Hot Picks: Bend it Like Bollywood

Perhaps no other topic pushes as many buttons currently as gender identity, which documentary Bend it Like Bollywood explores through the life-changing experience of a British Indian dancer.

Vinay Jobanputra describes himself as a gender non-conforming dancer who believes you don’t have to dance like a ‘man’ or a ‘woman’, but can do it in a non-gendered way. He put his belief on the line by opening his own Bollywood dance classes in London and calling them Bollyqueer.

When his unique and personal brand of dance proved highly successful, he wondered what would happen if he returned to Leicester, the city where he grew up but where he was made to feel an outcast, to launch Bollyqueer there.

“This story hits the zeitgeist square on,” says Clockwork Films’ Heenan Bhatti, who executive produced the 60-minute doc with Farah Qayum. “Whichever side of the fence you sit on, identity is an important issue and a hot-button topic. This film grapples with that by taking the viewer on a heartfelt journey with Vinay and his personal story.”

Bhatti explains: “When Vinay was living in Leicester, he felt very uncomfortable about coming out as his true self but when he went to London, all that changed. The audience join the film with Vinay in London as he is about to pluck up the courage to see if the new freedom he now feels can be sustained if he expands his dance franchise into Leicester.

“It’s an emotional and joyous journey because he has to confront his feeling of rejection by a community. At the point we start filming, Vinay is trying to build bridges with the Leicester community and also seek a reconnection with his father.

“Although a unique and personal story, it is also universal in its exploration of gender, family and community and a fusion of LGBTQ+ life, Asian culture and the power of dance.”

Social-impact documentary is familiar ground for Leeds-based factual producer Clockwork Films, with previous credits including This Girl Changed, a BBC3 documentary about a one-time party girl in Yorkshire who embraced Islam as a teenager and cut ties with her friends. The film follows her several years later as she resolves to reconnect with her past life.

Bend It Like Bollywood is directed by Hannah Blackwell (Yorkshire Midwives On Call; Hospital) and was commissioned by the BBC, which aired it on youth-skewing channel BBC3 in March. Passion Distribution picked it up for its hot-button topics and universality.

“We look for stories that explore particular topics from a personal point of view rather than from a dry, academic, third-party view,” says Passion Distribution head of acquisitions Sean Wheatley. “The central idea of identity and gender fluidity has a lot of resonance internationally.

“Even though Vinay’s story is also about his home town, the idea of being rejected by your local community and then being brave enough to go back again is something people everywhere from Norway to Australia can relate to.”