Acclaimed filmmaker Gurinder Chadha has revealed that she is currently working on a sequel to her iconic British film Bend it Like Beckham.
Starring Parminder Nagra, Archie Panjabi, Anupam Kher, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Juliet Stevenson, and Shaznay Lewis in principal roles, Bend it Like Beckham told the story of British Indian girl Jess Bhamra (Nagra), who was trying to pursue a career in football, inspired by David Beckham, in the face of parental disapproval.
The film, which theatrically released in the United Kingdom in 2002 and received positive reviews from critics, turned out to be an instant success at the box office, becoming the highest-grossing football sports film.
Chadha says that Lionesses’ record-breaking success at the World Cup inspired her to work on the sequel. For the uninitiated, the England women’s football team made it all the way to the final of the prestigious tournament in August for the first time ever, before losing out to Spain in the final.
“With all this talk of the World Cup and the popularity of women’s football, in the past, I haven’t thought about,” Chadha told a publication. “I never really wanted to make a sequel to the film because I just thought the way Parminder and Keira played it, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Archie Panjabi, I could never really follow that up and create that same magic in the same way.”
She added, “But with the recent success of football, I just feel like I am starting to percolate an idea for a possible sequel of some kind.”
Chadha, 63, was awarded one of the inaugural stars on the National Lottery’s new Walk of Stars installation on London’s Southbank on Monday, in collaboration with the BFI as the 2023 London Film Festival commenced.
Stay tuned to this space for more updates and reveals.
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