Parminder Nagra was worried that the scar on her leg would prevent her from getting the role of Jess. Instead, the scar, and the story behind it, were worked into the script.
This was the first Western film allowed to be shown in North Korean television, to mark the ten year anniversary of diplomatic ties between the country and the United Kingdom, in 2010. The film however had to however have eight minutes edited out of it for the broadcast to be approved.
The chauffeur driver of the Rolls Royce in the wedding scene was not an actor, but an actual chauffeur, and was unaware he was in a film. He believed instead that it was simply a wedding with a lot of cameras. It was only discovered he was in the film when, to their surprise, one of his relatives saw him in the background.
Many of the wedding guests in the movie were relatives of director Gurinder Chadha, and they added realism by throwing themselves wholeheartedly into the scenes, treating the shoot as if it were a real wedding.
Beating out established players like Luis Figo and Ronaldo, Parminder Nagra won the 2002 Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)'s International Football Personality of the Year Presidential award, and she was the first female to ever receive the honor.
Gurinder Chadha: At the party the night before the wedding, she is in the circle of relatives clapping, wearing a blue suit.