Gurinder Chadha is one of the UK’s most respected filmmakers with a successful track record in directing award-winning films which are international box office successes.

Gurinder began her career as a BBC news reporter. She went on to direct several groundbreaking documentaries for the British Film Institute, BBC and Channel Four.

Her first feature, Bhaji on the Beach, won numerous international awards including a BAFTA Nomination for ‘Best British Film of 1994’ and the Evening Standard British Film Award for ‘Best Newcomer to British Cinema’.

In 1995 she directed Rich Deceiver, a two-part drama for the BBC, watched by 11 million viewers.

What's Cooking?, the Opening Night Film of the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, was the first British script to be invited to the Sundance Institute’s Writer’s Lab. The film was voted joint audience award winner in the New York Film Critics’ 2000 season (tied with Billy Elliott), and Gurinder won the award for Best British Director in the London Film Critics’ Circle Awards.

Bend It like Beckham was the highest grossing British-financed, British- distributed film, ever in the UK box-office (at time of release). The film was a critical and commercial success internationally, topping the box-office charts in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland and South Africa, and winning audience favorite film awards at the Locarno, Sydney and Toronto film festivals. The film received a Golden Globe Nomination for Best Picture (Musical or Comedy), a BAFTA Nomination for Best British Film, a European Film Academy Nomination for Best Film, and a Writers Guild of America Nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Bride & Prejudice - a film which marries Jane Austen with Indian and Western musicals - was the first film ever to open at Number One in the UK and India on the same day.

Gurinder has received several Honorary Doctorates from British Universities and was awarded an O.B.E. in the 2006 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for her services to the British Film Industry.

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging - based on the international bestseller, was released worldwide by Paramount Pictures in 2008/2009.

It's a Wonderful Afterlife premiered at the Sundance Film Festival before releasing internationally in 2010.

Gurinder’s most recent film, Viceroy's House, is an epic drama on the end of the British Empire in India in 1947. It opened at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2017 to critical acclaim, in the UK in March 2017 and a Hindi dubbed version titled Partition: 1947 was released in India in August 2017 for India’s 70th Independence Day. Gurinder won the award for Best Director at the Eastern Eye Arts, Culture & Theatre Awards 2017.

Her company, Bend It Networks, creates content for Film, TV, Stage and Digital. They currently have commissions from Sky Atlantic, ITV Drama, BBC Drama and BBC History.

Gurinder’s Bend It Like Beckham The Musical opened in the West End to critical acclaim in June 2015. It won The Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for Best Musical and was nominated for 5 Olivier Awards.