Chadha’s vision

Best known for feature films such as Bend It Like Beckham, Bride & Prejudice and Viceroy’s House, writer and director Gurinder Chadha has now arrived on the small screen with her first longform drama, Beecham House.

Set in India in 1795, the six-part series follows John Beecham (Tom Bateman), a former soldier in the East India Company who arrives in Delhi determined to leave his past behind him and start a new life as an independent trader, taking up residence in the titular mansion. However, the staff soon harbour questions over their secretive new master, who arrives with his infant son August.

In this DQTV interview, Chadha explains how she has been fascinated by different screen representations of the relationship between Britain and India and why she decided to explore that history from her perspective as a British-Indian woman.

She also talks the drama’s contemporary relevance and reveals why she found making the show particularly challenging.

Beecham House is produced by Chadha’s Bend It TV for ITV and distributed by Fremantle.

tagged in: Beecham House, Gurinder Chadha