Samir Bhamra is an award winning Kenyan born British-Indian playwright, costume designer, producer and musical theatre director at Phizzical Productions. Samir works across many art forms influenced by Indian cinema. He is highly regarded for his contribution to platform independent Asian film through , pioneering BollyIdol, a national talent search, writing and directing , Precious Bazaar and directing William Shakespeare's Cymbeline
In 2019, he will be directing Stardust at Belgrade Theatre in Coventry based on songs by Robby Khela, composed by Devesh Sodha with a book written by hard-of-hearing writer Shahid Iqbal Khan. Samir worked with actor, singer and songwriter Robby Khela in , Cymbeline and previously Jean Genet's The Maids. In 2016, he created a new musical, in association with Belgrade Theatre in Coventry. Bring on the Bollywood ran for 70 performances as it toured to 12 cities in 2017. It was a finalist for at Asian Media Awards 2016, by What's On Live in 2016 as voted by the readers of What's On Midlands and three actors from this entertaining musical were the only finalists for the at Asian Media Awards in 2017. Reviewer Roderic Dunnett described it as ''Phizzical easily justifies its name: it fizzes and whizzes, sizzles and bristles and teases with comedy, makes you want to laugh and sing, and tickles you with a storyline that could be a cousin of The Comedy of Errors or Twelfth Night". His first musical was Precious Bazaar which opened in 2004 at The Y in Leicester. It launched the careers of actor Jas Binag and Bhopal: A Prayer of Rain actress Fagun Thakrar. They were among 10 talented actors and dancers who were discovered through the BollyIdol contest he developed with BBC and B4U. EastEnders actress Rakhee Thakrar played the lead role Suhani in Precious Bazaar. Precious Bazaar was nominated for a Windrush Award in 2004.
Theatre
Samir's interest in Shakespeare stems from finding how he can make the story and themes relevant to an audience who may not understand the text. During the World Shakespeare Festival, he was seconded to the Royal Shakespeare Company from the National Theatre programme Step Change. His Bollywood styled production of Cymbeline toured for 12 weeks to 22 venues in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is considered the longest theatrical tour by any British Asian theatre company. The production was reviewed several times during its tour and received many positive reviews and is of academic interest. His thoughts about making Cymbeline feature in a new book by academic Varsha Panjwani. He has directed an adaptation of Layla and Majnun and Romeo and Juliet in 2006 titled Romeo + Laila written by UK based actor and playwright Omar Khan. He produced Omar Khan's adaptation of Twelfth Night titled What You Fancy which was directed by Leylah. In 2008, Samir directed the 1994 Pulitzer Prize nominated play A Perfect Ganesh written by Terrence McNally. He developed the ideas behind the play as part of in Residence at Haymarket Theatre. Samir is currently researching and developing a production of William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale set in Kashmir.
Dance
Samir was the first judge of the UK version of Boogie Woogie and set the judging format which was followed from 2004 to 2008. He was a guest judge in the preliminary stages of Just Dance with Hrithik Roshan. Bhamra has been judging , a Bollywood dance competition organised by Imperial University for university students since 2015. He wrote and produced the first UK theatre dance adaptation of the classic story Umrao Jaan Ada written by Mirza Hadi Ruswa in December 2014. Samir produced Subhash Viman's triple bill contemporary dance work Gamechanger, featuring Morphed, Fly From and Three. In 2018, he produced BBC Young Dancer finalist Anaya Vasudha's EKA which premiered at The Place.
Visual and Digital Arts
His collaboration with Hitesh Rao and Ben-Azeera Lela for singer and songwriter Navin Kundra led to a new brand identity for the singer. He provided art direction and design in the digital visuals that feature in John Gihair's book Welcome to Earth.
Cultural Strategy
Samir was one of many cultural leaders who developed a new cultural strategy for the City of Leicester.
Awards
Samir Bhamra received an honorary mention for directing his first short musical film Mad About The Boy at the Queen Palm International Film Festival in California. He won the Arts and Culture Awareness award for his extensive work at the 2016 British Indian Awards in association with BDO. Precious Bazaar was nominated for a Windrush Arts Award in 2004. Samir received two High Commendations at the 2003 and 2004 Windrush Awards for his pioneering work in Digital, Internet and Technology.
Personal life
His parents were of different religious backgrounds. He uses his mixed faith up-bringing to influence his artistic work. In 2014, Samir raised funds for Macmillan Cancer in memory of his mother and grandmother by shaving his hair.
