Actors and Action

Here, I want to give some background information about the film "East is East" of Damien O'Donnel.
In the following videos you won't only see some little interviews with the main actors, but also interviews with Damien himself, with Ayub Khan-Din, the writer of the story, and with the producer, LesleeUdwin. There the actors will characterize their role and the other people will talk about how the film is made:

Om Puri (George Khan):



Linda Bassett (Ella Khan):



Raji James (Abdul Khan):



Jimy Mistry (Tariq Khan):



Emil Marwa (Maneer Khan):



Chris Bisson (Maneer Khan):



Jordan Routledge (Sajid Khan):



Damien O'Donnell (director):



Ayub Khan-Din (script):



Leslee Udwin (producer):



Moreover, I'll give you some biographical information about the main actors:

Om Puri who plays George and who's the most successfull and famous actor of the film, is born in 1950. So he was 49 years old when the movie was filmed.
He plays first in 1976 ("Ghashiram Kotwal") and until now he plays in a large number of films. The recent film he plays in is the Punjabi film "Yaariyan" (2008).
Om won also some Awards. Second times (1982 and 1984) he won the National Film Award for Best Actor of India and one time (1981) he won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award (anual award for Hindi films). Moreover he was nominated for the BAFTA (The British Academy of Film and Television Arts) because of his role in "East is East".


Linda Bassett plays Ella Khan, the wife of George. She was born in 1950 as a policeman's daughter and lived her childhood in the South of London. On leaving school Linda went to work at the Old Vic as an usherette and catering manager. Although she was a well-regarded stage performer it was the 1999 film version of the play 'East is East' (in which she had been an original stage cast member) which brought her to a larger audience, and throughout the 2000s she has been a familiar face in a variety of films and television series.

Jordan Routledge plays the little Sajid. Until know, he only played in two films: "East is East" and "Gabriel and Me".

Meenah is played by Archie Panjabi . She spent part of her childhood in Bombay and the other part in Britain. In fact she based the character Gemma/Jessminder in "A Good Year" (2006). Archie always knew that she wanted to become an actress. She graduated from Brunel University, England, with a 2:1. Moreover she won the Awarded Shooting Star Award at the Berlin International Film Festival 2005. She was selected from hundreds of actors to represent the UK and she won Best Actress for her role in Yasmin at the Reims Festival in 2006.

Emil Marva, woh plays the character of Maneer, is born in 1974 as child of a Norwegian mother and a Sikh from Kenya. Until now, he plays in a huge number of TV soaps like "Murphy's law" (Bash). Nevertheless, two new movies in which Emil plays, "A Distant Mirage" and "Tuesday", are in production.

Chris Brisson is Saleem. He comes from the theatre and is not shown in other films until now. Nevertheless, he plays a little role in the second series of "I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here" (TV).

Tariq is played by Jimi Mistri who was born in 1973 in Scarborough (Yorkshire). His father is Indian and his mother is Irish and he was brought up in a strict catholic way. He trained at the Birmingham School of Speech & Drama. He has a child, called Ellin, with his wife Meg Mistry. He appears at first in 1999 ("East is East") and now he played in more than 20 films and more than 10 TV episodes. Further on, he sang the soundtrack of "The Guru" in which he's the protagonist.

Raji James plays the charcter of Abdul, the second eldest son of the Khan family. In 1970 He's born in London. Now he has two children, called Shannon (b. 1994) and Riley (b. 2002).
Raji is an actor for TV episodes. Until now he was seen in more than 30 different roles on the TV screen.

Nazir is played by Ian Aspinall. He was born in Bolton (1961). He likes fencing and swimming and plays guitar. Moreover, he's a fan of the Beatles and Oasis. Also Ian plays in a lot of different TV episodes. The role he plays the longest time is Mubbs Hussein in "Holby City".