Bollywood Queen

Bollywood Queen
Directed by	Jeremy Wooding
Written by	Neil Spencer Jeremy Wooding
Based on	Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Produced by	Jeremy Wooding
Starring	Preeya Kalidas James McAvoy Ray Panthaki Ciarán McMenamin Amerjit Deu Saraj Chaudhry Ronny Jhutti
Cinematography	Jono Smith
Edited by	Ben Yeates
Music by	Steve Beresford; additional music and theme song: Michael Kay
Production company	Win Media
Distributed by	Redbus Film Distribution
Release dates	11 December 2002 (2002-12-11) (premiere) 17 October 2003 (2003-10-17)
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Languages	English Hindi

Bollywood Queen is a British Indian take on the William Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet, directed by Jeremy Wooding and starring Preeya Kalidas and James McAvoy. Produced by Jeremy Wooding, the film was released in 2003.

Plot

Geena is a Bollywood fanatic from a respectable Gujarati family. She has finished school, and is at university doing a business studies course. She is dating Dilip, an ambitious computer whizz, but wants her love life to be like it is in the movies. However, Dilip only wants sex. Geena's family owns Ganesh Global, a clothing company which imports materials and saris from India. Geena has a part-time job working in the shop. She is also in a secret band with two other girls, Anjali and Neeta.

Jay is a young guy from Somerset who joins his brother Dean in London, who also works in the clothing industry, for someone called Frank Ian McShane. He owns a guitar, of which he is extremely protective.

One day, when Geena is walking along the road, Jay and his brother happen to be managing some poles. One of the poles nearly falls on Geena, but Jay lunges at her and pushes her out of the way before it can crush her. Geena, disgusted at this, hurries along, leaving her phone behind. Jay sees the phone and takes it, but his brother Dean repossesses it. Jay then takes the phone back and gives it to Geena, who then thanks him for saving her life. She then gives him her phone number, and they begin to meet up regularly.

The two start to fall in love, meeting up in secret regularly and hiding from Geena's family. However, Dean discovers the affair and launches an attack on Ganesh Global. One of Geena's brothers also sees the two together, and Geena gets into trouble with her family. Her brother then takes away her phone. Geena's brothers then beat Jay up, leaving him bleeding. Jay and Geena then run away together and escape their family. Dean is in hospital, and Jay visits him and takes away all his money.

Eventually, Jay and Geena return to London and Jay settles his dispute with his father and brother. Geena then turns up for her relative's wedding, dressed in Indian attire, and sings with her band. She then attempts to reunite with her family, and it is revealed her brother, Sanjay is a criminal, and is handling illegal suits, and that her brother, Tariq is gay. Jay and Geena then leave in the bride and groom's carriage, and her mother says to her father, "She'll be back."

Cast

• Preeya Kalidas as Geena
• James McAvoy as Jay
• Ray Panthaki as Anil
• Ciarán McMenamin as Dean
• Kat Bhathena as Anjali
• Ian McShane as Frank
• Amerjit Deu as Sanjay
• Karen David as Neeta
• Lalita Ahmed as Geena's mother
• Andy Beckwith as Johnny
• Jo Cameron Brown as Anita
• Saraj Chaudhry as Tariq
• Giada Dobrzenska as Club Kid
• Ronny Jhutti as Dilip
• Tajpal Rathore as Family member
• Ranu Setna as Uncle Ganesh
• Faizaan Shurai as Factory Worker
• Elsa de Belilovsky as Elsa

Awards and nominations

British Independent Film Awards

• Jeremy Wooding – nominated for Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director)

External links

• Bollywood Queen at IMDb
• Bollywood Queen at Rotten Tomatoes