Samir Bhamra is a multi-faceted British artist, playwright, costume designer, producer and musical theatre director at Phizzical Productions. Samir graduated from

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when L ...

with a BSc. in Mathematics and Computation where he honed in on his creativity. His contribution to the arts and cultural landscape in the UK saw him enter th
Top 5 Asian Power Couples
in 2020. Influenced by Indian cinema, mythologies and classic British literature, his works across multiple art forms and digital technologies. He is also the Creative Director of the world's longest running South Asian Film Festival calle
UK Asian Film Festival
which platforms and makes independent South Asian films and talent accessible to communities across the UK. He pioneered BollyIdol, a national talent search with BBC. His writing and directing credits includ
Bombay SuperstarStardustBring on the Bollywood
Precious Bazaar and an academically acclaimed production of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

Cymbeline ''Cymbeline'' , also known as ''The Tragedie of Cymbeline'' or ''Cymbeline, King of Britain'', is a play by William Shakespeare set in British Iron Age, Ancient Britain () and based on legends that formed part of the Matter of Britain concerni ...

. He was the 2021 Senior Producer at Belgrade Theatre Coventry producing the theatre's UK City of Culture 2021 programme.

Film and festivals

He is the Creative Director of UK Asian Film Festival, which was previously called the

London Asian Film Festival The UK Asian Film Festival, previously known as the London Asian Film Festival, is a British film festival organised by the not-for-profit organisation Tongues on Fire Ltd. and takes place annually in the spring in London. The festival is the leadi ...

and is organised by Tongues on Fire. As part of the 17th

, he invited Tony award nominee choreographer and Bollywood film director

Farah Khan Farah Khan Kunder (born 9 January 1965) is an Indian film director, film producer, actress, dancer and choreographer who works predominantly in Hindi films. Khan has choreographed dance routines for more than a hundred songs in over 80 films, w ...

to run master classes in Choreography at

Southbank Centre Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, England, on the South Bank of the River Thames (between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge). It comprises three main performance venues (the Royal Festival Hall including the Nat ...

and Directing at School of Asian and Oriental Studies. In 2018, the festival started to tour UK wide and rebranded to become th
UK Asian Film Festival
The festival marked the centenary of the

Suffragette Movement A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for women's suffrage, the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in part ...

, celebrating the achievements of the forgotten Indian Suffragette,

Sophia Duleep Singh Princess Sophia Alexandrovna Duleep Singh (8 August 1876 – 22 August 1948) was a prominent suffragette in the United Kingdom. Her father was Maharaja Sir Duleep Singh, who had been taken from his kingdom of Punjab to the British Raj, a ...

. Indian actress and chat show queen

Simi Garewal Simi Garewal (born Simrita Garewal; 17 October 1947) is an Indian actress, director, producer and a talk show host. She is the recipient of two Filmfare awards and an ITA Award. She is known for her work in Hindi films like ''Do Badan'', '' Saa ...

, Pakistani actress and L'Oreal Ambassador

Mahira Khan Mahira Hafeez Khan (; born 21 December 1984) is a Pakistani actress. She started her career as a VJ in 2006. Khan is best known for portraying the role of Khirad Hussain in the romantic-drama '' Humsafar'' for which she received numerous acc ...

and British actress

Amy Jackson Amy Louise Jackson (born 31 January 1992) is a British actress and model known for her work in Indian films, predominantly in Tamil, Hindi, and Telugu languages. A former Miss Teen World, Jackson has appeared in over fifteen films. She made her ...

who is conquering Hollywood and Bollywood were amongst the Special Guests. The 2019 festival was themed Revolution with the opening film

Hamid Hamid refers to two different but related Arabic given names, both of which come from the Arabic triconsonantal root of Ḥ-M-D (ِِح-م-د): # (Arabic: حَامِد ''ḥāmid'') also spelled Haamed, Hamid or Hamed, and in Turkish Hamit; it m ...

and closing film

Pinky Memsaab ''Pinky Memsaab'' () is a 2018 Urdu-language Pakistani drama film. The film stars Hajra Yamin, Kiran Malik, Adnan Jaffar, Sunny Hinduja, Khalid Ahmed and Shamim Hilaly. It was distributed by Eveready Pictures on 7 December 2018. Plot summary ...

. He brought legendary actors like

Zeenat Aman Zeenat Khan (born 19 November 1951), better known as Zeenat Aman, is an Indian actress and former fashion model. She first received recognition for her modelling work, and at the age of 19, went on to participate in beauty pageants, winning both ...

Shabana Azmi Shabana Azmi (born 18 September 1950) is an Indian actress of Hindi film, television and theatre. One of India's most acclaimed actresses, Azmi is known for her portrayals of distinctive, often unconventional female characters across several ge ...

Kiran Juneja Kiran Juneja is an Indian actress who works in Hindi cinema. Personal life She is second wife of filmmaker Ramesh Sippy. She hails from Punjabi Bagh area of New Delhi, India and her father was a doctor. Career In 1984, she started her actin ...

and

Radhika Apte Radhika Apte (born 7 September 1985) is an Indian actress. She works predominantly in Hindi films, and has appeared in a few Tamil language, Tamil, Marathi language, Marathi, Telugu language, Telugu, Bengali language, Bengali, and English-langua ...

to the UK. The iconic

Sholay ''Sholay'' (, ) is a 1975 Indian Hindi-language action-adventure film directed by Ramesh Sippy, produced by his father G. P. Sippy, and written by Salim–Javed. The film is about two criminals, Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan), ...

director

Ramesh Sippy Ramesh Sippy (born 23 January 1947) is an Indian film director and producer in Hindi cinema. He is particularly known for directing ''Sholay'' (1975), which is regarded as one of the most influential Indian film ever made. The Government of ...

received a lifetime achievement award for completing 50 years in the

Indian film industry The Cinema of India consists of motion pictures produced in India, which had a large effect on world cinema since the late 20th century. Major centers of film production across the country include Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Ko ...

. The 2020 festival was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic. The programme included the opening film

Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare ''Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare'' () is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language film starring Konkona Sen Sharma and Bhumi Pednekar. The film is directed by Alankrita Shrivastava and is produced by Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor under their banner ...

by the acclaimed director Alankrita Srivastava. The closing film was

Zindagi Tamasha ''Zindagi Tamasha'', titled ''Circus of Life'' in English, is a 2019 Pakistani drama film directed by Sarmad Khoosat. It premiered at the 24th Busan International Film Festival, and won awards at Busan and at the 2021 Asian World Film Festival ...

by the legendary

Sarmad Khoosat Sarmad Sultan Khoosat (born May 7, 1979) is a Pakistani actor, film director, film/television director, TV director, producer and screenwriter best known for directing the super-hit TV dramas ''Humsafar'' and ''Shehr-e-Zaat''. He is considered t ...

Musicals

In 2022, Bhamra wrote, designed and produced his dream production Bombay Superstar co-produced with the Belgrade Theatre Coventry and The New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich with musical director Hinal Pattani and musicians The 515 Crew. The cast included Nisha Aaliya, Pia Sutaria, Sheetal Pandya, Amar, Chirag Rao, Yanick Ghanty, Robby Khela, Rav Moore, Daisy Hardy, Alexandra Adams, Aaron Mistry and Pavan Maru. In 2019, he directed Stardust at

Belgrade Theatre The Belgrade Theatre is a live performance venue in Coventry, England. It was the first civic theatre to be built in Britain after the Second World War and is now a Grade II listed building. Background Coventry was the fastest growing city in ...

in Coventry based on songs by Robby Khela, composed by Devesh Sodha with a book co-written with hard-of-hearing writer Shahid Iqbal Khan. Stardust is a finalist for th
2020 Asian Media Awards Best Stage Production award
Samir worked with actor, singer and songwriter Robby Khela i
Bring on the Bollywood

and previously

Jean Genet Jean Genet (; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels ''The Thief's ...

The Maids ''The Maids'' (french: Les Bonnes, links=no) is a 1947 play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. It was first performed at the Théâtre de l'Athénée in Paris in a production that opened on 17 April 1947, which Louis Jouvet directed. The pla ...

. In 2016, he created a new musical
Bring on the Bollywood
in association with

in Coventry. Bring on the Bollywood ran for 70 performances as it toured to 12 cities in 2017. It was a finalist fo
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 th
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". His first musical was Precious Bazaar which opened in 2004 at The Y in Leicester. It launched the careers of actor Jas Binag and Bhopal: A Prayer of Rain actress

Fagun Thakrar Fagun Thakrar is an English actress, writer-director, founder, social entrepreneur and activist. Fagun has appeared in several British, American, and Indian cinema, receiving accolades for her performances. In her films, Fagun has starred alongsi ...

. They were among 10 talented actors and dancers who were discovered through the BollyIdol contest he developed with

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

and B4U.

EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the Ea ...

actress

Rakhee Thakrar Rakhee Thakrar (born 29 February 1984) is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Shabnam Masood in the BBC One soap opera ''EastEnders'' (2014–2016) and Emily Sands in the Netflix comedy-drama ''Sex Education'' (2019–2021). She also ...

played the lead role Suhani in Precious Bazaar. Precious Bazaar was nominated for a Windrush Award in 2004.

Theatre

Samir's interest in

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

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 The World Shakespeare Festival was a programme of events about William Shakespeare and his work. They took place mostly in London and Stratford-upon-Avon as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad which accompanied the Olympic Games. It was produced ...

, he was seconded to the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...

from the National Theatre programme Step Change. 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. The production was reviewed several times during its tour and received many positive reviews and is of academic interest. His thoughts about making

feature in a new boo
Eating Shakespeare
by academic Varsha Panjwani. He has directed an adaptation of

Layla and Majnun ''Layla & Majnun'' ( ar, مجنون ليلى ; Layla's Mad Lover) is an old story of Arab origin, about the 7th-century Bedouin poet Qays ibn al-Mulawwah and his ladylove Layla bint Mahdi (later known as Layla al-Aamiriya). "The Layla ...

and

Romeo and Juliet ''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...

in 2006 titled Romeo + Laila written by UK based actor and playwright Omar Khan. He produced Omar Khan's adaptation of

Twelfth Night ''Twelfth Night'', or ''What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Vio ...

titled What You Fancy which was directed by Leylah. In 2008, Samir directed the 1994

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

nominated play

A Perfect Ganesh ''A Perfect Ganesh'' is a play written by Terrence McNally which premiered Off-Broadway in 1993. Narrated by Ganesha, Hindu god of "wisdom, prudence, acceptance and love," it is the story of two friends, Margaret Civil and Katharine Brynne, who e ...

written by

Terrence McNally Terrence McNally (November 3, 1938 – March 24, 2020) was an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. Described as "the bard of American theater" and "one of the greatest contemporary playwrights the theater world has yet produced," ...

. He developed the ideas behind the play as part of in Residence at Haymarket Theatre. Samir is currently researching and developing a production of William Shakespeare's

The Winter's Tale ''The Winter's Tale'' is a play by William Shakespeare originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, many modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some criti ...

set in

Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...

Dance

Samir was the first judge of the UK version of

Boogie Woogie Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, developed in African-American communities since 1870s.Paul, Elliot, ''That Crazy American Music'' (1957), Chapter 10, p. 229. It was eventually extended from pia ...

and set the judging format which was followed from 2004 to 2008. He was a guest judge in the preliminary stages of Just Dance with

Hrithik Roshan Hrithik Roshan (; born 10 January 1974) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. He has portrayed a variety of characters and is known for his dancing skills. One of the highest-paid actors in India, he has won many awards, including six ...

. Bhamra has been judgin
Just Bollywood
a Bollywood dance competition organised by Imperial University for students from all UK wide universities since 2015. He is a mentor to young adults to nurture their personal best. He wrote and produced the first UK theatre dance adaptation of the classic story

Umrao Jaan Ada ''Umrao Jaan Ada'' ( ur, ) is an Urdu novel by Mirza Hadi Ruswa (1857–1931), first published in 1899. It is considered the first Urdu novel by many

written by

Mirza Hadi Ruswa Mirza Muhammad Hadi Ruswa (1857 – 21 October 1931) was an Indian Urdu poet and writer of fiction, plays, and treatises (mainly on religion, philosophy, and astronomy). He served on the Nawab of Awadh's advisory board on language matters for ...

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 BBC Young Dancer is a televised national dance competition, broadcast on BBC Four and BBC Two since 2015. The competition, inspired by the success of the biennal BBC Young Musician of the Year, is designed for British amateur dancers of ballet, c ...

finalist Anaya Vasudha's EKA which premiered at The Place.

Visual and Digital Arts

His collaboration with Hitesh Rao and Ben-Azeera Lela for singer and songwriter

Navin Kundra Navin Kundra is a British Indian, British singer-songwriter, who writes, composes and performs songs in Hindi language, Hindi, Punjabi language, Punjabi and English. Navin has achieved six number one singles in the Asian Charts, and won the 2 ...

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.

Cultural Strategy

Samir was one of many cultural leaders who developed a new cultural strategy for the City of

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

Awards

Samir Bhamra was awarded th
Olwen Wymark award
from the Writers Guild of Great Britain in 2021. He won several global awards for costume design and directing his first short musical film Mad About The Boy, screened in Shanghai, Manila, Toronto, Cannes, and at the Queen Palm International Film Festival in California. He won the Arts and Culture Awareness award for his extensive work at the 2016 British Indian Awards in association with BDO. Precious Bazaar was nominated for a Windrush Arts Award in 2004. Samir received two High Commendations at the 2003 and 2004 Windrush Awards for his pioneering work in Digital, Internet and Technology.

Personal life

His parents were of different religious backgrounds. He uses his mixed faith up-bringing to influence his artistic work. In 2014, Samir raised funds for Macmillan Cancer in memory of his mother and grandmother by shaving his hair. In 2020, he raised funds for Mental Health Awareness.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bhamra, Samir Living people Hindi cinema 1975 births British writers of Indian descent Kenyan emigrants to the United Kingdom English theatre directors Indian theatre directors English dramatists and playwrights Kenyan people of Indian descent English people of Indian descent People from Leicester Alumni of Loughborough University