A Christmas Carol as Bollywood musical featuring Boy George
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens needs no introductions, with its various adaptations on the stage as well as on the silver screen.
But filmmaker Gurinder Chadha as of April 22 has started work on giving the famous story a new twist – as a Bollywood musical featuring Boy George, Eva Longoria, Hugh Donneville, Billy Porter and Pixie Lott. Kunal Nayyar is playing Scrooge.
Christmas Karma is slated for release in December 2025.
Gurinder, the 64-year-old director behind the 2002 film Bend It Like Beckham that starred Kiera Knightley, is collaborating with True Brit for this Bollywood musical.
True Brit CEO Zygi Kamasa said: "Gurinder has an incredible ability to tell such interesting multi-cultural stories. It’s been over 20 years since we made Bend It Like Beckham together and this film has all those hallmarks of heart, comedy, drama and an incredibly feel-good ending.
"It will be a celebration of multi-cultural London set to an incredible set of songs written by Gary [Barlow], using musical genres from rap to disco to bhangra, and will be the ultimate Christmas movie."
The making of the musical was announced in January, when Gurinder spoke to the UK parliament about the state of the country’s film industry, entertainment website Variety reported.
“My Scrooge is an Indian Tory who hates refugees,” she said.
"“It’s very close to Dickens’ original themes with the cost of living crisis in the Britain."
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