A young film-maker worked round-the-clock at a Bradford warehouse and bakery to fund his debut movie.

Rafi Usmaan Raja, 26, of Girlington wrote, directed, produced and stars in the short film, called Love... It’s never Easy, a romantic comedy shot in Bradford and Birmingham, about a long distance relationship spanning the two cities. It was screened at Carlisle Business Centre this week, as part of the venue’s 21st anniversary celebrations, for an audience including the Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Khadim Hussain and Lollywood film actress Zara Sheikh.

Now Rafi is in talks with producers about making both a British and Bollywood version of his film.

“It’s my first film, I made it as a taster to show to producers,” said Rafi, who studied performing arts at Bradford College. He managed to raise an initial £2,000 for the production from working at Farmers Boy and at Speedibake, then went on to raise £100,000 from investors.

Rafi stars opposite Canadian actress Armeena Rana Khan in the film. “It’s a love story about a small town boy from Bradford and a big city girl from Birmingham. It’s along similar lines to Bend it Like Beckham,” he said.

Initially screened last year at the National Media Museum, supported by Bradford City of Film, the short film had positive feedback from audience members and Rafi said word of mouth has raised its profile over the past year.

“I did night shifts at Farmers Boy and morning shifts at Speedibake to raise money, it was a struggle but it was what I wanted to do and I took the plunge,” he said.

“The passion that drives me comes from my mother and father, who named me Rafi after the great Hindi Bollywood legend Mohd Rafi.”