MY LIGHT BULB MOMENT

Film director Gurinder Chadha

Director Gurinder chadha OBE, 57, moved to Britain from Kenya when she was two. Her films include Bend it Like Beckham and Viceroy’s House. She lives in London with her screenwriter husband Paul Mayeda Berges and their nineyear-old twins. GROWING up in Southall, West London, I rebelled against my traditional Asian childhood. I wore Indian clothes, but with Doc Martens and Union Jack socks, and a leather jacket.

And I refused to attend dance lessons or learn to cook for the men of the family.

It was only when my father died in a garden accident that I started taking an interest in my background. My grandfather was born in Dariala Jalib, formerly a part of northern India, now Pakistan. In 1947, when the British left India, it was partitioned, almost overnight, into two nations: India for Hindus and Sikhs, and Pakistan for Muslims. As Sikhs, my grandmother and her five children were on the ‘wrong’ side of the border.

Riots broke out and they were forced to flee. They walked for days until they reached a refugee camp. My grandmother’s baby — my aunt — died of starvation. It took my grandfather, who’d been away working in Kenya, 18 months to find his family again.

I burst into tears when I found the house they were forced to abandon. It had become home to several Muslim families, whose parents had all fled during partition. One woman handed me a shawl. Then an old Pakistani man smiled and said: ‘This is your home, please come back any time.’

I was so moved I knew I had to make a film inspired by my own past and the forced migration of so many people. It was the lightbulb moment for Viceroy’s House.