Gurinder Chadha

Michael Doherty chats to the award-winning director of Blinded By The Light, a new movie with a Springsteen flavour

Well-known for movies such as Bend it Like Beckham (2002) and It’s a Wonderful Afterlife (2010), not to mention the recent hit TV series, Beecham House, award-winning director Gurinder Chadha’s latest film combines two of her passions: British-Asian culture and Bruce Springsteen. Based on the memoirs of Sarfraz Manzoor, the British-Asian writer who grew up in Luton idolising The Boss, Blinded By The Light has managed to strike a chord on both sides of the Atlantic.

MovieGuide: Looking at Sarfraz’s story, it’s hard to imagine any other director better qualified to bring it to the big screen, given your history of telling British-Asian stories and your own love of Bruce...

Gurinder Chadha: Absolutely! When Sarfraz was writing his memoir, Bend it Like Beckham had been released, and he told me afterwards that he was thinking at the time, the only person who could turn this into a film would be me. We had been friends for a long time and had bonded over Bruce. We used to think that we were the only British Asians who were Bruce fans! When we came to work on the film, I knew how to turn his story into a movie but I knew we could only do this with Bruce’s blessing because these are his words and his music so we needed his support.

Fast forward to 2010. Sarfraz and yourself are standing on a red carpet in London for Bruce’s film, The Promise, as the Great Man approaches....

Honestly, truth is stranger than fiction and I also really do believe in fate! Bruce came over and we were like, ‘Oh my God!’ He told us he loved the book and I immediately pitched him the movie. He said yes, but we were still not quite sure because there were no contracts or anything, no option agreements. Our mission really was to present Bruce with a script that he couldn’t say no to. Not only is he our hero, he’s a creative artist who has poured his life into his songs. That’s why I didn’t want to make a jukebox film.

Though the book came out in 2007, the story feels even more relevant in 2019, given what’s going on in the world...

One of the reasons that I decided I wanted this to be my next movie was the timing of it. There was Brexit and there was all that ugliness surrounding Charlottesville in America. I thought, we lived through this in the ’80s: we can’t have it again. And really, it was the anger and frustration about the xenophobia I was seeing around me that made me go, I need to deal with that and make a statement. It feels so timely because what Bruce has to say about the world hasn’t changed. He speaks for every generation and he talks about empathy. Nobody wins unless we all win.

Sarfraz has described his book as essentially ‘a conversation with my dad’ – is it important to reflect that relationship and to balance the values of a new country and of duty to family and its traditions?

It’s my job as a film-maker to give a story its humanity. It was the same with Bend it Like Beckham. We carry that sense of duty and we are duty-bound to our parents. But when we have dreams that aren’t their dreams, how do we negotiate it? Therein lies the drama. What I love about movies and what I try and do for audiences is to bring you into my world very quickly and make you feel that that world is your world; even though the people in the world look different to you.

It was the anger and frustration about the xenophobia I was seeing around me that made me go, I need to deal with that and make a statement

In that regard, that standing ovation at the Sundance Film Festival, accompanied by a Bruce singalong, must have been very validating?

For me, the experience of Sundance was what every independent film-maker dreams of. I’ve done it now and I’m so happy. Talk about validation! That standing ovation was incredibly emotional because it was the first time I was seeing the film with an audience. And it happened to be an American audience and it happened to have a lot of Bruce fans and also people from the industry. It was nervewracking and the only way I could break that was to ask, how many Bruce fans are here and then go, alright, come on, ‘Everybody’s Got a Hungry Heart..!’’ I always knew that I wanted to make a small, independent British film under the radar, you know? And I know that’s what Bruce wanted as well. At Sundance, we realised how big it could potentially be.

Bruce didn’t turn up at Sundance but I’m guessing you told him how it all went down?

Bruce didn’t come to Sundance because he didn’t want it to be about him. He wanted it to be about the film. His manager, Barbara, was at the party afterwards and she sent a video to Bruce of us all dancing and celebrating. And all the great reviews went across to Bruce. The next morning, I said to Barbara, ‘Oh my God, what did Bruce say?’ And she said his first words were, ‘Wow! I’m so pleased for Gurinder: she’s worked so hard.’ I was like, ‘Oh Bruce, I love you!’

One last question: your Twitter handle describes you as director, producer, writer, mother, Punjabi. In which order would you place those labels?

Well, that’s very interesting because you could reverse that easily and it would still be the same. It changes and shifts. Beecham House is definitely a series made by a British Asian mother. Blinded by the Light is a film that I’m particularly proud of as a director because I never went to film school and I’ve learned on the job. Craft-wise, I feel very good about how I’ve combined the music, the drama and the performances and brought that all together to tell the story.

Blinded by the Light opens nationwide on August 9