Presents VICEROY’S HOUSE Directed by GURINDER CHADHA/ In cinemas 18 MAY, 2017 Starring GILLIAN ANDERSON, HUGH BONNEVILLE, MANISH DAYAL, HUMA QURESHI PUBLICITY REQUESTS: Transmission Films / Amy Burgess / +61 2 8333 9000 /
[email protected] IMAGES High res images and poster available to download via the DOWNLOAD MEDIA tab at: http://www.transmissionfilms.com.au/films/viceroys-house DistriButed in Australia by Transmission Films VICEROY’S HOUSE PRODUCTION NOTES Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes ABOUT THE PRODUCTION A PERSONAL HISTORY The 1947 Partition of India has always been part of Gurinder Chadha’s life. Though raised in West London, and born in Nairobi, Kenya 13 years after the controversial Mountbatten Plan struck a jagged line through the north-west of the freshly independent Union of India to create the Dominion of Pakistan, the British- Punjabi film-maker describes herself as someone who grew up “in the shadow of Partition”. Her ancestors lived in the foothills of the Himalayas, now on the Pakistani side of the border. Her grandparents lived through the tumultuous events which saw sectarian violence between India’s minority population of Muslims (many of whom craved their own homeland) and the Hindu and Sikh majority, bring about the greatest refugee crisis the world has ever seen; in a vast diaspora, an estimated 14 million people were displaced during Partition and up to a million died. An independent India was a cause for celebration, and the creation of Pakistan was equally a cause for celebration amongst many millions of Muslims. But the process by which this was achieved was what caused such terrible suffering for so many Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.” As a writer-director, Chadha has repeatedly translated her personal experience as a Punjabi-British woman into uplifting, crowd- pleasing movies, from her ground-breaking 1993 debut Bhaji On The Beach to her box-office smash Bend It Like Beckham.