Bend It Like Beckham photography began on 18 June 2001. A variety of locations around London and Shepperton Studios were used for the nine-week shoot, with the semi-final taking place over a three-day period in Hamburg, Germany. Chadha, who played an active role in casting, chose Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley, who would play the two lead roles in the film, while Archie Panjabi and Jonathan Rhys Meyers were in early talks to join the cast. Shaznay Lewis and Anupam Kher were also in final talks. Juliet Stevenson and Frank Harper joined as Paula Paxton and Alan Paxton, mother and father of Jules. For
Shaznay Lewis group released their fifth number one single "Black Coffee", was certified silver for sales of 200,000 copies sold. In early 2001 All Saints broke up, and Lewis later explained that the catalyst for the break-up was a disagreement over who would wear a certain jacket for a photoshoot: "I would never in a million years have put money on the group ending over a jacket incident. But when that incident happened, it fired up so strong, it had to be over. And the way I was then, the state we'd got into then, there was no way she was getting