Gurinder Chadha, NRI director of Aishwarya Rai-starrer Bride and Prejudice has been honoured at the House of Commons for her outstanding achievement and contribution to the British film industry.

Describing her hit film Bend It Like Beckham as the biggest British-financed and distributed film, Keith Vaz, MP, and former minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Office said on Tuesday night that it was impossible to quantify the achievements of Gurinder Chadha.

"Her hit film Bend It Like Beckham is the biggest British-financed and distributed film and Bride and Prejudice is the Number 1 in the Box Office chart in Britain," he said at a reception hosted in her honour by himself and two other MPs John Barrett and Michael Fabricant along with the ROKO Cancer Appeal headed by APS Chawla.

"Gurinder Chadha has made a fantastic contribution to the British film industry over the past fifteen years. She is one of those rare British film-makers who has won artistic and popular acclamation from all over the world."

Chadha, who was emotionally moved, said it was for the first time a film director was honoured in the House of Commons "in this way."

Recalling the hardships her father faced when he came here from Kenya over three decades ago, she said, "It was a very difficult time to get a job because he had a turban and beard.

"The films I make are rooted in the heart of British Asians and they are a testimony to the fact that how much progress the British Asians have achieved over a period of time," she added.