Gurinder Chadha Talks It's A Wonderful Afterlife

by Helen Earnshaw | 16 August 2010

With movies such as Bhaji on the Beach and Bend It Like Beckham Gurinder Chadha has become one of the most recognisable and successful British filmmakers.

And her new movie It’s A Wonderful Afterlife sees her tackle the horror comedy as she attempts to try her hand at a new movie genre.

I caught up with her to talk about her new movie and what lies ahead for her.

- It’s A Wonderful Afterlife is about to be released on DVD so for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie yet can you tell me a little bit about it?

To anyone who hasn’t seen it I would say where have you been? (laughs) I think that there aren’t many movies made from a female sensibility and a female perspective and when you see the film you will realise just how female it is, just from the perspective.

So if you just want to have a good night out and a bit of a laugh then this is the film for you because it’s got a bit of comedy in there, it’s a little bit of horror as well as a love story at the core.

It’s also about a girl who is not exactly skinny and is not the usual cover girl so it’s a whole host of things that you wouldn’t normally get in a movie.

- You also penned the screenplay so where did the idea for a supernatural comedy come from?

Well I always try to do things a bit differently and I realised then I had never really done the horror movie so I thought why not do a British/Indian horror movie. But as we started working on it I realised that I couldn’t do horror because it isn’t really my thing but comedy horror yes.

Then most of my work has always had a female protagonist at the core and I was very keen to continue that with this movie and so having this wacky story line, which follows a mother who take offence to anyone who calls her daughter fat, it’s just a brilliant premise for any sort of comedy horror.

I just thought it was really funny and it’s wishful thinking for many mothers but this genre can hold that. So I was trying to the realms of reality.

- Despite all of the ghosts and the murders that are going on all of your movies look at the emotions and the roles of women and this movie is no different as the central character is trying to break out and find her own way so why do you choose to focus on this?

Well because no one else does very few movies are made from a female perspective with a great female protagonist, that’s the one thing that I love to go and see in the cinema myself.

- I suppose Roopi is not your conventional heroine so was this a conscious choice?

Oh yes because it’s unconventional, innovative, no one else would do that and part of what spurs me on is the amount of people, especially women who come up to me and really relate to what I do and see themselves in what I do.

So I do pick unconventional heroines; Indian girls who want to play football, Georgia Groome in Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging she is a bit dumpy and doesn’t think that she is beautiful and this time around this girl who is really your cover girl but in the end they always get what they want because of who they are, their brains and who they are and just being true to themselves, and that isn’t usually the message that you get with heroines.

- And what about casting did you pen the script with anyone in mind? I did read that you had wanted to work with Shabana Azmi for a long time?

Yes, Shabana is like the Meryl Streep of India and I had met her before, she’s a very funny person in real life even though she done many serious films, so when this opportunity came up I immediately went for her because she is such a great actress and I thought that she would be able to do justice to all these genres; to be funny, to be scary but then also to create empathy so that we would have sympathy for her as well.

I also cast Sendhil Ramamurthy, the guy from Heroes, and he is utterly gorgeous and when we were shooting it was great because when he was on set you could see all the women going a little bit weak and suddenly when I was at my monitor doing a close up there would be all these women around me (laughs).

- And of course you cast Sally Hawkins who I just love.

She is just superb and I’m glad that she is doing really well right now, she’s coming out in quite a few movies, but she is so dedicated as an actress, she’s really funny and she was channelling Margaret Rutherford.

- The movie is set in the London suburb of Southall so did you film on location and what issues did you face on the shoot?

My offices are at Ealing Studios so we set the film up there and we shoot all around Ealing and of course Central London. But I wanted to make the Ealing comedy true to that genre, that quirky British comedy, and so we had to set it in Ealing.

- Some of the scenes have the ghosts that only Mrs Sethi can see so what challenges did that pose knowing that she could see them but other characters couldn’t?

Well that was complicated in terms of shooting because we would have to shoot everything twice; we would shoot it once with the ghosts and one without.

But that meant that you had to do everything exactly the same so one minute you would be shooting a scene with six people in it, the mum and five ghosts, in a wide frame and then you would have to shoot it again with just the mum but still in a wide frame.

But then we would have to have the ghosts saying their lines off camera and Shabana would still have to turn around and look at them even though they weren’t there (laugh).

So that was a bit funny sometimes because we knew the ghosts were there but if you didn’t then it could look like she was a bit mad there way her eyes would dart about, so that quite challenging to make it seem like the ghost were there but without her appearing mad.

- There is a nod to Alien and Carrie in the movie so what was it about these scenes that you like and felt you needed to include in the movie?

Well Carries was just the first and last horror movie that I had seen and I have done so many Indian wedding scenes and I just loved the idea of taking one of those wedding scenes and turning it into the prom scene from Carrie, it’s so out there.

It was brilliant doing that scene because, I think, it does justice to the Carrie scene and it was great throwing curry around on everybody, and a lot of the extras in that scene were my family; my mum getting pelted with samosas is just great.

It is just so out there and you would never imagine a movie set in this community doing something like that and that’s what I love about that scene.

- You do independently produce all of your movies so how important is it for you to have control over your work?

I do work very collaboratively and I talk to other people plus when I have finished the film I do love to show it to lots of people to get their feedback.

But it is very much a priviledge in this day and age where you can make a film without having someone breathing down your neck trying to make you do what you don’t want to do, and I’m very grateful for that.

- You are now also a mother so how do you find juggling the two?

Angus was my first movie as a mother the twins were three months old when I shot that film so they just sat there but this time it was much harder because I missed them when I was on set all day, I made a point of seeing them in the morning and the evening and they would come and visit me, and that’s why the shoot was so short.

But they totally understand about mamma’s work and they don’t think it’s weird that I’m on television or that I’m always working on the computer or writing or watching clips it’s just normal for them.

- This is another movie that boasts some really good young talent on the cast list and of course you uncovered Keira Knightly, Parminder Nagra and Aaron Johnson is doing very well so what’s your secret?

You know I just look at what I think is going to work in terms of the character and then if I see an actor who I think has a spark or something about and has integrity in their performance then I always go for that. So it’s just instinct I guess as well as being open to new faces and not just names.

- Finally what’s next for you?

I’m currently working on quite a major historical movie, I want to make a big historical epic set in India in 1947 when the British Raj ended and India became independent.

So it’s quite a big undertaking but we have been working on the script and so far it’s coming along fantastic and I’m absolutely pumped and excited about making this big historical epic.

It’s A Wonderful Afterlife is out on DVD now.

Femalefirst Helen Earnshaw