gurinder really put the indian culture on the map.you, "ok, this is the barriers you have to face, this "is what you have to do." she added such great, quirky humour and educated. don't you want all of this? it's the best day. of your life, innit! i want more than this. you don't have to just be one thing. you can be multiple things. and i think that's what the film really, really kind of explores. for so many women across society, it's — you're a black woman, you're a muslim woman, you're a white woman, you're british asian. there's got to be a label for it. and i think what bend it like beckham does really well is showcase that intersectionality — jess is british asian, but she loves football, she respects her culture, she loves her culture, she's proud of her culture, she's all those things, she's not fitting in one box. we have so many different elements to who we are as people, and bend it like beckham celebrates all of that. # i don't care what the people say... but it wasn't just a success in the uk. it was a huge hit globally.

gurinder chadha, the director, saw ian wright wearing a unionjack flag and thought she wanted to writeause it's kind of like this evolving concept of britishness that she saw within football. what do you think about that, and how football is such a unifier for so many different communities in britain? well, there's no question that does unify the nation. you just see it in world cups or european championships where everyone gets behind england. in fact, it's the only time we do probably come together. you know, if it was what originated the idea of bend it like beckham with ian wright in the unionjack shirt and then, it ended up being bend it like beckham, but you know, anything that involves football and getting more people to play it or different people from asian side of things as well, i think it was one of the attractions to doing it. it's surprising that things haven't changed too much in terms of the asian presence in the game. i think there's a slight change we've seen in recent times but hopefully, it will happen and it will become more popular because, you know, a lot of asia