I truly believe that within the next five years you'll see this whole new area of the industry growing 
Having spent many years working in the theatre as both actor and director, Harmage Singh Kalirai makes his feature debut with the Lancashire-set comedy Chicken Tikka Masala. Written by 18-year-old Roopesh Parekh, the movie features Chris Bisson and Peter Ash as lovers whose relationship is threatened by a very inconveniently arranged marriage.
What attracted you to Chicken Tikka Masala?
I'm originally from Preston, but I left Lancashire because there was nothing happening there for me. I went to study in London and then Paris, acted and produced a lot of work, so one of the attractions was to go back to Lancashire and do some work there. And secondly, the story was funny, so it was nice to do a comedy in Preston, and use a cast of actors that I'd previously worked with.
It was a low-budget movie, so presumably things were very tight for you...
Well, we had five weeks to shoot the whole production, which was very tight indeed. For a first feature, it was one hell of an experience to try and shoot in that time. It was good for me, really, because it sharpens you up and you have to really be on the ball all of the time. And the fact that we had a crew who were not all experienced in filmmaking, a lot of them were new to it - that kind of gelled us together. There were about three or four who had done television before. When we first met, I had a chat with the whole crew and said: "Look, it's my first film. It's a lot of your first films. We have to gel together, we have to get this show together, it's the first time they're doing this in Preston." And when you do something like this for the first time, a film unit becomes like a family. It's all private funding, but we had a lot of favours done in Preston - a lot of the community helped out, a lot of doors were opened to us.
What were the main things you learned from the experience?
There's a whole set of politics involved in filmmaking, and it's about understanding each person's role, understanding the infrastructure - it's also about commitment and focus. It's hard work, but I found it very rewarding. Although at first I was very sceptical about whether I could pull it off - not having the technical experience - but actually on the set, when we were filming, I felt very much at home and very much like this is the area that I want to progress into. It was a lot of learning that I cherish, and am very enthusiastic to take that into the next area.
The film combines some British sensibilities with some from Bollywood...
If you look at it, the Asian's history is in the Bollywood film history, which makes around 7-800 films per year. If that's our history, then why haven't we developed that history in this country? Or some kind of filmmaking industry? The way we've been looking at this project is that it's part of the British film industry that we're developing from our side, working up north, creating a northern film studio up in Lancashire. If the resources are open for any co-productions or tri-productions between Britain, Europe and India, then that's what we're open to. And I think there is a lot of enthusiasm now from India for coming over to the UK and doing some co-productions, or investing in films that are produced here. I think the stories from the Asian community are now going to progress. I think there's going to be a lot more subjects that people are going to explore in this country.
The film centres on two gay men. What was the thinking behind that, given the difficulties of making gay mainstream movies?
For us this story is like any other love story, it just happens to be gay. That's the way we approached it. In the film we hardly ever talk about them being gay, it's just quite normal within the film. As the story progresses, you just find out certain things about the individuals. I didn't think about how it would be seen within the Asian community, I just thought that's the way it was for those characters.
The fact that the gay couple don't kiss on screen - was that a Bollywood reference?
I didn't feel that they needed to kiss, really. For me it was about showing the reality of how they lived in that situation and environment. We see them on a bridge, hand in hand and relaxing with each other, but I didn't think we needed to go further by showing a kiss. But subconsciously it might have been a Bollywood reference. I've never thought of it like that.
Are you planning to release the film in India?
We hope so. We would like to get some kind of run going in India. There are a lot of multiplexes being built in the major cities in India, and I went to see some - they're astounding. If we can get our film in those kind of cinemas, I think it could do well. There's an emerging middle-class, young, trendy film-going community out there, and they want crossover films.
East Is East and Bend It Like Beckham were both big hits here, but the genre still seems under-represented...
I think this film fits in between Bend It Like Beckham and East Is East. We haven't had that many films, really, and there's definitely room for more. It is an area that hasn't been explored and fully utilised. I truly believe that within the next five years you'll see this whole new area of the industry growing.
Chicken Tikka Masala is released in UK cinemas on Friday 22nd April 2005.
