London: Gurinder Chaddha, the 64 year old Kenyan-born British Director of Indian descent, says diverse film makers like her still have to struggle to get funding.
The multiple award winning director, known for churning out superhit and critically acclaimed films like Bend it like Beckham (2002) and Bride and Prejudice (2004), rued that investors are still “cautious” about supporting her work, which often centres on Asian communities and features Asian actors.
“I’m sad to say that if you have people of colour as the lead in a movie, it automatically becomes less commercial as far as financiers are concerned,” Chaddha told BBC in an interview.
She began her directorial innings with a bang, as her first feature, Bhaji on the Beach (1994), won numerous international awards including a BAFTA Nomination for ‘Best British Film of 1994’.
The London-based director, however, explained that attracting funding for her new projects remains a challenge.
“People talk about diversity…but in practice, I don’t think it’s where I would have liked to have seen it by this time,” she told BBC Radio London.
She even added that the industry would “never move the dial” if investors did not back a more diverse range of films.
Bend it like Beckham is a tale of a teenage girl from west London torn between playing football and her traditional Sikh family life – grossed £60m on a production budget of £3.5m. Despite its success, Chadha noted that she still struggles to secure backing for her films.
“It’s all about money,” Chadha said.
The British Film Institute (BFI) told BBC that representation in the UK screen sectors has “long been unequal” but claimed that its funding targets for film projects is making “improvements in those stats”.
The BFI acknowledged: “To help address this historic imbalance and the long-standing barriers for Black and Global Majority people, equity, diversity and inclusion is one of the three core principles which underpins our National Lottery funding strategy.”
It said that of the 18 films the BFI funds per year, 44% of directors awarded production funding for features in 2023/24 identifying as Black and Global Majority – against a target of 40% for London and 30% outside of London.
The figures for writers (33%) and producers (9%) “fall short of the target”, it added.
Chadha, whose past successes also include Viceroy’s House (2017) and Blinded By The Light (2019), hopes her upcoming film Christmas Karma will make a difference.
The film, featuring Hugh Bonneville, Eva Longoria, and Kunal Nayyar is “concerned with all the things I’m concerned with; identity, Britishness, who we are as a nation, where we’re going as a nation, all the things Bend it Like Beckham was about.
“It’s my ‘Bend it Like Santa’ film,” she said.
