Gurinder Chadha will feature on the popular BBC Two genealogy series Who Do You Think Are next week, exploring her Punjabi roots in Africa and India.

The director of Bend it Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice told AIM she wanted to show the world "from our perspective".

"I had a brilliant time making this film and it is a fantastic history lesson on how our lives as British Asians have been interwined with the British for several centuries and over several continents," she said.

The popular genealogy programme has so far starred Jeremy Paxman, Stephen Fry, Julian Clary and others. In the same series last year it featured Meera Syal.

"My journey starts in London, heads to Kenya, then India, through the effects of partition and finally we go to pre-partiton India, Pakistan and find records that show my ancestors dating back to at least the 11th century but also before that coming from Persia.

"It is compelling TV and when I started out in the media my aim was to create images of us on the mainstream media that showed the world from our perspective - I am thrilled that this programme achieves this."

Mistress of Spices, which her partner Paul Berges directed and she co-wrote and produced, will open in the UK on 21st April, she said. It stars Aishwarya Rai, Dylan McDermott, Nitin Ganatra, Padma Lakshmi, Anupam Kher, Ayesha Darkhar and Zohra Segal.

Following that she will start work on Sassy Girl, a remake of South Korea's highest earning film about a bumbling man who falls for a loud-mouthed, aggressive woman who constantly finds fault with him.

"It is a wonderful love story and I fell in love with the script from the moment i read it," she told AIM. "It is a beautiful love story with a fantasic lead girl who is very very sassy - not like me at all!"

Mistress of Spices will be released by Entertainment Films (Lord of the Rings, Brokeback Mountain).

Who Do You Think You Are with Gurinder Chadha will be on BBC2 on 15th February.