Gurinder Chadha: 'I cast by instinct'

Gurinder Chadha has admitted that she relies on instinct when casting up-and-coming actors for her movies.

Chadha, whose films have helped launch the careers of Parminder Narga, Keira Knightley and Aaron Johnson, told DS that she feels it's important to observe actors in the moments before and after their auditions to get a feel for them as a person.

"My secret is when they come in, I watch them, and if I feel something [inside]... people just often read lines and act it out. There's something about feeling something deep inside," she explained.

"It's the moments when they're not reading, the moments before they start reading or after they finish. It's the way they say hello and goodbye and the way they talk about themselves. It's just things like that that give a little window into people. It's just instinct, I think, 'That person's got something.'"

She added: "It's also their luck, their fate, I believe in fate as well!"

Chadha's It's A Wonderful Afterlife, starring Goldy Notay and Sendhil Ramamurthy, opens in UK cinemas tomorrow.

> Click here to watch our interview with Gurinder Chadha