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Made In England

by Parv Bancil
Directed by Lisa Goldman

Billy India is at the zenith of his pop career. Finally a mainstream British Asian pop star for the 90’s, he’s just what the kids have been waiting for. But Billy India has different ideas. He’s a musician – not just an Asian musician – a talented man with a big future ahead of him. Why should he be pulled back to the ghetto?

Authors Note

Made in England was written as a 15 minute play for The Red Room Theatre Company as part of a political theatre festival called Seeing Red. I was particularly interested with the ‘cool Britannia’ aspect of the Labour propaganda machine. I wanted to know if I a British Asian, was included in this ‘celebration’.
1997 saw the height of the Asian underground music scene. But in 1998, it seemed to have ruin its course and hit a brick wall. Where once there was unity with Asian music makers and the supportive clubbers, I began to sense the music makers beginning to bow down to the temptations of the interested record companies and the selling souls began.

Any scene is usually supported by a lifestyle, be that music, clothes, attitude etc. But the ‘Asian cool’ scene seemed to have no substance. The music makers were busy digging through their parents’ old Hindi record collections and fusing those beats with drum and bass etc. There did not seem to be any thought or context for that music to exist. “it sounded ethnic so it would do” seemed to be the thought process used by some of the DJs. I didn’t feel anything was being said to me or about me by the music that was supposed to represent me.

The second term generation spans from British Asians who are now in their late 30s to British Asians who are in their mid 20s. Made in England was an attempt to examine the belief systems of two second generation Asians from either end of the age range.

Parv Bancil