When Bend It Like Beckham hit the back of the net with film fans its stars’ promotion to a new league of fame and fortune looked like a certainty.
Keira Knightley, who played a football-mad teenager, has become a premier league star with two Oscar nominations.
And Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who was coach Joe, is another big winner.
But what about Parminder Nagra who played the central character of Jess Bhamra, a young girl dreaming of more than she’s allowed to expect?
Her role inspired a generation of young British south Asian women to aim high and follow their dreams.
The footie film, which took over £60million at the box office, is 20 years old. Since then, in terms of lead roles, Parminder has been left on the bench.
But that is all about to change as she is the star of new ITV crime drama DI Ray, produced by Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio. She plays DI Rachita Ray, a detective investigating a murder that draws her deep into Birmingham’s criminal underworld.
In some ways it is a role the Leicester -born 46-year-old has been waiting a lifetime for.
She says: “It’s a really solid, meaty, well-rounded character, which I guess every actor looks for. I don’t often get that opportunity. And to have that was huge, huge. I’m very grateful.”
At last Parminder, of Indian Punjabi descent, feels she is getting close to achieving dreams.
She says: “You don’t often have an Asian female lead on TV – it’s starting to happen more, but having been in the business for so long, I feel like I’ve been saying the same thing for a long time.
“I can see the change with the likes of Bridgerton but, in DI Ray, this is my generation of women. We’re in Birmingham, and it’s so relatable.
“That was the main appeal for me – I’m not playing the best friend of somebody or a secondary character. It’s all about Rachita.”
Parminder has been busy since Bend It Like Beckham and in 2003 she landed the role of Dr Neela Rasgotra in the hit US medical drama ER, which made stars of the likes of George Clooney and Julianna Margulies.
Parminder remained on the series, set in Chicago but filmed in Los Angeles, until its end in 2009.
Parminder has continued to call LA her home, living in the Hollywood Hills neighbourhood of Laurel Canyon with her son Kai, 12.
He was born shortly after her marriage to cinematic photographer James Stenson, which was officiated over by her ER co-star Maura Tierney.
But the four-year marriage ended in an acrimonious divorce.
These days Kai is the main man in her life and giving him a stable upbringing is her priority – alongside spending time with her dogs Willow and Luna.
She says her life as being like any other working mum and describes LA as really “not that shiny” She says: “I’m doing the same thing I’d be doing if I was in England.”
But the actress does make the most of the LA outdoors lifestyle and keeps in shape by hiking.
And, like most expats in the City of Angels, she has her good support network of friends these include fellow Brit actors, Spooks star Lara Pulver and her husband Raza Jaffrey.
Since ER, Parminder has had roles in big names shows such as The Blacklist and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. but has mainly played bit parts reliant on her ethnicity.
In 2018 she was cast as a doctor in the Netflix film Bird Box starring Sandra Bullock. It required her to play the character with an Indian accent.
Incidentally, that same year, Keira starred in the critically acclaimed Colette playing a French writer – with a British accent.
“I wasn’t thrilled about playing the doctor again,” Parminder has said.
“But it’s an amazing piece of work with an amazing director, and it’s Sandra Bullock. I’d rather not have done the accent. It’s hard.
“There are times when doctor roles come up, and you want to say no, but you want to work.”
Diversity on screen has improved but Parminder recently questioned whether, in many cases, it is simply a “box-ticking” exercise and recalled an incident where her agent suggested her for a role and the response was “they’ve already got an Indian person on the cast.”
Parminder added: “I went, ‘Yeah, but I’m completely different to that person. Is that ever gonna happen when you say that, ‘No, we’ve already got a white person on the show’?”
There are signs of positive change. Parminder cites the recent mainstream success of Riz Ahmed and Priyanka Chopra as leading actors on big shows.
Finally it is Parminder’s turn. As the setting for DI Ray is Birmingham just up the road from Leicester, there were a couple of added bonuses.
She explains: “I could just pop in a car after work and drive up to see my mum for some home-cooked food, it was so lovely. My niece had just been born so I got to see her and hold her too. I don’t have a physical home in England, but my family is there so it does feel like home.
“And my character is from Leicester so I could keep my accent. In other roles I have to do RP [received pronunciation]. It was very liberating.”
The drama has all the hallmarks of a Jed Mercurio production – thrilling high-speed chases, cliffhangers, shock plot twists and plenty of police procedural jargon. But this whodunnit, penned by Birmingham born-writer and Line of Duty actress Maya Sondhi, shares themes with Bend It like Beckham.
Maya who was Line of Duty’s Maneet Bindra was inspired to write about her experiences as a British Asian Brummie female.
Parminder says: “One day I’d love to play a character who isn’t thinking about her identity – Bend It Like Beckham was about her identity, too. But those parts are really hard to come by or don’t get made very often.
“DI Ray is just so well-written, Rachita’s interactions with people are really great and I loved playing a strong 40-something woman on the show.”
When asked about the character, Parminder says: “You have to fight for your corner. It all comes back to a sense of your own self-worth and what you believe in.”
DI Ray is on next Monday to Thursday at 9pm on ITV
