Bride and Prejudice

BRIDE AND PREJUDICE - Edited Production Notes
'It is a combination of Bollywood and Hollywood, all tied up with a very British overall sensibility. It’s pushing British filmmaking into a whole new direction.” Bride and Prejudice director Gurinda Chadha

From the team behind international smash hit Bend It Like Beckham, comes a Jane Austen adaptation like never before.

Pride and Prejudice gets the Bollywood treatment and the result is a spectacular fusion of East meets West. Austen’s classic love story unfolds in a riot of colour and emotion, song and dance that jet sets from rural India via London to Los Angeles.

A must see for lovers of Bollywood, musicals and ultimately for romantics everywhere, the warmth, affection and enthusiasm of director Gurinda Chadha’s interpretation is inescapable. Plus for sceptics, there’s a serious side tackling Western preconceptions about India and Indian women in particular.

Bollywood’s reigning queen Aishwarya Rai debuts in her first English language film as our heroine Lalita [Austen’s Lizzie Bennet]. Rising star Martin Henderson takes on Darcy in a wet T-shirt. [Martin’s work includes Gore Verbinski’s The Ring and forthcoming feature Little Fish opposite Cate Blanchett and Sam Neil]. Naveen Andrews [The English Patient] is Balraj Bingley. Indira Varma his sister Kirin. Nitrin Ganatra [Canterbury Tales[BBC] is Kholi [Austen’s comic relief Mr Collins] and Daniel Gillies, [impressing this summer as Tobey Maguire’s nemesis in Spiderman II] is attractive bounder Wickham.

Director Gurinda Chadha [Bhaji on the Beach, What’s Cooking, Bend It Like Beckham], producer Deepak Nayar [Heat and Dust, Lost Highway, The Buena Vista Social Club] and writer Paul Mayeda Berges [What’s Cooking, Bend It Like Beckham] combine their knowledge of commercial Western cinema with the established Bollywood expertise of choreographer Saroj Khan [Devdas], composer Anu Malik, lyricists the Akhtar family and cinematographer Santosh Sivab [Ashoka].

Bride and Prejudice is a fully-fledged first. Living proof that by interweaving Eastern and Western filming traditions, acting styles and talent – both on and off camera - a film of universal accessibility and impact can be created. Hold onto your Sari’s because as Gurinda puts it ...

“In Bollywood anything is possible.”

The Players

Aishwarya Rai Lalita Bakshi [Elizabeth Bennet]

Martin Henderson William Darcy [Mr Darcy] 

Naveen Andrews  Balraj Bingley [Mr Bingley]

Indira Varma Kiran Bingley [Miss Bingley]

Namrata Shirdokar Jaya Bakshi [Jane Bennet]

Peeya Rai Lakhi Bakshi [Lydia Bennet]

Meghna Kothari Maya Bakshi [Mary Bennet]

Nadira Babar Mrs Bakshi [Mrs Bennet]

Anupam Kher  Mr Bakshi [Mr Bennet]

Daniel Gillies Johnny Wickham [Lt. Wickham]

Nitrin Ganatra  Mr Kholi [Mr Collins]

Marsha Mason  Catherine Darcy [Lady Catherine De Bourgh]

Alexis Bledel Georgie Darcy [Georgiana Darcy]

Sonali Kulkarni Chandra [Charlotte Lucas]

The Story

‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.’ Jane Austen

“No Life Without Wife” Traditional Indian Saying.

Meddlesome mother Mrs Bakshi [Nadira Babar] is an eligible bachelor seeking missile for her four long suffering daughters. And when the ultimate single male specimen, one Mr Balraj Bingley [Naveen Andrews], private jets into town for a wedding, he’s a match made in heaven for her eldest daughter Jaya [Namrata Shirokar].

Balraj has dragged along his disdainful sister Kiran [Indira Varma], and his best friend, international hotelier Darcy [Martin Henderson]. During the wedding dance [a number best described as ‘spectacular’], Balraj is bewitched by Jaya and Darcy’s eyes alight on Lalita [Aishwarya Rai] – Jaya’s younger sister - an intelligent feisty beauty. But Darcy’s incompetence on the dance floor combined with a pair of falling down trousers conspire that he snubs Lalita and she resolves he’s a very pompous twit – taking the first opportunity to put his naïve views on India to rights. [Lalita needs Darcy like fish – bicycle].

Balraj continues to court Jaya and invites her and Lalita on holiday with them in Goa. The romance of the beach setting is offset by Darcy and Lalita sparing, and Lalita’s not surprised when handsome traveller Johnny Wickham [Daniel Gilles] emerges from the surf and tells her Darcy is a nasty piece of work.

The sisters return home, arriving simultaneously with Mr Kholi [Nitrin Ganatra], a distant relative, now gauche LA accountant who has come to choose one unfortunate sister to be his bride.

With Jaya practically engaged to Balraj, Lalita knows she’s first in the proposal firing line and is hugely relieved when Wickham pays a visit, endears himself to her loving father [Anupam Kher] and flirts outrageously with her.

At a local traditional dance, Lalita re-encounters Darcy, risks life and limb dancing with Kholi and introduces the latter to her best friend Chandra. Meanwhile Mrs Bakshi invites Bingley, Kiran and Darcy to dinner in the hope that Balraj will bite the naan bread and propose to Jaya.

Bingley disappoints poor mama [might have something to with sister Maya’s [Meghna Kothari] mad cobra dance before dinner] but Darcy, speaking candidly about the death of his father and relationship with his mother and sister finally impresses Lalita.

The same cannot be said for Kholi’s subsequent proposal and Lalita rejects her comedy suitor. [Mrs Bakshi is devastated. Mr Bakshi delighted]. Suddenly all glamorous visitors evaporate and leave the girls to furiously check email for news from suitors. [P.S On the quiet little sister Lakhi has developed a serious crush on Wickham].

The hiatus is broken by the shock announcement that Kholi and Chandra are to marry in LA and that the sisters are invited. They travel via London, glamorous Southall specifically and Jaya’s attempts to see Balraj are thwarted by his sister, whose invitation to tea and cucumber sandwiches at their estate in Windsor is a slight – she informs them Balraj has gone off to investigate a far better marriage proposal.

Checking in at Heathrow, who should be on the same flight to LA but Darcy. Lalita, distinctly chilly at the prospect, is again forced to reconsider her views of him when he relinquishes his seat in first class to their mother. [And guess how much Mrs Bakshi loves that].

Hello to Hollywood and wedding preparations at Darcy’s Beverly Hills Hotel. The family meet his formidable mother Catherine [Marsha Mason] - though Lalita is up to the challenge and she and Darcy begin a tentative romance.

All Lalita’s hopes are dashed at Kholi and Chandra’s wedding where not only does Mrs Darcy introduce her to Darcy’s girlfriend Anne [!] but his sister Georgie [Alexis Bledel] tells her that it was Darcy who put Balraj off marrying Jaya.

Lalita rejects Darcy’s explanation and confessions of love and storms back to Blighty very blue. Here there’s more hot water in store when Lakhi runs away with Wickham. Darcy – who’s appeared in pursuit, full of apology and promises to reunite Jaya and Balraj, - then puts the fear of Shiva into the family with evidence to prove Wickham is a supreme cad. He and Lalita scour London for the runaways, apprehend Wickham and rescue Lakhi. 

Phew! All return to India where Jaya and Balraj, Darcy and Lalita clamber on elephants and tie the eternal knot in a lavish and vibrant twin wedding ceremony.

East Meets West

Like your fave Indian eaterie that serves fab madras alongside superlative fish and chips, Bride and Prejudice is an edible feast of both Eastern and Western filmmaking traditions.

Bollywood meets the Hollywood musical. As Gurinda explains ‘Bride and Prejudice is about the musicals that I grew up with as a child. The Bollywood movies as well as classics like the Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, the Wizard of Oz and Grease. They have all come together in a flamboyant spectacle of emotion, colour, song and dance. You can find a bit of everything in here.’

A combination of acting styles. The cast are an international mix of American, Bollywood and British so all the actors came to the project schooled in different techniques. According to Gurinda ‘we had American based actors who worked the Hollywood way’ [School of Acting: What’s my motivation in this scene?] ‘The British actors, trained in Britain and versed in film, theatre and television there,’ [School of Acting: Just hit your mark and say your lines] ‘And the Bollywood actors with their very over the top, physical and gesture orientated style.’ [School of Acting: Big is best and make love to the camera at all times.] The cast all adapted to a happy common ground and confessed that under Gurinda’s direction they learnt a great deal from each other! [No divas here obviously.]

Three crews. ‘Working in three different languages and three different cultural spaces,’ says Gurinda ‘the only solution was to employ three separate crews.’ Past experience working the Bollywood and Hollywood way has taught Gurinda that ‘wherever you go, you have to work the way they work in those countries. So, when we were in England we worked like a British crew and when we were in India we worked as much like an Indian crew as we could and then, when we were in America, we worked a kind of American way.’ And if you think all this sounds bloody exhausting for her, it was. ‘As a director my energy was being dissipated in lots of different directions.’

Music and dance find the middle ground. Chadha and producer Deepak Nayar commissioned both Anu Malik – one of Indias most renowned composers - and Craig Pruess [Golden Eye, Bend It Like Beckham] to come up with a score to merge Eastern and Western musical preferences. ‘The music and songs are Bollywood based,’ Chadha explains ‘but arranged and produced to suit what a Western ear will like.’ Similarly with the dance sequences, Chadha needed choreographer Saroj Khan to ‘turn out the traditional Bollywood material and blend it with a Western influence.’ Saroj also had to train actors Naveen Andrews and Daniel Gillies from scratch – neither having danced on film before. Andrews says ‘she worked one on one with me for hours!’ And Gillies explains ‘she is so revered in India that you have to touch her feet before you rehearse!’

Location, location, location. Bride and Prejudice makes the real India a must goa destination [sorry], and travel agents be warned of impending inundation. The location mainstay is rural Amritsar – typical India. As producer Deepak describes ‘the ambient is horns blaring, dogs barking, general noise, people everywhere, claustrophobic and almost medieval.’ The action then moves to moonlit Goa, Mumbai, London, Los Angeles and the beach at Santa Monica.

From Pride to Bride

“One day I was standing in my kitchen, washing dishes when I thought ‘let’s take something so British, so English, a great English literary classic like Pride and Prejudice and adapt it into a Bollywood setting.” Gurinda Chadha 2004.

Pride and Prejudice is BBC Britain’s favourite book, Chadra’s growing up and a novel that’s welcomed a plethora of adaptations. So why was it ripe for a Bollywood interpretation?

· “The themes of Jane Austens novel are a ‘perfect fit’ for a Bollywood style film,” explains Gurinda. “The themes are so pertinent to contemporary India, especially a place like rural Amritsar, where I decided the Bakshi family should live. Austen’s focus on money and marriage, false pride and false nobility are alive and well in modern India’· 

The 19th century issues pertain to 21st century India, particularly in relation to women. Gurinda continues “Jane Austen was preoccupied with the horrendous idea that women were not worthy of anything, unless they were married, or unless they had money. Intelligence didn’t count for anything. And in Indian society, all most Indian parents dream is to have their daughters married off respectively.”

Indian society has a plethora of similarities to Victorian England:

• In place of lavish balls they have ceremonial weddings and these events allow for dressing up and a continuing tradition of men asking women to dance.
• The courtship procedure is akin to Austen’s England in its formality. Marriages are often arranged by parents. Men have to woo their maidens and in Bollywood, there’s no sex before marriage.
• The family tends to be close knit, women living at home until wed. And for the central Bakshi family, a lack of modern technology gives them time to read, to play music and eat together. [Now when was the last time you did that?] Oh and they also have servants.