Ameet Chana celebrates the lasting impact of 21-year-old Bend It Like Beckham
Actor and DJ Ameet Chana, 47, aka Adi Ferreira of EastEnders, charmed us with his love of Metro’s famous 60 Seconds slot. He’s starring in Little English, a new film set in the sunny Slough Highlands.
Here he talks about why Sly Stallone was a childhood hero, his love for Bangla, how Halo (the town, not the school) broadened his horizons…
Welcome to Metro 60 Seconds.
I am already very savvy! It’s always the first thing I read on Metro.
Nice to hear that! Now tell us about your new movie, Little English.
Little English is a comedy-drama set in Slough. It is about a middle-class Punjabi family who arranged the wedding of a Punjabi village girl and her son. On his wedding night, he runs. So this girl ends up stuck in his house, where no one knows. She knows “almost English”. Her English isn’t great. The film basically follows her journey to find her place in this new world.
who will you play?
Bobby is just such a nice guy. He’s a turbaned Sikh from India who married his family’s eldest daughter five or six years ago and became a son-in-law who can basically do anything.
So if something needs to be done, the house needs to be decorated, the car needs to be fixed, someone needs to stop by the supermarket, Bobby is the guy. His wife always says, “Oh, don’t worry, Bobby will do it.”
How about you, are you your family’s Mr Fix-It?
My wife wants me to be! But I’m not that guy. Ironically, although I come from a family of carpenters and architects, I was the first to answer the phone and let someone else do the work.
Name three words that describe you.
I consider myself a realist. I am funny and I am a loyal friend.
Do people still recognize you primarily from EastEnders?
As long as UK Gold existed, I always knew our episodes were on.but definitely bend it like beckham still live with me I will be 21 years old in April of this year. It’s magically timeless. While ostensibly about an Indian girl who wants to play soccer, subliminally, the film is about everyone who wants to do something, has limitations in doing it, and is chasing their dreams. Thing.
It speaks to so many different levels of people across all cultures and languages. Even now, some people say, “If it wasn’t for you and that movie, I wouldn’t have come out.” [Chana played the gay best friend]So it’s a movie I’ll be proud of forever.
Are you still in contact with your EastEnders family?
Twelve hours a day, five to six days a week, I saw more families than I did. And we’ve had the same amount of fun and the same amount of feud that a real family would have. So he became our half-brother.
I work as an associate director at the Rifco Theater Company and asked Raj James, who played my brother, to read the script. We don’t all get together very often, but we do our best to keep in touch.
what was your childhood like?
I grew up in a very close-knit Punjabi family.I moved to Halo when I was about 13 and had such a cultural explosion. Because I’ve never lived in a place with so many South Asians. I was like, “Where are these people from?” I was very into and culturally very connected to South Asia, Bollywood Hindi films, and Bhangra music coming out of the Midlands and London. I am a giant bangla head.
Where would you recommend for beginners to start Bangla music?
Every Saturday from 7am to 10am, Sunrise Radio broadcasts a music program dedicated to Bangla.
Who inspired you to act as a young Anglo-Indian?
Ironically, I grew up watching it Sylvester Stallone and John Travoltathey looked a bit like me, so they looked brown.
Growing up in London in the 1980s, South Asian culture was rarely represented on film or television.But I watched a lot of Hindi movies Amitabh BachchanHe is the Robert De Niro of Indian cinema.
What are your guilty pleasures?
I love beer and burgers. Any time, any situation. Unless it has tomatoes or pickles in it. Lettuce is allowed.
what makes you nervous?
do nothing. I can’t stand doing nothing. I am really driven.
Little English is now in theaters
tomorrow : Keira Knightley was told Bend It Like Beckham was ’embarrassing’
tomorrow : EastEnders spoilers: Lacey Turner reveals Stacey Slater’s attack horror from ‘Spooky Thug’
