Desi ticket to Hollywood

When there were reports  that an audition call was made for the the lead characters Aladdin and Jasmine for Disney’s live-action film Aladdin, it sent aspiring Indian actors into a tizzy, as it specified that the applicants for the roles should be of Middle-Eastern or Indian heritage.

Regardless of whether the final cast for the Guy Ritchie’s adaptation of the Aladdin folk tale would be from India or not — it’s been clear, for a while, that Hollywood is now seriously looking at roping in deserving Indian talents — instead of just casting them in stereotypical roles.

Not only in terms of acting, even technicians from India, who have moved to Los Angeles to pursue their Hollywood dream, are flourishing. In fact, films like Lake of Fire (directed by Raj Thiruselvan from Tamil Nadu) are planning to send its songs for the Grammy Awards and Mumbai-born producer Tabrez Noorani has acquired rights for many high-profile Hollywood projects.

We speak to Indian actors, technicians and producers in the West, as they give us insight on Hollywood’s quest to become more diverse — and if it really helps India.

Why the industry is becoming inclusive now
Actor Roger Narayan, who has been a part of several renowned projects including, How I Met Your Mother, Weeds, NCIS: Los Angeles, Leftovers, Clay, Happy Feet 2 and more, speaks about Hollywood’s growing diversity.

“The heartening fact is that casting directors, producers and directors (in Hollywood), are making an effort to understand another culture and are committed to diverse and authentic casting. With companies like Disney, sourcing internationally, there are more opportunities for Indians these days than there were back then,” he feels.

But it (inclusivity) is a slow and painful process like any ‘growing pain’ is — it’s not just about catering to the mid-west US audience, but to a digital, virtual and international box office audience. I think the studios are now trying to find talent internationally,” Roger opines.

Addressing to our query if Hollywood filmmakers approach Indian artistes with preconceived notions and come up with stereotyped roles, he says, “If the writer has a balanced world view and has traveled or read well, he/she won’t create caricatures or stereotypes that are reductive or simplistic, in representing a race or ethnicity.”

Talent, the foremost requisite
On the other hand, Kunal Rajan from Puducherry, who moved to Los Angeles to pursue his career in Hollywood, after having worked on feature films in India, has been a part of several prestigious projects as sound designer.

Talking about his  experience working in the West so far, he says, “Anybody who has a passion in cinema, dreams of working on Hollywood projects. I feel extremely lucky to be here in Los Angeles and to be working with some amazing filmmakers. The industry (Hollywood) has always supported diversity in the work place, which made it easy for somebody like me to break into the industry here,” he says.

Speaking about the challenges he faced, Kunal, who has been a part of projects like Blades of Glory, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, and The Spiderwick Chronicles and more, says, “There was the initial struggle, but that’s the case globally for anybody trying to break in to any film industry. From my 10 years of experience here in LA, I have noticed that Hollywood is all about using the right talent. As long as people are good at what they do and have the right attitude, breaking into the industry here is not an
impossible task.”

‘Presence of more Indian writers would make roles more authentic’
Roger, meanwhile, has another important point to put forth — “It is not about a parochial view of who an ‘Indian’ person is, but being fair and balanced in the larger international context. Hollywood has, and is always, looking for people of colour. But when more international writers and Indian writers write content with Indian characters, casting will become more authentic.”

Why certain actors struggle
Addressing the struggles of actors from India, who are now plying their trade in the West, Roger adds, “I have met some actors from India, who are struggling in Hollywood. After getting a lucky break with one film that went on to be known internationally, the actors were not able to get any more roles — because they were cast only for that particular character — which doesn’t get written or cast often!”

Networking is the key
Mukund Ambarish Manivannan, who was born and brought up in Chennai, has now been composing several indie Hollywood films like Interconnect, Dr.Elevator, Cash Back and more.

Sharing with us about how he has been able to get opportunities so far, he says, “I started out doing music for student films, which were basically college projects. Before I knew it, a few of the films were accepted at International Film Festivals in New York and Los Angeles getting me nominations for Best Music. These films were screened at various locations and through the filmmakers and the crew that were part of these projects, people started to contact me to score for their films,” the youngster says.

Staying away from stereotypes
Speaking about the challenges that Indians face, in getting a break in the West, Mukund says, “Hollywood, being an industry that sets standards, and the one that is looked up on, by the rest of the world as the pioneers of cinema, is extremely competitive and demanding. Being an Indian, and wanting to get a break in Hollywood, I would say exposing yourself to global cinema and music (in my field) is one of the essential aspects. I would say the most important thing is to not to imitate the West, but try and bring a sense of yourself and try blending seamlessly together with the mainstream scene.”

But like Roger, even Mukund is wary of certain stereotypes. “Being a film composer, the major challenge I face is to not get stereotyped by only getting scripts that have an Indian/Asian connection to it,” he states.

Indian market lures Hollywood
Tabrez, who’s been the line producer of massive international projects such as Slumdog Millionaire and Life of Pi, in an earlier interview with us, spoke about how this probably is the best phase for Indians and Indian cinema to make an impact internationally. “Right now, India is on everyone’s mind. From the scale in which we produce films to production value, we are doing exceptional work. I guess we are in a great space now — and Hollywood is now very aware of how good Indian market is, for films,” he stated. Even Raj Thiruselvan mentioned to us that through his film Lake of Fire, he would like to “Show that Indian talent is equal to that of Hollywood and make Indian market visible to the world.”

Film curator Nirupama, who is based in Chennai, also shares a similar point of view . “Hollywood has always been looking to cast people from all over the world — at one point of time, they cast Russians, then oriental casting became more prominent and now is the turn for India. This is mainly because Hollywood sees
as sizable market here,” she claims.