Never Had A Chance: In Conversation With Jazz Bhalla

Image courtesy of Media Hive

Never Had a Chance is a gritty West-London crime drama that debuted at the UK Asian Film Festival on 9th May 2026. The Strand Magazine sat down with director and writer Jazz Bhalla to discuss his motivations behind making this story. 

Why did you choose to tell this story in the specific cultural milieu of Hounslow’s Punjabi community?

J: I just wanted to do something a bit more realistic, y’know, about where we come from and the stuff I’ve seen growing up. Life is not all comedy, and I didn’t grow up in that way, twisting lightbulbs and stuff. I didn’t wanna do a movie about terrorism or funny ‘twisty lightbulbs’, or racism. A lot of Asian films are always racism, or it’s honour killing, or something like that. I wanted to do something honest, lives and progression, something I’ve seen. It’s a story about the world I’ve grown up in, basically.

Yes – I noticed, throughout the film, we get focused on the Punjabi community, and there’s no external force. There's only within the community, which was quite refreshing because, as you said, often within Asian films you have to contend with racism or another external force somehow. 

J: That was all intentional. Before I even made the film, I wanted an all Asian cast, that was in my head. ‘Cause the thing is, in Hounslow, the way I grew up was all Asians. There were like, three or four white people in our year. Everyone, all my friends, my circle, the pub we used to go, my wife– everyone was Asian. And obviously, there are white and black people there, but I was trying to do that intentionally to do something a bit different, to show the world we grew up in. The Asian world, Asian people. You know, you can quite probably easily live in Hounslow your whole life and never meet anyone who’s not Asian. 

A lot of the time when we do these films, it’s always an Indian girl falling in love with a white guy, white girl falling in love with the Indian guy. Obviously that does happen, and it is important, but in my experience, the thing that happens more often is the Asian girl and Asian guy, they get together and they have their own problems for whatever reason. That happens a lot more, I’d say, and I don’t know why people shy away from showing that.

In that realm– between Sukhi and Ravi and their families, there’s this underlying idea of honour and shame, and these tense familial relationships. How did you go about writing those, and how did you bring that into the relationship between them?

J: I kind of look at them as two lost, broken souls. They both come from harsh backgrounds, and they’re milling around, lost, and then they find each other, and they support each other; they become stronger together. They sort of bounce off each other, feed off of each other. The scene where they’re talking, watching the airplanes, you get to know quite a lot about their backgrounds, and that’s where they find their connection. They already have some connection, but it becomes stronger. 

And it’s a very sweet kind of romance. It’s not as if they have loads of money and they’re going on these expensive dates. It’s very– it’s very simple in Hounslow. I feel like they were lost and they found each other, and then they knew what they wanted. And they knew they could better their lives, and they were part of [each other’s] plan– subconsciously, they were part of the plan of bettering themselves and trying to make a better life for themselves. They both fit into that plan for each other.

I thought the setting of the pub was quite interesting in the film regarding the presence of alcohol. You see the characters going to the pub pretty often, having alcohol pretty often, and then in Sukhi’s relationship with her dad drinking regularly… How did you navigate adding the presence of alcohol into the film, and did you have any specific goals with regards to that concept?

J: Alcohol is a big part of our culture anyway… unfortunately or fortunately, I don’t know, it just is. So that was just kind of trying to show reality, we did sort of grow up going to the pubs and drinking a fair bit… but it was a place to hang out, and if you were going to the pub, you were going to have a couple drinks.

That was a big part of it. While I was writing it, I didn’t think: everyone needs to be drinking in this film. It wasn’t like that. I just wrote it and I thought: where do they hang out? Oh, they hang out at the pub. Oh, the dad’s an alcoholic. It just happened that way. Then, because the main character is dealing with addiction issues, it all kinda works, because he’s going on a downward spiral. 

So, it wasn’t intentional to… [laughs] show that we’re all alcoholics, I think it was just part of the characters and that’s what happened.

The contrast between these characters casually drinking at the pub, and then you get the idea of addiction, and then you get the character of Sukhi’s dad drinking and being violent… These were really interesting ideas you had set up in the film.

J: Exactly, that was the idea. And the other thing– it was hard to show– when dealing with addiction, some people go crazy and get carried away and become alcoholics or whatever, and ruin their lives. Whereas plenty of people go through their lives drinking and not doing that. It’s a scale, you see– I did want to show that, as well. 

I had a bit more of that in earlier edits, showing that you don’t have to ruin your life on these substances, but some people do… but I didn’t want to show too much, I wanted to keep the film kind of simple, and not complicate things too much. 

What was the most difficult scene for you to write or direct, or when you were putting the film together – what was the hardest for you to do?

J: The trickiest one for me… the confrontation with Sukhi’s dad, I guess. That was very difficult for me. I don’t want to say too much, but the logistics of that. Everyone was lovely, and everything is cool, but it was very, very tricky… but with the music, with Niraj Chag helping with the sound, Cam and Steven on the edit and Sonny Lota on the sound… between all of that, we made it work and the intensity came through. That one was very difficult to do. 

…And the edit, I found very tough because you have to make very strong, tough decisions. When you’ve worked really hard over a scene and having to cut that out, that’s… that’s a very tough decision to make. Especially when it was a very difficult scene and a very intense scene, and we had it all done. But when you watch the edit, it was confusing for the audience. So we had to lose it. More than difficulty filming, cutting scenes out was difficult.

Shooting the pub scenes was also difficult but a lot of fun. A lot, a lot of fun. In the pub scenes, that’s all my friends and cousins and stuff like that. When I watch it, I can say– oh that’s my cousin, that’s my mate, that’s my mate, [laughs] you know. I love it, and then when they watch, they can see themselves; it’s hilarious. That was tricky and difficult, but a lot, a lot of fun. 

As a brown man who’s in the creative industries, do you have any advice for young Desi creatives?

J: A lot of people are asking me that these days. I just have one answer: don’t do it! [Laughs] Don’t do it! Save yourselves! I’m only joking… don’t put that in… 

It is difficult; it’s a very, very tough industry. Not only film but all of the arts: music and film and fashion. It’s very tough, it’s very cutthroat. You have to start from the bottom, learning the ropes, get out there– work hard. Be prepared that it’s not all sunshine and rainbows – it’s gonna be a lot of tough times, you have to be very thick-skinned. You’re gonna get rejection after rejection after rejection. That makes it even better when you get accepted for something… because you’ve had all those rejections, that acceptance feels even more amazing. 

You gotta remember– you gotta take the rough with the smooth, keep going, work hard, stay positive, don’t let them get you down. And learn, learn, learn. Whatever it is, in film in particular, you just have to get out there and learn how to make films and meet people. I always tell everyone, all the trainees that we have on set: work hard, be nice, and hope they call you back again later. 

What do you want people to take away from this film? What’s one thing you want them to walk away thinking about? 

J: That it was the most amazing film they’ve ever seen, ever. A genius piece of work… no, no [laughs]. 

Hopefully, they’ll see the life that we live, the natural lives and progression of British-Asian people. For anyone who’s dealing with those kinds of issues, to know that they’re not alone. There’s people out there that understand. There are these issues out there, and these things are happening. Just remember you’re not alone. Hopefully, it can be a bit of a warning to people to stay clear, and show that nothing good can come out of some actions. 

With this film, I’m trying to spread a positive message. I’m trying to shed light on something that doesn’t really get talked about in my opinion. It kinda gets brushed under the cupboards. I feel like these issues are very prevalent and important in our communities, but no one talks about it. It’s just ignored, or they don’t know… I’m not sure what it is, but I wanted to try and shed light on it. If I can help one person, that’s a good thing.  

Never Had A Chance will screen in cinemas across the UK, with dates and locations to be announced.

Read our full review of Never Had A Chance here.

---

Edited by Lara Walsh, Co-Film & TV Editor