to just clear your thoughts. i have come to london to meet gurinder chadha, a pioneer in the film industry, the first british asian woman to direct mainstream features in the uk. films that have won major awards and become international hits. in the movies, some eight feature films in all, from her best—known, bend it like beckham... no one can cross a ball or bend it like beckham. ..to her more recent musical comedy drama, blinded by the light... stay way from the girls... she has bought the screen to life by using authentic asian actors, music and humour to portray asian life. the asian experience in the uk has long been herfocus. born in nairobi, gurinder chadha came to the uk as a young child and grew up

in southall in west london, home to a big asian community. i am always in southall. still got the best kebabs anywhere in london! and have got relatives there, and of course the seek temples out there and it is where i grew up, really, it is well my films are shot. she began her career as a broadcastjournalist. in 1989 she made the first of several documentaries called iam british, but... it showed a new generation of young asians in the uk. i see myself as british, maybe, welsh, i suppose. i have always wanted to meet gurinder chadha. her movies have made me laugh and cry. as a person, she is just like herfilms. warm, open, funny, optimistic and generous. she invited me into her london home and we spent the better part of a day delving into films and discussing what makes her tick as a film—maker. #just move on up... # who won up...

hello and welcome to talking movies. i am tom brook, today in london in soho, still to some extent the heart of the uk film and tv industry to bring you an interview with british film—maker, gurinder chadha. too often in the past her accomplishments have been on song, but she has been a majorforce in modern british cinema. in fact she is the most prolific female film—maker in the uk today. this year marks the 20th anniversary of bend it like beckham, her most successful film. it became a real international hit and it has the distinction of being the only western made film ever to be shown on north korean television. i am joining a girls team. bend it like beckham is the story ofjess, an 18—year—old played by parminder nagra, played by death from a traditional indian malay. he wants to play football, much to the dismay of her parents. that's it exploredj no more football! i want you to learn| full punjabi dinner, meat and vegetarian.

but dad... jules, played by keira knightley, plays for local women's football team takes note ofjess�*s talent and be friends. you should come along, have a trial. a trial? think i am good enough? as this upbeat comedy progresses, it deals with a host of issues. indian girls are not supposed to play football. some connected to race, prejudice, class, gender and sexuality. being a lesbian, it is not that big a deal! i oh, no... in many ways, this was a film ahead of its time. this is take me away from everything i know. and bend it like beckham was also the highest grossing football film in history. welcome to talking movies. i don't have to tell you, it is the 20th anniversary of bend it like beckham and people do view that movie you made is really being a landmark picture. why do you think that is? what do people say to

you about it because well, people are just very effusive, full of affection for it because it meant a lot of things to a lot of people for a lot of different reasons. mum has never wanted me to play, you just can't take no for an answer. it is about female empowerment, really, it has a gay element. i haven't told anyone. you are indian. it is about race, it is about being part of the diaspora. jess, is that indian? it is reallyjust minta but only my mum calls me that. it appeals to a lot of people, particularly in diasporas around the world. in addition to that, it came outjust after 9/11 and i think the world was sort of in freefall. people were sort of worried about how people going to live together and be together and then the sort of innocent film comes along inviting

you into the home of a british sikh family, you know? and you realise after a few laughs that actually they are very similar to your own family. do you really want to be - the one that everyone stares at? every family do because you married the english bloke . it is not sorta hitting you on the head movie, it is a very subversive movie about racism and tolerance. i never complained. and the effects of racism on one generation. on the contrary, i vowed that i would never play again. and how every different generation has to accept that, acknowledge that, but then found their own way. and if i can't tell- you what i want now, then i will never be i happy, whatever i do. and there are not a lot of films that do that. we are definitely not doing that at the time. i think it was a breath of fresh air. if all the relatives can look like they are acting as natural and not smiling at the camera... and what for you was the spark that really got bend it like beckham going as a narrative

in your mind? what happened was in britain, football or soccer, you know, was very much a male domain. it was very aggressive, it was associated with the right wing in terms of the national front and the use of the unionjack, you know, the british flag was sort of synonymous with the right. you know, there are always football who good hooliganism, as we called it, there were always fights on the terraces and then ian wright, one of our black players, after an england match, ran onto the pitch with a unionjack and that was such an arresting image for me. i mean, in that one moment, things changed for me. and i saw a different britain on the tv. and i wanted to run with that. i wanted to run with a different britain, with my britain, it is time for my britain to come to be seen.

although it is about football and soccer, it is really more about the sort of social changes at the time and not only that, there was this real idea of girl power at the time with the spice girls and female empowerment was coming up and i also wanted to be part of that. # my independence day... you have been able to move forward in your career by being very determined and very feisty. where does that come from? when i was about 16, at school i had wanted to go to university and actually wanted to study what we called development economics and geography at the time because geography was my favourite subject. and i went to the careers office and said, this is what i want to do, i want to go to university. and she looked at me and said, no, don't you think you should apply to secretarial college? and i was, like, why

would i want to be a secretary? and she said, "the world needs good secretaries." and ijust, in that moment with that careers teacher, ijust thought, you don't know me, you don't get me and how dare you? i couldn't say any of that and i didn't know how to articulate any of that, but that was the fire in me that said, you have no expectation of me and my ambition and what i want and i am going to show you. and i think that was it. from that moment, i have never taken no for an answer and i keep pushing and i still push. you know, i could have a much easier life if ijust went to america and directed the scripts that i get sent, you know? but i keep pushing the envelope to represent, you know, represent people that look like me and represent ideas and values from, you know, a perspective that is different.

do you want a clean shaven boy like your sister or a proper sikh with a full beard and turban? after that comment, right, you basically give a filthy look to the camera and then just walk back. what does that say about the film industry when you look at bend it like beckham that keira knightley went on to become a break—out star but the other lead in the film, parminder nagra, didn't? well, i think it says everything you need to know about our industry. you know, keira was bankable, sojerry bruckheimer cast her in the pirates of the caribbean series. parminder did get offers. john wells contacted me and asked me about parminder as a possible doctor in er, you know? so she immediately got the la break and joined the cast of er. so she had success as well, but it is a shame that hollywood did not acknowledge

that she could be a leading lady in the same way. and that is because asian leads are not seen as bankable, still to this day, i think that is true. dad? don't feel play. with the future. did you feel after bend it like beckham , your relationship with your father somehow manifested in the film? it is probably because the film and if you're going to cry watching the film, you will cry because of that. go and make your father proud. i had just lost my fatherjust before making the film and now when i look back at the film, it is so emotional and it is made by somebody who is grieving. it is a film made in grief, you know? and i know that from my own, the way i have made films since. what i was exploring was exactly the pain

that my father's generation had been through in orderfor me to be standing there at that moment, shooting a movie. she will only end up disappointed like me. when my dad first came to britain, he had worked for barclays bank in kenya, and when he came to england in the 1960s with a turban and a beard, he had said, "you know, i am going to go to barclays," and he went to the barclays bank in southall and they absolutely laugh their heads off when he went in and said, "do you honestly think we're ever going to have someone "who looks like you, with a beard and turban, "work in our bank?" and they literally threw him out of the bank. and then he ended up cutting his hair and became a postman. when i was a teenager in nairobi, i was the best fast bowler in our school. and i took that story and made it about the east african cricket club in the movie. but when i came to this country, nothing. i was not allowed to play in any of the teams and these clubhouses made fun of my turban and set me off packing.

but that is the true story of what happened with my dad and therefore at the very end, when finally she says, "i have got this opportunity, i want to go," and her dad makes his big speech... who suffered? me. you know, i can't hold you back. that was my time. and i am the one who suffered because i lived in fear. i don't want her to make the same mistakes that her father made of accepting life, accepting situations. it is wrong for me to put that fear on you and you have to go out and make your own life and follow your own opportunities. i want to fight. and that is hugely emotional because that is about healing racism. and that is about healing prejudice. i want her to win. and i have seen her playing, she is brilliant. you can't stop your life, if you win in an unfair world,

you have to keep pushing forward. i don't think anybody has the right stopping it. you push forward not only for yourself, but for everybody else. and that is why bend it like beckham is such an important film, because it takes me and my community and my world and my britishness and my asian—ness and everything into a massive sphere and it's something that is really important to so many people around the world. over her 30 year career, she has been a real powerhouse, making shorts, documentaries, tv programmes and tv series and of course memorable vibrant feature films. from bride & prejudice, a bollywood style version of hollywood to's pride and prejudice... only you could say that you love me and insult me the same time. to first feature, badji on the beach, in 1993.

so what if she is pregnant and her father is black rich with all female characters i have loved. have a female fun time! it followed three generations of asian women on a day trip to blackpool. was that a bit intimidating at first? because you didn't have much experience of feature film production? yes. everybody, i don't care who they are, will tell you their first film is a complete baptism by fire. you know? it is a nightmare. my films are always, from bhaji on, i always think about the community and moving the community forward while, at the same time, you know, i still have to protect my community. and so, i am always trying to include things for them and us, them and us, them and us, you know? and this all comes about from being one of the few asian women making films in britain today. that i am able to show these nuances and these cultural moments that go over a lot of people's heads.

but they are of tremendous value to me and they're not necessarily considered by a lot of other people because they don't know. maybe in years to come, who knows? but at the moment, you know, while i'm working, ifind people don't always value what i do and ultimately, i guess, i'm aiming towards changing our world into one of being more tolerant and more understanding and more inclusive and more appreciative of the massive contribution of people who look and talk and feel different to you. it is interesting that you mention that because your films do deal with racism and prejudice and during the time which you've been making films, those problems haven't gone away and people would say, in some respects, they've got worse. so, is there a limit, do you think, to what cinema can achieve in terms

of changing people's minds? well, i also talk about gender and homosexuality and female empowerment. i mean, it's everything. and i think that things have changed. i think they are changing. during the shot, i am panning down on one camera... i mean, the success of my film, the fact that everyone is talking about 20 years later is a massive indication of how things are changing. there's still an awfully long way to go but i am now seeing lots of credits of women and women of colour on screen. and while there's always room for improvement, i think it's important to acknowledge that, you know, we can make a change and we have made a change. how wedded are you to being part of british cinema? i mean, early in your career, did you feel the pull of america to take you to a new land where there would perhaps be bigger opportunities? when i had success in america

with bhaji on the beach, i did get offered quite a lot of american movies but at that time, i did not quite know how to relate to them, and i met paul by then... your husband. i met paul my husband by then, yes. and then i decided, "well, if they want to make a film "in america, why don't i make my own film? and with paul, we wrote our movie which was a very british film about los angeles. no—one knows it's me who made it. it's on every year on tv. it's about four families in los angeles who celebrate thanksgiving over the weekend. she is the mommy, she's the daddy and i'm the alcoholic cult—worshipping satanic stepmother. we're playing thanksgiving. but the idea was that i wanted to make a film about the los angeles that i was seeing around me, not the one that was on the big screen. the rest will cook itself. for me, going to la, i was just blown away by the different communities there. why do you want to make the turkey taste like everything else we eat? and not really seeing

them on—screen. and hence, i took my values from britain to la and made what's cooking? moving to a more sobering reality. i mean, how did the pandemic affect you as a filmmaker and a storyteller? do you think it has changed you? for me the pandemic was a game—changer because it made me sit back and really think about what is my purpose and why do i want to make films? and you better believe that whatever film you choose to make it should have some impact. mum, stop filming me! you always film me! before i was quite sort of — i used to push myself a lot. i think, post—lockdown, i calmed down and i stopped being quite so driven, if you you like. ijust said, "look" —

i just accepted actually, a lot more of what's going to happen will happen. and i think that was the lesson of lockdown, really, because we were not really in control, so the lesson was to let go — let go of the stress of trying to compete or get your projects made to the point where you get really stressed and just accept that things will happen the way they're going to happen. when you think about your work nowadays, are you just as enthusiastic about making a film as you were when you did bend it like beckham 20 years ago? i haven't changed. i am still incredibly motivated to push that envelope. you know, that's how i see it. i'm very keen to get back in the director's chair because i miss it. it's a buzz is to keep trying to shift people's perceptions and to, you know, make people understand the vagaries

of culture and understand the damage that racism and prejudice do. so, for me — and also female empowerment, you know? we're still not out the woods on that, you know? so, i am still very keen to make sure that my films have great female roles and that i show the world from my perspective because its still, sadly, a very underrepresented world. when you think back on your life and career, what are you most proud of? i think what i'm most proud of the fact that i have made a difference to the lives of people. whether it's a very small thing with someone just appreciating it personally, or on a bigger level. will you ever retire, do you think? i mean, i hope that i get carried off set. you know, i've keeled over going "cut!

"do it again," or something. you know, i don't plan to retire — i don't think you can when you're creative. you never retire. the fact that people still talk about my work as being relevant even though it was made a generation ago is gratifying because it means that i did move the dial a little bit, i moved that needle, i did make a change and i can't stop. i must keep going because that needle might have gone like that only to get over here. thank you very much indeed for talking to talking movies. thank you very much, tom. end lines of nessun dorma play. cheering.

hello. our spell of rather cool, unsettled and blustery mid—july weather is set to continue through the remainder of the weekend. this was the picture saturday evening just before the sun set in north berwick, east lothian. we've had some big, vivid rainbows around and we could see more of those on sunday with that mix, again, of some sunshine and further heavy and blustery showers. they won't be as frequent as they were on saturday, though. so, we've still got low pressure close by, just edging its way towards the north—east, but still plenty

of isobars on the map showing another fairly blustery sort of day. quite a bit of cloud first thing for parts of northern england, scotland as well, and we'll continue to see patchy rain on and off for much of the day across northern and western scotland. a bit more sunshine but also scattered showers further east and, really, for northern ireland, england and wales, sunny spells and blustery showers. the gusts of wind 30—110 miles per hour, even a bit more than that around exposed coasts and hills. so, temperatures between about 14—22 north to south but feeling a touch cooler if you are exposed to those north—westerly or westerly winds that we've got with us. winds do ease away, i think, sunday evening and overnight. some late sunshine before the sun sets in the south. we've got a bit more cloud again as we head through into monday across parts of scotland with a few splashes of light rain. 11 degrees or so here the overnight lows, but we could see single figures in one or two more rural spots, though, so a fresher start, i think, to your monday morning. now, monday sees higher pressure trying to nudge in from the south. not as many isobars on the map, so not such a windy day, i think, on monday, and fewer showers compared to the weekend. there will be a fewjust bubbling up through the day across england, wales,

northern ireland and for scotland, too, less in the way of cloud lingering, so a bit more sunshine and a few scattered showers. temperatures similar to recent days around — about 14—22 degrees — but feeling a touch warmer because we will have lost the breeze. moving ahead now into tuesday and the next area of low pressure moves its way in from the atlantic. so, initially, probably a dry start to tuesday for many of us. some early sunshine. then, the rain creeps in across parts of northern ireland, perhaps western parts of england and wales, southern scotland too. northern half of scotland probably seeing sunshine and showers once again on tuesday and, actually, east anglia and the south—east, you're likely to stay dry for a good part of the day and perhaps a touch warmer — up to about 23 degrees or so. but as you can see from our outlook, the next five days or so through much of the week ahead still unsettled. sunny spells and heavy showers. bye— bye.

live from washington, live from washington, this is bbc news. this is bbc news. south korea's south korea's government is expanding government is expanding its humanitarian and military assistance to ukraine as president zelensky meets as president zelensky meets with his south korean with his south korean counterpart. an extreme heat wave has gripped parts of the us and southern europe with more record temperatures expected. and it's a new era for miami football fans as as lionel messi joins major league soccer.