Is "Anita & Me" autobiographical?
Semi-autobiographical. I did grow up in a very small mining village like that. Sadly, most of what happens in the film has never actually happened to me. My life wasn't that interesting. But I think the emotional landscape is very much how I felt growing up, being the only Asian family in such a tiny mining environment.
I was very like Meena. I couldn't tell the difference between fantasy and reality - I'm not sure I can now. You know when you're at that age where the line between what you've imagined and what is actually happening is so thin that sometimes you don't know whether it's happened or not. I did actually tell whoppers. I used to tell loads of lies but 90% of them I honestly thought had happened.
Was there a real Anita in your life?
Sadly there wasn't. She was an amalgamation of two or three older girls in the village that I really looked up to and used to follow around wearing my mother's slingbacks in a pathetic way hoping that they'd let me join in.
Was turning your novel into a screenplay very difficult?
The first draft of the film was very faithful to the book. And then you realise there's a reason why at the beginning of a film it says, "based on a book by..." because what's necessarily good in a book doesn't work for a film.
Were you ever under any pressure to play down the racism aspect of the story?
I was never under any pressure at all to censor that. In fact, I think some people would have liked to have seen a bit more of it. My only worry is that it could have overbalanced the film. I think you can get away with much more in a book.
