Directer Gurinder Chadha has spoken of the upcoming movie 'Blinded by the Light' which received rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival.

'Blinded by the Light' tells the story of teenager Javid (Viveik Kalra),  who stumbles upon a Bruce Springsteen cassette tape and develops an infatuation with the Boss.

The film is based on Sarfraz Manzoor's critically acclaimed book 'Greetings from Bury Park' and life in 1980s Luton.

Gurinder told Variety, "It was genuinely a proper premiere. It was fun watching it with an American audience, because the film is so British. And then, of course, we had a lot of interest."

Asked how they managed to secure  the music rights from Springsteen Gurinder said, "So the film is based on a book by Sarfraz Manzoor. Sarfraz is like a super fan of Bruce’s. 

"He’s seen him 150 times, so much so that Bruce recognizes him at concerts, because he’s probably the only Pakistani in the audience, and he’s got a big afro. When Sarfraz wrote his book and gave it to me, I said I know how to make this film, but we have to get Bruce on our side.

"In 2010, Bruce was attending the premiere of his film “The Promise” in London. I was invited. I took Sarfraz as my plus one. 

"We stood on the red carpet, hoping to take photographs with him. As he walked down, he banana-ed and walked over to Sarfraz and said, “Man, I read your book! It’s really beautiful.” 

"And then I ran over and sort of seized the moment and said, “Hi Bruce! My name is Gurinda. I’m a film director. We really want to make a film of the book.” He looked at Sarfraz and me and said, “Sounds good. Talk to Jon Landau [his manager].”

"We knew from that moment, once we had that nod from Bruce, we had to write a script he had to love.

"Bruce’s words are as much part of the narrative as our own dialogue. We sent it to him, and waited and waited and waited.

"The message we got back is: “I’m all good with this. Give them what they want.” Our timing was great because he really has been looking at legacy and the impact of his work and what that means for him at his age."

Blinded by the Light is out later this year.