Bend It Like Beckham’s director has said the film was a ‘great healing moment for the world’ following the terrorist attacks in America.Â
The film, , came a year after 2,996 people were Ki**ed in coordinated terrorist attacks by extremist group al-Qaeda.Â
Bend It Like Beckham follows a British-Indian teenage girl with a passion for football, played by Parminder Nagra alongside Kiera Knightley.
Director Gurinder Chadha, 62, first came up with the idea after seeing former England footballer run on to the pitch with a Union Jack flag, ‘triggering’ her to explore the concept of Britishness in a film.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I had no idea the huge global impact the film would have and actually to this day it has one record that no other film has in the world – it has been officially released in every single country in the world including North Korea.
Gurinder had been in Birmingham mixing music for the film when the World Trade Centre was attacked, and believes the film was ‘healing’ in the aftermath.
She explained: ‘I think that had a massive impact on how the film was received globally because we came out after 9/11 and I think the world was quite shocked and beaten up by that and here comes this innocent film that is trying to make people understand what it feels like to be different.
‘What it feels like to try and pursue something of your own when people around you aren’t really accepting of that, be it your own family or society.
‘You’re invited into the home of a Sikh family in Britain to understand the world from their point of view and I just think it was a great healing moment for many people and the world just to be part of something so celebratory and culturally poignant and diverse at that time.’
The film was also released on the back of the ‘Cool Britannia’ era in the nineties, which Gurinder believes also helped to make it a success.
She explained: ‘There was a massive movement to redefine what British culture meant and what being British meant and so that was all happening in the 90s.
‘I just thought why not put an Indian girl right in the heart of a male English world of football at that time and see what happens when the two come together.’
