Gurinder Chadha, Aardman to join hands on feature film inspired by Hindi cinema

Gurinder Chadha and Aardman Animations are teaming up to produce a feature film inspired by the Indian film industry.

The recently announced project, aimed at a global family audience, will be a musical that will follow Bodhi, an Indian elephant from the jungles of Kerala whose dream is to be a ‘Bollywood’ dancer.

Chadha, who will direct the feature, is co-writing the screenplay with her husband Paul Mayeda Berges.

The writer-director of Bend It Like Beckham (2002) said in a statement, “Aardman is a Great British national treasure. I am honoured and excited to bring my unique British Asian vision to their acclaimed animation studio. Their work has so much heart, humour and affection, and we share a love of authentic and joyful underdog stories about memorable characters – so it really is a perfect match.”

Aardman’s creative director Peter Lord added, “We are so excited to be collaborating with Gurinder, a truly great director whose beautiful, funny, and warm storytelling we have long admired. Her talent, when combined with the team here at Aardman, promises something new and extraordinary in the world of animation.”

The British studio and Chadha’s Bend It Networks will collaborate with Indian voice talent, musicians and designers on the upcoming project, which is said to be in advanced development.

Chadha completed the feature Blinded By The Light (2019) about a British-Pakistani teenager’s love for Bruce Springsteen’s music and the television series Beecham House, a period drama set in 19th century India in 2019.

The filmmaker is also in collaboration with Netflix and producer Ashok Amritraj to adapt Indian-American illustrator-writer Nidhi Chanani's first graphic novel Pashmina into an animated musical. The project still seems to be in the pre-production stage.