Trivia / Bend It Like Beckham

• Approval of God: Keira Knightley heard that so many fans wished for Jess and Jules to become a couple and responded "fuck yeah", joking that there should be a sequel where they do.
• Banned in China: This is the first and only Western-made movie to avert this in North Korea; it was aired on state TV in an heavily abridged form on December 26, 2010 to mark the tenth anniversary of North Korea's relations with the United Kingdom.
• …But I Play One on TV: The year the film was released, Parminder Nagra won FIFA's International Football Personality of the Year Presidential Award - beating out established players Luis Figo and Ronaldo. She was also the first woman to receive the award.
• Cast the Expert: Gurinder Chadha worked with the Football Association and cast actual players from various school teams.
• Dawson Casting: Parminder Nagra was twenty-six, playing an eighteen-year-old. Inverted in the case of Keira Knightley, who was actually 16 years old at the time of filming and playing an 18-year-old.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Keira Knightley had to bob her hair, as Jules' short hair is a sign that her mother thinks she's gay. Parminder Nagra had to grow hers long, to fit Jess's traditional upbringing. They reverted to their original styles when promoting the movie, joking that they swapped in interviews.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Juliet Stevenson often does serious dramas playing intelligent women of power. Here, she's Jules' embarrassing ditz of a mother.
  • Jonathan Rhys Meyers is often villains or leches, making it unusual to see him as the Nice Guy coach. It's also rare for him to get to use his natural Irish accent.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: There are persistent rumors that this was originally going to be a lesbian love story between Jess and Jules - and that they would become a couple at the end of the film. There is no version of the script that exists where they were romantically involved - so it's unclear if this was merely a talked about concept early in production, or a rumor that got started with all the Les Yay between the girls.
• Production Posse: Shaheen Khan, who plays Jess's mother, had worked with Gurinder Chadha in Bhadji on the Beach.
• Queer Show Ghetto: A possible case. As mentioned before, there are rumors that the film was originally about a romance between two women interested in football, and that it was removed both due to worries that the film would be too niche and due to not wanting to perpetuate the Lesbian Jock stereotype. They supposedly ended up tacking on a heterosexual subplot to the film at the last moment. None of this has been confirmed, however.
• Real-Life Relative: The guests at Pinky's wedding were made up of Gurinder Chadha's relatives. They threw themselves into the spirit of the scene, and treated it as if it were a real wedding.
• The Red Stapler: The film reportedly inspired a great number of girls and young women to take up football and some to even play professionally. (Some joined local women's teams and were surprised to find they didn't play friendlies abroad.)
• Sleeper Hit: The film's success at the Box Office was a shock what with it being about a) women's football, b) an Indian family and c) British. At the time of its release, it was the highest grossing Indian-themed film in the US since Gandhi and remains the third-highest grossing film about association football (after She's the Man and Kicking & Screaming).
• Star-Making Role: This and next year's Pirates of the Caribbean put Keira Knightley on the map; Parminder K. Nagra also did very well out of it.
• Stunt Casting:
  • Bollywood superstar Anupam Kher as Jess's father. Internationally he was the biggest name in the cast.
  • There's also pop singer Shaznay Lewis (of All Saints fame) as the team's captain Mel.
• Throw It In!: The burn scars on Parminder Nagra's legs are real, as is the story of how she got them (give or take a few details). In the movie, they serve as a way to show Jess getting over her last inhibitions about playing with the team.
• Working Title: As the term 'bend' and David Beckham were well known in the UK, but not as much in the US, there was talk of changing the title to 'Move It Like Mia' for the American release (after American soccer star Mia Hamm).
• Written-In Infirmity: When Parminder Nagra was seven years old and helping prepare dinner, she accidentally set the right leg of her pants (which were made of polyester) on fire. Her uncle put out the flames and placed her in the bathtub to begin dousing the injury with cold water (which was good), but then made the mistake of taking her pants off (which was bad). Most of the skin of her thigh came with them, resulting in a substantial scar. Chadha decided not to even try and mask it, instead making it part of Jess's backstory as well. Parminder Nagra was even worried about her scars preventing her from being cast.

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