Scrooge is a Tory who hates refugees in Christmas Carol remake

SCROOGE will be portrayed as an “Indian Tory who hates refugees” in a new adaptation of A Christmas Carol.

Gurinder Chadha, who directed the 2002 film Bend It Like Beckham, is working on a “diverse” version of Charles Dickens’ festive story, she told MPS during a discussion on the state of the British film industry.

She claims to have warned Rishi Sunak about the production, saying: “I did tell the Prime Minister about it, and he said: ‘Don’t make me look bad’.

“And I said: ‘I don’t have to do that for you Rishi’.” Other than the main protagonist being anti-migrant, Chadha said the Netflix production will otherwise stick to Dickensian themes given the “cost of living crisis in the UK”.

The British-indian director also spoke to MPS about the difficulty of having films financed when the lead roles are taken by ethnic minority actors. There is “a perception that people won’t want to see a film that culturally does not reflect them”, she said.

She also told the committee she is working on a film for Disney, and intends to give her own spin on the Disney Princess, stating that the production is “about a princess who’s Indian”. Chadha, 64, has revised classics in the past, including her 2004 film Bride and Prejudice, which gives Jane Austen’s 1813 novel a different setting, and makes the Bennets a British-indian family.

Her breakthrough film, Bend It Like Beckham, follows an aspiring British-indian footballer fighting against her family’s disapproval.

“It’s dressed up as a comedy but it’s actually about parents protecting children from racism.

“But if I had gone out and said this was a film about racism, it would have never got financed, never,” she added.