In July this year, Gurinder Chadha revealed that a sequel to her 2002 smash hit, Bend It Like Beckham, is in the works. The internet went wild. Major news outlets picked up the story, fans gushed across online chats and social media platforms lit up with excitement. The UK’s Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport weighed in as well, calling the announcement “a brilliant moment for British film.”
Then came November. Chadha’s latest film, Christmas Karma, a Bollywood-inspired, star-studded musical twist on Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, opened in UK cinemas to a mixed reception. The Guardian gave it one star. The Telegraph gave it none. It’s only the second film ever to receive such a low rating from the paper. The last one was Cats.
To understand what must feel like a year of emotional whiplash for the filmmaker, I meet Chadha on a crisp London morning at a shabby-chic cafe down the road from her home in North London. She sweeps into her local wearing a hot-pink jumper that pops against a sea of greys, navys and blacks. Heads turn.
“I think reviews say so much about the person, more than the film,” Chadha says, addressing the unkind commentary Christmas Karma has received. Did the critics miss the message? “I think they didn’t care about the message,” Chadha replies without hesitating. “I think they were furious that I took on Dickens and Christmas and told the story my way.”
How does she cope with criticism, especially when it comes on the heels of the buzz the Bend It sequel generated? Has more than three decades in the movie business hardened her? “It’s not about having a thick skin. It’s about acknowledging your power,” she says. “What they probably want is for me to go off into some corner and die, kind of thing, right?”
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