Samir Bhamra

Samir Bhamra is an award winning[1] Kenyan born British-Indian playwright, costume designer, producer[2] and musical theatre director[3] at Phizzical Productions.[4] Samir works across many art forms influenced by Indian cinema. He is highly regarded for his contribution to platform independent Asian film through UK Asian Film Festival, pioneering BollyIdol, a national talent search, writing and directing Bring on the Bollywood, Precious Bazaar[5] and directing William Shakespeare's Cymbeline[6][7][8][9]

Film and festivals

He is the Creative Director [10] of London Asian Film Festival organised by Tongues on Fire. As part of the 17th London Asian Film Festival, he invited Tony award nominee choreographer and Bollywood film director Farah Khan to run master classes in Choreography[11] at Southbank Centre and Directing[12] at School of Asian and Oriental Studies.

In 2018, the festival started to tour UK wide and rebranded to become the UK Asian Film Festival. The festival marked the centenary of the Suffragette Movement, celebrating the achievements of the forgotten Indian Suffragette, Sophia Duleep Singh. Indian actress and chat show queen Simi Garewal, Pakistani actress and L'Oreal Ambassador Mahira Khan and British actress Amy Jackson who is conquering Hollywood and Bollywood were amongst the Special Guests.

The 2019 festival was themed Revolution with the opening film Hamid and closing film Pinky Memsaab. He brought legendary actors like Zeenat Aman, Shabana Azmi, Kiran Juneja and Radhika Apte to the UK. The iconic Sholay director Ramesh Sippy received a lifetime achievement award for completing 50 years in the Indian film industry[13].

Musicals

In 2019, he will be directing Stardust[14] at Belgrade Theatre in Coventry based on songs by Robby Khela, composed by Devesh Sodha with a book written by hard-of-hearing writer Shahid Iqbal Khan. Samir worked with actor, singer and songwriter Robby Khela[15] in Bring on the Bollywood, Cymbeline and previously Jean Genet's The Maids.[16]

In 2016, he created a new musical, Bring on the Bollywood in association with Belgrade Theatre in Coventry. Bring on the Bollywood ran for 70 performances as it toured to 12 cities in 2017. It was a finalist for Best Stage Production at Asian Media Awards 2016, Best Home Production by What's On Live in 2016 as voted by the readers of What's On Midlands and three actors from this entertaining musical were the only finalists for the Best New Talent Award at Asian Media Awards in 2017. Reviewer Roderic Dunnett described it as ''Phizzical easily justifies its name: it fizzes and whizzes, sizzles and bristles and teases with comedy, makes you want to laugh and sing, and tickles you with a storyline that could be a cousin of The Comedy of Errors or Twelfth Night".[17]

His first musical was Precious Bazaar[5][18][19] which opened in 2004 at The Y in Leicester.[20] It launched the careers of actor Jas Binag[21] and Bhopal: A Prayer of Rain actress Fagun Thakrar.[22] They were among 10 talented actors and dancers who were discovered through the BollyIdol contest he developed with BBC and B4U.[23][24][25] EastEnders actress Rakhee Thakrar played the lead role Suhani in Precious Bazaar.[26][27][28] Precious Bazaar was nominated for a Windrush Award in 2004.[29]

Theatre

Samir's interest in Shakespeare[30] stems from finding how he can make the story and themes relevant to an audience who may not understand the text. During the World Shakespeare Festival, he was seconded to the Royal Shakespeare Company from the National Theatre programme Step Change.[31] His Bollywood styled production of Cymbeline toured for 12 weeks to 22 venues in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is considered the longest theatrical tour by any British Asian theatre company.[32] The production was reviewed several times during its tour and received many positive reviews[33][34][35] and is of academic interest. His thoughts about making Cymbeline feature in a new book Eating Shakespeare by academic Varsha Panjwani.[36]

He has directed an adaptation of Layla and Majnun and Romeo and Juliet in 2006 titled Romeo + Laila written by UK based actor and playwright Omar Khan. He produced Omar Khan's adaptation of Twelfth Night[37] titled What You Fancy which was directed by Leylah. In 2008, Samir directed the 1994 Pulitzer Prize nominated play A Perfect Ganesh written by Terrence McNally.[38] He developed the ideas behind the play as part of in Residence at Haymarket Theatre.[39]

Samir is currently researching and developing a production of William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale set in Kashmir.[40]

Dance

Samir was the first judge of the UK version of Boogie Woogie and set the judging format which was followed from 2004 to 2008.[41][42] He was a guest judge in the preliminary stages of Just Dance with Hrithik Roshan.[43][44][45][46][47] Bhamra has been judging Just Bollywood, a Bollywood dance competition organised by Imperial University for university students since 2015.

He wrote and produced the first UK theatre dance adaptation of the classic story Umrao Jaan Ada[48] written by Mirza Hadi Ruswa in December 2014.

Samir produced Subhash Viman's triple bill contemporary dance work Gamechanger, featuring Morphed, Fly From and Three. In 2018, he produced BBC Young Dancer finalist Anaya Vasudha's EKA which premiered at The Place.[49]

Visual and Digital Arts

His collaboration with Hitesh Rao and Ben-Azeera Lela for singer and songwriter Navin Kundra[50] led to a new brand identity for the singer. He provided art direction and design in the digital visuals that feature in John Gihair's book Welcome to Earth.[51]

Cultural Strategy

Samir was one of many cultural leaders who developed a new cultural strategy[52] for the City of Leicester.

Awards

Samir Bhamra received an honorary mention for directing his first short musical film Mad About The Boy at the Queen Palm International Film Festival in California.[53] He won the Arts and Culture Awareness award for his extensive work at the 2016 British Indian Awards in association with BDO.[54] Precious Bazaar was nominated for a Windrush Arts Award[55] in 2004. Samir received two High Commendations at the 2003[56] and 2004[41] Windrush Awards for his pioneering work in Digital, Internet and Technology.[5]

Personal life

His parents were of different religious backgrounds. He uses his mixed faith up-bringing to influence his artistic work.[57]

In 2014, Samir raised funds for Macmillan Cancer[58] in memory of his mother and grandmother by shaving his hair.

gollark: Yes, and user code should be able to do the same stuff.
gollark: Apparently.
gollark: Yes, a type which gets operator support.
gollark: So it *does* have operator overloading, but only as builtin magic.
gollark: It's Google, has better memory management, and something something concurrency.

References
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  3. "Why theatre is still all white on the night". independent.co.uk. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  4. "Phizzical". Farnham Maltings Association Limited. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  5. "Samir Bhamra talks a load of Bollywood". BBC. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  6. "Samir Bhamra (British South Asian Theatre Memories)". FIPAarts. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  7. Theatre, A Younger. "Sponsored feature: Cymbeline, Bollywood style – comic, romantic and magical". A Younger Theatre LTDW P L O C K E R .C O M. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  8. Faruq, Aisha. "Samir Bhamra". DESIblitz. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  9. Team, Pukaar Magazine. "Shakespeare Meets Bollywood". Retrieved 3 April 2015.
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  12. "Women in the Media". SOAS, University of London. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  13. Yount, Stacey (11 April 2019). "Radhika Apte, Shabana Azmi, Ramesh Sippy, & Rasika Dugal among Award Recipients at UK Asian Film Festival". BollySpice.com – The latest movies, interviews in Bollywood. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
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