Gurinder Chadha and Kunal Nayyar launched Christmas Karma, a Bollywood-inspired musical retelling of A Christmas Carol, at Curzon Mayfair.
Gurinder Chadha, director of Bend It Like Beckham, gave Christmas Karma its world premiere at Curzon Mayfair on Wednesday 12 November 2025. Kunal Nayyar, her Scrooge, joined her.
Chadha was born in Nairobi in 1960 and was two when her family moved to Southall, in west London. Her father opened a shop there after prejudice closed banking to a turbaned Sikh. Her films, from Bhaji on the Beach to Blinded by the Light, return to that doubled identity.
Nayyar was born in London in 1981, grew up in New Delhi. As Raj Koothrappali in The Big Bang Theory he became known worldwide.
The film is a musical reworking of A Christmas Carol set in present-day London. On Christmas Eve, Nayyar’s businessman Eshaan Sood fires his staff. The ghosts take him back to a childhood in Uganda ended by the expulsion of its Asian population in 1972.
Eva Longoria, Billy Porter and Boy George play the three spirits, and Hugh Bonneville, Danny Dyer and Pixie Lott join the ensemble. Boy George, Lott and the composer Nitin Sawhney walked the carpet on Curzon Street.