Bend It Like Beckham has won the hearts of moviegoers around the world, and now American audiences are being introduced to this lively and charming film. Director and co-screenwriter Gurinder Chadha tells the story of Jess Bhamra (Parminder Nagra), a British teenager from an Indian family that is less than enamored with her football (soccer) obsession. Her mother, in particular, wishes Jess would learn to make traditional meals and find a nice Indian boy rather than spend time on the pitch. Jess' idol is Manchester United and English national team star David Beckham, who possesses the enviable ability to curve the ball around defenders and into the goal, and her walls are decorated with his photos. Jules (Keira Knightley), a member of the all-women's Hounslow Harriers, invites Jess to play on the team, forcing her to make a difficult choice. Should she follow her dream of playing football or lead the life her parents desire for her?

A year ago Bend It Like Beckham took the UK by storm, making the most money ever there at the box office for a British-financed, British-distributed film. Moviegoers in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa also pushed the film to the top of the charts. Bend It Like Beckham nabbed audience favorite film awards at three international film festivals, including Toronto, and was nominated as Best European Film by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the UK equivalent of the Academy Awards. The film recently opened in the United States to enthusiastic critics' reviews.

Parminder Nagra visited Columbus, Ohio on April 4 to promote the film's local opening and kick off a new season of Major League Soccer. I met with the actress, whose appealing, buoyant performance is one of the film's strengths.

Mark Pfeiffer: Obvious first question. The film's about football. Did you play before you got the role?

Parminder Nagra: No. I had to, with Keira, who plays Jules in the movie, we both had to go and train, and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, although he didn't have to play that much soccer in the film, he also came and joined in all the training sessions as well. We were taught by a guy called Simon Clifford, who has got a footballing scheme all across England and now spreading its wings called Futebol de Salao, and that teaches you the Brazilian method of playing football. So a lot of the flashy moves that you see in the film are down to him making us go home and just practice, practice, practice certain moves over and over again. So yes, there's a lot of intensive training.

MP: This is also your first feature film. What challenges did that present aside from all the football skills?

PN: I have to say the biggest challenge for me probably was the football skills, was the soccer. I've kind of been in the business for nearly coming up to ten years now, so in terms of the acting part of it, I really wasn't that daunted by it. It was for me the opportunity of actually being given the chance to do a big part on film and also for people all over the world to be able to see it. So that was the biggest opportunity for me.

MP: You've been involved with this for quite some time.

PN: Yeah. (Laughs)

MP: You met the director in 1998. She saw you in a play.

PN: Yeah. She'd approached me after this. I did a Bollywood musical called Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings, and a Funeral, and it was literally after that project, after one show, that she talked to me about Bend It Like Beckham and said, "I've got this footballing project in mind. Do you want to take a look at the script and let me know what you think?" I kind of at the time thought, "Why would you want to do a project about football?" Then, of course, eventually the script arrived and I saw exactly why she wanted to do it. You know, you're sticking a young girl, and at that a south Asian girl, in the middle of not only a male-dominated society, but also something that's just not conventional.

MP: So you met her in '98 and I guess you didn't end up shooting until two years after that?

PN: Yeah, it was pretty much we're greenlit, we're not greenlit. We're greenlit, we're not greenlit. (Laughs) It was a lot of waiting and a few opportunities to do soaps in England where, you know, I could have been on a few things for quite a while. So it was actually taking the gamble and saying actually no, I'm going to try and hold out for this movie and wait for it to happen because I thought it was important and I didn't want to get pigeonholed doing a soap.

MP: The movie came out in the UK last year and turned out to be the biggest British-financed hit.

PN: Yeah, it surprised me actually when people were coming up to me and saying week number one, "You're number one in the box office." And I went, "OK." Then week number two it was like, "You're still number one," And we were like, "Oh, OK, God." And then by the third week when we were still at number one, it was crazy and then just spreading its wings across Europe and then to Australia, India, and eventually culminating and arriving in the U.S.A. It was just… it's just been a really remarkable ride, and it's been nice to be on the journey with it really.

MP: How has that impacted your career, with especially your first film out and you're carrying the picture, to be in the movie that's that successful?

PN: In terms of the work that I've been approached with now, it's been a lot better. I'm very conscious of the fact of wanting to do work that's very different because Jess is an eighteen-year-old girl growing up in west London. So the parts that I've played in the last year…I played Viola in Twelfth Night and then I did a small part in a Miramax film called Ella Enchanted and then just finished a two part drama for Channel 4 again called Second Generation, which is playing more my own age and somebody who is very sassy, temperamental, and very bold but completely different from what we see Jess as. It's been nice people are still trusting me that I can still do other things apart from just being a teenager, which is great. It's flattering. (Laughs)

MP: What was it like playing that? You were several years older than the character you were playing.

PN: It was funny actually because when I met Keira in the audition, Gurinder said to both of us, "How old do you think the other one is?" and I turned around to Keira and I went, "Oh, I don't know, nineteen, twenty." And then Keira turned around to me and went, "Oh, I don't know, nineteen, twenty." And then Gurinder said, "Actually, there's about nearly ten years difference between you both." And we both just looked at each other and went, "Oh my God." But it was fine. You do your homework, and then you go in and do the scenes. The story keeps you going. I had such brilliant teammates as well, and it really became such a good team effort on the film on so many different levels, on the pitch and also even when we got to the drama as well. It was good fun.

MP: Audiences have really seemed to rally around the movie. What do you think they are responding to?

PN: I think primarily the film, for me and for anybody who goes to see it now, and the reason why it's done so well is because it's about dreams and it's about somebody doing well and actually achieving something. People like to see that, and it's somebody who's got a few things against her. It doesn't seem like she has any opportunity, and then she breaks through that glass ceiling and manages to blow that out of the water. I think that's why it's done so well. It's dreams and aspirations, and that's a universal theme for us all.

MP: Sort of serendipitously, women's professional soccer has taken off a little bit in the time this film has been in production and when it's come out. Has that maybe given it a little more cachet with the public too, do you think?

PN: I think Gurinder is very good at the subject matter she picked, and the ingredients that are in the movie. It's appealed to so many different people. David Beckham is a big soccer star in England but probably known here more for being Posh Spice's husband. In America it's a lot more of a women's game here. That's why I kind of think people will go see it here and young girls would want to go see it here as well because it's much more of a women's sport than it is in England. Whereas in England, David Beckham is such a big star people want to go and see it for that as well. Also, people go and see it, and actually it isn't about any one of those things. They actually get a lot more out of the movie.

MP: Has it helped to start up some women's soccer options for girls over in England?

PN: It's funny. There was only one professional football team in England, which was Fulham Ladies. Unfortunately I just found out recently that their sponsorship is being pulled, so they're going to have to go semi-professional, but after the film was screened in England, the FA, which is the Football Association in England, had such an influx of calls from young girls saying they wanted to play football. It was quite amazing. Apparently there is an article in The Times in England that girls in India have started up a lot of leagues in India, where there are young girls wanting to play soccer. So it's kind of spreading its wings around everywhere really.

MP: You mentioned David Beckham, and honestly, his name being in the title, he's not necessarily someone who's on the tip of everybody's tongues in this country.

PN: Yeah. (Laughs)

MP: Have you noticed any differences from viewings of the film of things that American audiences don't get that British audiences do?

PN: I don't think so. I've been in cinemas with such a mixture of people, in England, even in places like Germany, France, kind of all over the place, and it's pretty much the same reaction. It's pretty much everybody laughs at the same thing. Everybody feels for the character in similar sorts of ways, and above all, people come out smiling at the end of the film. I don't think Americans would see it in any other way. I think the only thing that they, or anybody who isn't from a British-Asian family, they get to see a window into that life or into that story. So no, I don't think they would see it any differently really.

MP: Jess has her walls plastered with posters of David Beckham. Was there anybody when you were that age that you had that kind of admiration for?

PN: (Laughs) I just answered this question about an hour ago. I'm so embarrassed, but I might as well tell you. It was Bruce Willis. (Laughs) You know, when Moonlighting was around, so I was young and naïve, and yes, Bruce Willis. (Laughs)

MP: Any particular reason for Bruce Willis?

PN: (Smiles and laughs) No, not any more. It's all right.

MP: Any parallels with her story in your teen years?

PN: The point where I said to my mum I'm not doing music any more, I'm doing drama, I think she kind of went, "Oh my God." But more than her stopping me or anything, it was none of that. Jess' mum is a little bit crazy, as is Jules' mum. They're both completely mad.

MP: A lot of teenage girls in films often tend to be exclusively defined, I think, by getting the guy in the movie.

PN: Yeah.

MP: In this case, I think what's interesting about Bend It Like Beckham is that it's more about her achieving her goal. Obviously there's still a romantic interest, but it has more of an internal striving she's going for. Do you think this is a little more emotionally honest than a lot of the other films that are about teen girls or are targeted to them?

PN: God, that's a big question. (Laughs) I need you to say it again, I think.

MP: OK, let me see if I can rephrase that. I guess, do you feel this film may be a little more realistic in how teen girls are rather than just stars in their eyes over the quarterback or whoever?

PN: I think one of the things people come out relating to the movie no matter how old or young they are, they kind of go, "We've been there." As children, there's times when we've wanted to do something and our parents have gone, "Well, no, you're not doing it," and we've kind of gone, "Well, why not?" And they've gone, "Because of this," and then you go, "Well, I'm going to do it anyway." There've been those moments where you've sneaked out of the house or you've done something your parents haven't wanted you to do. I guess we can all relate to that really.

MP: What was it like working with the director?

PN: She was great, Gurinder. She had a great sense of play on set, and she's a very formidable woman, very warm. Because she was the producer, and also the writer and director of the movie, there was a lot of sense of free play, in every sense of the word. Sometimes she'd leave the camera running for that few seconds longer, and you'd kind of think, "She's not shouting cut, you know, and I've finished my scene." And then of course we'd carry on and we'd ad lib at the end of scenes, which some of those moments were kept within the film. There'd be times where you'd do a scene and then she'd go, "Right, I just want you to throw the script up in the air and just improvise around that" and so we'd do that. And Juliet Stevenson, who played Jules' mum in the film-she's been around for ages, Juliet-talking to her about it, she said, "I've never been in a situation where a director has just allowed me to do that because normally the camera and the script are so sacred." So we had more freedom than maybe normally we might have. And also, allowing us to have that creative dialogue with a director-saying "what about this and what about that" and her actually taking that on board and working with you, it was great.

MP: At one point they considered using body doubles for some of the soccer footage, and you and Keira nixed that idea.

PN: Yeah. (Laughs) We were pretty determined, both of us. We didn't have that long to train, and, I guess, if we had our time over, we would have loved a lot longer. But low budget English movie, you're not going to get that amount of time. But yeah, we didn't want any body doubles. A couple of the girls were there, and fortunately for them, we were determined enough to do it. I think we got to a competent level, and I think what's ended up on screen is quite good.

MP: Talk to me a little bit about working with Keira because it sounds like in the film she's the one who's a little more experienced and has been with the soccer team, and in the real life situation, you've been around and worked in the industry longer than she has. How was that…

PN: Having said that, I think Keira started off when she was very young. She started off, probably, you know, when she was about…I think she did her first thing when she was about eight or something like that. So she was kind of in it longer in terms of seeing what it was like, and her parents are involved in the business. You know, those things go out the window when you're on a project together because you get together and you work together, and that's what it becomes about. And either you're on the same kind of level at that moment or you're not. And I guess if she wasn't, then Gurinder wouldn't have chosen her to do it.

MP: Anything in particular you would like people to take from the film?

PN: Essentially it's a feel good movie, so I hope people just come out enjoying it and smiling a lot, just taking away a lot of positive vibes.

MP: I understand you're kicking off things for the Columbus Crew tomorrow. (She took the inaugural first kick of the Columbus Crew-LA Galaxy match to open the Major League Soccer season on April 5.)

PN: Yeah. (Laughs)

MP: You've done this on film, but have you had a chance to do this sort of thing in front of a live audience?

PN: No. I don't think I quite realize what they want me to do tomorrow. I was told it was a coin toss. I think I'm kind of getting a bit scared about that now, but I'm sure it will be good fun. (Laughs)

MP: What are you currently working on, and where might we see you in the future?

PN: The last project I finished just about a month ago. Ella Enchanted is coming out in August. It will be in theaters. There are a few things that are happening. I can't say at the moment what it is, but there's some nice stuff that is happening. You'll just have to watch this space.

MP: Thanks for your time.

PN: Thank you.

                                                                 © FILM JOURNAL 2002