Kunal Nayyar, Eva Longoria & Billy Porter Among Ensemble Of Gurinder Chadha Musical ‘Christmas Karma’

Zac Ntim
·2 min read

Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham) is pushing forward with Christmas Karma, a contemporary Bollywood musical set in London and inspired by Charles Dickens’ seminal A Christmas Carol, with Kunal Nayyar (The Big Bang Theory) signed on to lead an ensemble cast.

Nayyar will star as Scrooge in pic alongside an expansive cast, including Eva Longoria, Boy George, Billy Porter, Hugh Bonneville, Leo Suter, Charithra Chandran, Pixie Lott, Danny Dyer, Bilal Hasna, Allan Corduner, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Rufus Jones, Eve, and Nitin Ganatra.

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Chadha wrote the pic and is producing alongside directing, with music by Take That alum Gary Barlow alongside Shaznay Lewis and Nitin Sawhney. Financing for Christmas Karma is from Civic Studios. Gurinder Chadha, Celine Rattray, Trudie Styler, and Amory Leader will produce. Zygi Kamasa, Anushka Shah, Paul Mayeda Berges, Sophia Pedlow, and Hannah Leader will serve as executive producers.

Christmas Karma is the fifth scripted project from British distributor True Brit Entertainment, which was formed in November 2023. The feature also sees Chadha’s return to the big screen following her time working on the Indian historical television series Beecham House. Her last feature film, Blinded by the Light, inspired by the music of Bruce Springsteen, debuted at Sundance in 2019. Warners Bros acquired the pic for multiple territories.

“Just as I have enjoyed Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life for many years, my aim with Christmas Karma is to create a festive classic for our times and for generations to come,” Chadha said. “I’m over the moon to be working with Zygi Kamasa who has supported me on this film from the onset – and True Brit, which truly celebrates British cinema. I am blessed with such a great diverse Cast and eclectic Music team – the soundtrack will be banging, influenced by Gospel, Bhangra, Carols, and classic pop songs. You will not be able to sit still.”

Kamasa added: “Gurinder has an incredible ability to tell such interesting contemporary British 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, Shaznay, and Nitin, using musical genres from Rap, to disco to Bhangra, and will be the ultimate Christmas movie which we will release in December 2025. It really is the perfect fit to the range of British films we will release at True Brit.”

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