‘Bend It like Beckham’ director Gurinder Chadha carried the Olympic torch on Saturday 23rd June 2012. She ran the Blackpool to Manchester segment near Burnley. Blackpool is where she shot her first feature film, the unforgettable ‘Bhaji on the Beach’ and Manchester was of course home to a football team connected to a certain Mr. Beckham! Gurinder says, “It was a complete and utter exhilarating experience, I am honored and blessed to have been selected as one of only a few thousand out of all of Britain’s 56 million population to run with the Olympic flame. I shall treasure my torch and display it in my house next to my OBE!” Gurinder could barely contain her pride, “My goodness, I don’t think my parents would have ever imagined I would have such honors showered on me when they first arrived on British soil in the sixties. I am proud to be a British Punjabi and when I first took hold of the flame I said to myself ‘Bole Sonihal’. Saturday has been a great day for me and my community!” Gurinder Chadha was born in 1960 in Nairobi, Kenya. She is a British Film Director of Indian origin. Most of her films explore the lives of Indians living in the United Kingdom. She is best known for the hit films Bhaji on the Beach (1993), Bend It Like Beckham (2002), Bride and Prejudice (2004) and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008). Her most recent project is the comedy film It’s a Wonderful Afterlife released on 21 April 2010.
