The Hindu : International / India & World : Gurinder Chadha in big league with Bride and Prejudice

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 20, 2004

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International - India & World

Gurinder Chadha in big league with Bride and Prejudice

LONDON, SEPT. 19. NRI film director Gurinder Chadha's much-awaited Bride and Prejudice, a Bollywood-style screen adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, has elevated her to the level of an international filmmaker, a media report said here today.

Ms. Chadha, who once dreamed of circling the globe as a long-distance lorry driver has become a mainstream international filmmaker with the £12 million musical Bride and Prejudice, to be released next month.

The current edition of Newsweek puts Ms. Chadha, producer-director of her most popular film to date, Bend It Like Beckham, at the head of a new breed of talented women directors who are increasingly being trusted with star names and hefty studio projects.

Not a simple parody

However, Ms. Chadha asserts her soon-to-be-released Aishwarya Rai starrer is not a simple parody. ``It is actually a very British movie.''

The film revolves around one Bakshi family from Amritsar with four daughters — Lalita, Maya, Lucky and Jaya. In this interpretation of Austen's best-known work, race has to some extent taken the thematic place of class.

In the new musical, which is set in India, Los Angeles and Britain, the lead role of Lalita (Elizabeth Bennett) is taken by the glamorous star of Devdas, Aishwarya Rai, in her first English speaking part.

Martin Henderson, a U.S. actor previously seen in The Ring, plays the part of Darcy — here American hotelier Will Darcy.

Ms. Chadha's next film is a $90 million Hollywood juggernaut which is intriguingly pitched as a prequel to I dream of Jeannie, a kitsch 1960s television comedy about a voluptuous girl who lives inside a bottle in a suburban home.

``Promotion to this kind of big budget league will put Ms. Chadha up among a very few top women directors,'' The Observer said. Film financiers feel they can trust Ms. Chadha because she brought in such unexpected profits with Bendit It Like Beckham, a small budget picture.

PTI

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