Anita and Me

Anita and Me is a British comedy-drama film released in 2002 based on the book of the same name by Meera Syal. It was released during a period of popularity for British Asian films, alongside films like East Is East and Bend It Like Beckham. Meena Kumar, a 12-year-old Sikh girl, is living with her family in the predominantly white, working-class, fictional mining village of Tollington in the Black Country in 1972. It is then that Meena meets Anita, a white, 14-year-old girl whom Meena comes to idolise. However, Meena finds it harder and harder to fit in as her Indian heritage keeps on... resurfacing, and Anita's new boyfriend proves to hold strong racist attitudes toward those he regards as "darkies". The film is semi-autobiographical, based on Syal's upbringing in Essington, Staffordshire. Despite being set in the West Midlands, sizeable parts of the film were shot in the East Midlands, notably the Derbyshire town of Draycott. Anita and Me opened to theatres on 22 November 2002 and earned £1,753,880 to 226 theatres in the UK by 29 December. At the end of its opening weekend on 24 November, the film earned £453,613 and by the 29 December, it had only earned £42,446.
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