Jess Bhamra (Nagra), a British Indian girl, who had to tackle the adversities her parents created in order to follow her dream of playing football. Her inspiration was David Beckham.

The director said, "I never really wanted to make a sequel to the film because I just thought the way Parminder, Keira and the other cast members played it, I could never really follow that up and create that same magic in a similar way."

"But with the recent success of football, I just feel like I'm starting to come up with an idea for a possible sequel of some kind," Chadha added.

On Monday, at the 2023 London Film Festival in collaboration with the BFI, the filmmaker earned an inaugural star on the National Lottery's new Walk of Stars installation on London's Southbank.

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The inaugural star honoured celebrated National Lottery-funded films and new filmmakers in the UK film industry, like "Bend It Like Beckham" and Charlotte Regan, respectively.

Regarding the subjects matter of the reconciled writers' strike in the US and the ongoing Sag-Aftra actors' strike, the "Bride and Prejudice" director said, "In terms of taking the place of writing proper scenes and dialogues and screenplays, if you want to write something that's really good, and feels like it's from an auteur perspective, I think we've got a long way to go on that."

Chadha recalled how she had a difficult time getting the film made, "In the late 90s I had written the script and was desperately trying to get it made, and everyone rejected it, everybody including Channel 4, the BBC. The idea of women playing football was a complete and utter joke. And an Indian girl playing football was an even bigger joke."

The director will forever be thankful for the funding she eventually received for "Bend It Like Beckham", from the UK Film Council and added, "Even today the National Lottery gives about £45m to the British Film Institute, and that money not only goes to help finance the next generation of new film directors and filmmakers, but it also preserves our national heritage and national archive of film."