Bend It Like Beckham has already played to audiences around the world to phenomenal success. After earning more than 11 million pounds at the UK box office, the movie went on to score more millions at box offices in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Now American audiences will have a chance to see what all the excitement about a "football" (as soccer is known outside the U.S.) movie is about. The critics have already spoken. And after opening in New York and Los Angeles on March 12 with a superstar-like average per-theater take of $26,921, Beckham appears likely to hit more than a few box office goals in the U.S. as well.

Rotten Tomatoes recently had a chance to talk with director/co-writer Gurinder Chadha about the film.

Rotten Tomatoes: First of all, congratulations on the success of your film. Did you expect it to be such a commercial success?

Director and Co-Writer Gurinder Chadha

Gurinder Chadha: You know, I set out to make a commercial movie for England. But I didn't expect it to do as well as it did, that's for sure. I mean, I was making it for the British audience, because I knew that audience and I wanted to make a movie that's really for Britain. So that was great when it did what it did in England.

I mean, I thought it would do 5 million pounds and I was happy with that, but when it went on to do almost $20 million -- it was like a complete, "Oh my god!" shock! And then it opened in Australia and it did the same thing there. And then New Zealand and South Africa and it just kept repeating in all these countries, and it just really made me think about what it was about the world -- you know people around the world -- that [people] were responding to the film.

It seems to me that most countries around the world have people who are from -- either background where they're balancing different heritages - Sydney, South Africa, Switzerland, any country you want -- either they are balancing or they know people who are balancing. Because most of these [places] are diverse. So in the film, it just takes you into that world. It doesn't beat you over the head with it, and saying this is a multi-cultural blah-blah-blah. It's just showing you the processes of living in that environment.

And it's doing in a joyous way, a celebratory way as opposed to saying there are problems between this race and this race and this race. So there little points, we don't ignore it, like when the English mom says, "Oh, it's your Indian friend from football" and things like that. But that's the reality. And when Jess says, when the girls in the club say, "You know, you gonna marry an Indian guy?" and she goes, "Yeah, English, no. Black, definitely not. And muslim - uh-uh!" That's probably [life] in that environment. So I think around the world, most people live like that, too, and [they] completely related to that cultural world.

Rotten Tomatoes: Why did you choose soccer to tell the story?

Gurinder Chadha: I chose soccer because it's the biggest, most national obsessive part of life in England. It's a man's love in England. The whole country stands still whenever soccer is being played, especially when England is playing Germany. I was noticing more and more that English fans were becoming really diverse - men, women, black, white, Asian, whatever. I wanted to show soccer was becoming a much bigger world than just that "white" element. So I thought that would be a good hook and if I put an Indian girl in the middle of that world, no one would imagine those two together.

But it works. So the films, these girls are making it in what is essentially a male, macho world. But at the same time, with soccer...I've seen women playing it at the 1999 Women's World Cup and that was amazing, seeing these girls play, tall and athletic and wonderful! And all the spectactors, 90,000 girls and their moms and dads in the Rose Bowl. And there was so much pride and sense of self-esteem and I wanted to capture that sense of celebration in the movie....

When I first saw the girls play, I was like, "Wow!" I wanted to capture that in this movie because you don't imagine girls looking like that when they're playing. But also, soccer allowed me to make a film where I could show girls and women looking really dynamic and really strong and really powerful.

Rotten Tomatoes: Can you talk more about that aspect of the film, i.e. the focus on strong female characters?

Gurinder Chadha: One of the things that was important to me was to be able to make a film that shows young girls looking really powerful, really strong, and really dynamic. Because you just don't see that. In most movies, girls are pencil thin with perfect hair and perfect make-up. Or they're the underdogs and really kinda "gross" or whatever.

And for me, it's not like a heavy thing, but the girls in the film -- some are a bit plump, some are thin, some are tall, some are short. For young girls watching, like nine to fourteen, fifteen, that message is really important because the amount of eating disorders that are prevalent with young girls, if one's on a diet all the time, and girls aren't letting their bodies just grow naturally.

Rotten Tomatoes: The film derives much of its comedy as well as its drama by placing its characters in a community within a community, specifically the Indian community in England. Can you talk more about that?

Gurinder Chadha: I think the thing is, what the film is about, it's about being Indian and English. It's about being Indian and living in England and it's all those cultural combinations for most of the film. But most times, people who don't have two cultures or two languages always see it as a problem for those of us that do. And when it's shown in that way, it gives such a rush because it's like, "Yeah, that's what I do. I've got two languages. I balance this, I balance that."

And when you see it done in that joyous way, kind of effortless way, quite organic way, it's a real rush. But you don't have to be that to appreciate the film. But if you are, it's just something really new and different and not being done before in that way.

Rotten Tomatoes: How are the reactions to the film like in different parts of the world?

Gurinder Chadha: Absolutely exactly the same. The only thing is in England, people get the jokes more and perhaps Australia because the culture is quite similar. Not the jokes, but there are certain lines here and there that they'll culturally get more. But that's about it.

And also in England, there's more of a sense of "this is our movie, this is ours" kinda thing. So you get that sense of pride more. But then, I got that last night [at the opening night of the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival]. Last night was like watching it with an English audience. Really enthusiastic, and in cinemas in England -- it was on there for six months -- people would spontaneously burst into clapping and things like that [laughing] in the cinemas. And I remember the biggest shock was when Indian from India were visiting England, who went to see it, the biggest shock to them was seeing so many non-Indians in the cinemas enjoying the film! They couldn't get their heads around that. I found that quite interesting.

Rotten Tomatoes: How did this film come about?

Gurinder Chadha: It came about because...I was in Britain and the British industry is really growing now and there's this sense of grassroots support for British movies and audiences really want to go out and see them. And when I made "Bhaji on the Beach," for example, if there was an American movie that was on in the same cinema, then people would always see the American movie and not the British one. But now it's changed and people actually go out and see British movies. So the audience, I knew, was growing, so I wanted to make a film that would appeal to that growing audience.

Basically I wrote it along with my friend Guljit [Bindra] who is a soccer -- she's a soccer mad fan, I know nothing about soccer. Originally she had come to me about an idea about making a film about an Indian girl and football. And at that time -- it was about five years ago -- it didn't really fly for me because soccer wasn't such a big thing, a national sport. And later when I came back and saw how soccer was changing, I called Guljit up and she'd done some work on the script. And I called her and I said, "I'd like to take this idea with you but let's do something different, let's make it a comedy, let's bring David Beckham in, let's bring the whole marriage thing in and then Guljit, myself, and Paul [Mayeda Berges] wrote the script.

Rotten Tomatoes: What's the meaning behind the title, Bend It Like Beckham?

Parminder Nagra as Jess consults her idol, soccer star David Beckham

Gurinder Chadha: Bend it Like Beckham refers to David Beckham's ability to kick the ball, so that instead of going in a straight line, it bends and twists like a banana into the goal. And for me, that was very relevant in terms of the girls. We can see our goal, but we can't go straight there, we do have to twist and turn and bend and be very crossy to get it in and get the goal.

And like me, who would have thought I would have made the most successful British-financed, British movie ever two years back? You know, you just wouldn't have expected someone like me to do it.

But also the film was about culture and tradition and for me, it's not about "breaking" with tradition to get what you want, it's about "bending" the rules to get what you want.

Rotten Tomatoes: Can you talk about the performances given by all the actors and actresses in the film? They were all impressively believable.

Gurinder Chadha: I worked them very hard. [laughs] Basically, I rehearsed. I talked to them a lot about their characters, I made them very involved with their characters, I make them own their characters very early on. And I make them take out whatever it is from their own life to make them work. Like with Juliet Stevenson [who plays the English mother], I made her go to some manicure parlors, nail salons around London, in that area so she could just go and sit and have her nails done and listen to people, because the kind of woman she is [in the film], is the kind of [person] that goes to nail salons, I thought.

Pinky [Bhamra]'s character, Archie, she spent a lot of time in Southall going to pubs and meeting girls like that and developing that whole, "Really?!" kind of thing. She became a Valley Girl, but she's kinda more "sophisticated" than that!

And the mom [actress Shaheen Khan], she did an amazing job because she's actually in Bhaji on the Beach and she plays a feminist bus driver in a leather jacket and everything. And she actually looks like Sarah Jessica Parker because she wears those Jimmy Choo shoes and little skirts and she's very petite and very pretty. So for her, it was a complete change. And she was playing my mom and her mom, a combination of the two.

For me, the acting is the key to making a movie successful. Because no matter how good your script is, if your actors aren't convincing, it's not going to work. So I spend a lot of time casting.

And partly it's the director, too...when an actor does a scene, it's your decision to say, "Cut!" or "Strike!" or "Move On." And it's instinct then, ultimately, when you see something whether you believe is real or not, and I think sometimes directors themselves then often differentiate among performances. Because sometimes actors really overact, and that can really ruin a movie.

Rotten Tomatoes: Did the girls in the movie get any soccer training?

Gurinder Chadha: They went to three months soccer training practice with a coach. Soccer every day. They wanted to do that. They were having a lot of problems. Keira [Knightley] was getting concussions when she headed the ball. Parminder [K. Nagra], she hurt her toe. And I said at one point, you don't have to do this, we'll get body doubles, don't worry. And they were like, "Are you mad? No way! We're gonna do it, we're gonna do it, we don't want body doubles!"

They worked really hard, they broke through the pain barrier. And by the end they were like a proper team, a soccer team.

Rotten Tomatoes: Can you talk a little about your next project?

Gurinder Chadha: Basically, I'm taking "Pride and Prejudice" and turning it into a kinda Bollywood/British musical. And Paul and I have written a script and adapted it from the book -- it's very close to the book, but it's going to have an Indian Bollywood actress playing the female lead Lizzie and Mr. Darcy will be played by an American Hollywood actor. It'll take place in India, England, and America and it's got full on songs and dances and the romances!

Rotten Tomatoes: Has the commercial success of Beckham made it easier to get financing?

Gurinder Chadha: Yes, yes. Totally. When you make a film that makes money, everything changes. So many more opportunities to finance your own film and other opportunities to make other films.

Rotten Tomatoes: Do you have any advice to aspiring filmmakers?

Gurinder Chadha: Be very clear about what you want to do and why you want to do it. Do you want to write it, do you want to direct, do you want to be a producer? What is the one thing you want to do?

Be very clear about why you want to do it. Because it's not easy, it's not easy for anyone. And so you have to have a really strong reason that's pushing you to do it because you have to keep coming back to that when it's tough, when you can't get your film made, when doors are closing around you or people aren't listening to what you're saying. The only thing that keeps you going is your reason to know why you want to do what you want to do. You got to be focused and you have to a reason why you're doing what you're doing.

Rotten Tomatoes: So what was your reason?

Gurinder Chadha: It was to change the way people saw people like me, on the screen.

Bend It Like Beckham opened in NY and LA on March 12. The film will expand slowly nationwide over several weeks. To see the release shedule, visit the official website.