Trivia for
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) More at IMDbPro »

• The Hounslow Harriers team doesn't exists, but almost all the players are professional footballers.
  
  
• Many of the wedding guests are relatives of director Gurinder Chadha and added realism by throwing themselves wholeheartedly into the scenes and treating the shoot as if it were a real wedding.
  
  
• Jess wears #7 for the Hounslow Harriers, the number David Beckham wears for England and once wore for Manchester United.
  
  
• Jules's wears #9 for the Hounslow Harriers, the same number as Mia Hamm.
  
  
• Star Parminder Nagra was worried that the scar on her leg would prevent her from getting the role of Jess. Instead, the scar - and the story behind it - were worked into the script.
  
  
• The aircraft shown that transported the team to Hamburg (a Boeing 707-430 reg. D-AFHG Ex Lufthansa D-ABOD) is a static display at the Hamburg airport.
  
  
• Anupam Kher (Mr. Bhamra) is one of the superstars of Hindi cinema (aka "Bollywood") with a career that spans almost 20 years and nearly 150 feature films.
  
  
• Melanie Chisholm (as Melanie C) wanted her song "Independence Day" to be used in the film but the lyrics didn't work so she rewrote them so the song could be used.
  
  
• Though their characters are roughly the same age, in reality there is a 10 year age gap between 'Parminder Nagra' (b. 1975) and Keira Knightley (b. 1985).
  
  
• Director Cameo: [Gurinder Chadha] The younger of the two women that Jules and Jesminder jog past in the park.
  
  
• Director Cameo: [Gurinder Chadha] A wedding guest dressed in pink in the conga line.
  
  
• Director Cameo: [Gurinder Chadha] At the party the night before the wedding she is in the circle of relatives clapping, wearing a blue suit.
  
  
• Much of the movie's plot centers around the main characters' goal of going to the USA to play professional soccer for the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), and highlight clips are shown of several of the league's superstars. On 18 September 2003 - just seven weeks after the movie's official release in the United States - WUSA suspended operations due to financial problems.
  
  
• The team that Manchester United are playing at the beginning is the Belgian side RSC Anderlecht. The game we can see in the movie was a group stage game of the UEFA Champions League, held at the Old Trafford in Manchester on 13 September 2000. Manchester United won 5-1.
  
  
• Kulvinder Ghir was a last minute replacement for the role of Teetu.
  
  
• Beating out established players like Luis Figo and Ronaldo, Parminder Nagra won the 2002 Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)'s International Football Personality of the Year Presidential award, the first female to ever receive the honor.
  
  
• The actresses were coached by Simon Clifford, who runs Futbol De Salao, a Brazilian soccer school.
  
  
• Although football star David Beckham and the term "bend" are well-known in the U.K., they were virtually unknown in the U.S. As such, when the time came for the film's U.S release, 20th Century Fox marketing execs suggested changing the title to "Move it like Mia", alluding to U.S. football star Mia Hamm. Director Gurinder Chadha objected to the name change and the film was released with its original title.
  
  

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