Gurinder Chadha on class, cleverness and Pride and Prejudice

As Jane Austen turns 250, biographer and writer Dr Paula Byrne is joined by prominent thinkers, writers, directors who tell her about their encounters with the famous author. Each of her guests has been inspired and changed by Austen. Paula's guests inspire her own reflections about Austen's life and works. Today it's the turn of Gurinder Chadha.

Travelling through India when she was a student, Gurinder Chadha spent time with relatives in the north Indian city of Amritsar - a group of sisters. Intelligent and lively, they reminded her of another set of sisters that she'd encountered in a book: the Bennets in Pride and Prejudice. Decades later, these sisters from Amritsar would inspire Gurinder to write and direct her own take on Austen's famous novel - the Bollywood film Bride and Prejudice. Gurinder reflects on why Austen seems to her a great Indian writer, how she understands cultural nuance and the pressures on women. Gurinder and Paula discuss class and how Gurinder's film reimagines these distinctions in India of the noughties. Paula explores how Austen examined social class and was hyper-aware of distinctions of rank in her own life. Together, Gurinder and Paula explore Austen's radicalism and how she upends the social order in a way Gurinder finds inspiring.

Presenter: Dr Paula Byrne
Reader: Gemma Whelan
Producer: Camellia Sinclair