Bend It Like Beckham is a 2002 sports comedy-drama film directed by Gurinder Chadha from a screenplay by Chadha, Guljit Bindra, and Paul Mayeda Berges. It stars Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Anupam Kher, Archie Panjabi, Shaznay Lewis, Frank Harper, and Juliet Stevenson. In Bend It Like Beckham, Jesminder Bhamra (Nagra) and Jules Paxton (Knightley) chase careers in professional football despite their parents' wishes. Development for the film began after Chadha, Bindra, and Berges completed the screenplay by early 2001.