‘You’ll watch it because it’s entertaining, not because it’s Asian’ – Gurinder Chadha
Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha is back with a ‘scripted reality’ show on Sky Living. She explains why it was important to make a British Asian drama in an election year.
Her new project Desi Rascal’s is a collaboration with producer Tony Wood (The Only Way is Essex, Hollyoaks), she is looking to enter the arteries of British reality television with her own particular brand of cheerful multiculturalism.
What’s amazing about Desi Rascals is that once you get over the all-Asian cast, what it seems to be mainly about is what everyone else is concerned about. Young people. Getting off with each other. Being embarrassed by your parents. Being hurt by romance. You’ll watch it because it is entertaining, because it is moving, not because it is Asian.” She is pleased that Desi Rascals is going out in the runup to the election. “Because when people bandy around a word like ‘immigrant’ and use it pejoratively, what this show does is actually take away that crude definition to show people with hearts and minds. It’s about people saying, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve got mates like that.’’ – She tell’s the Guardian.
Buccaneer Media’s 12-part series about a group of British Asians got underway with a performance which narrowly outperformed the channel’s 76,000 (0.4%) slot average for the past 12 months.
The episode peaked with 148,000 (0.6%) viewers in the five minutes from 8.50pm. It was followed by an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation which entertained 123,000 (0.5%).
Watch the first episode here
