indian actors in us films

Here we go with this crap again.

Lemme ask you a question, OP. If I were to look at the boards for I Am Legend, would I see your name in one of the posts complaining that "Will Smith isn't white, he can't play the role bcuz in teh book he's white"?

Get. The *beep* Over it. Hollywood will hire to anyone that they feel is the "right choice" for an actor. The only color that matters to them is green, and the only race that matters to them is the race to production deadlines. Just be happy in the fact that Uwe Boll isn't touching this movie. And stop seeing people for what their ancestral background is and start seeing their acting prowess/merit.

some guy writes, on imdb, regarding jake gyllenhall being cast in the prince role... prince of PERSIA.

alright so... come on. trying to fucking compare will smith to white actors? fucking rediculous. hah, and then the ancestral background lecture, begin GIVEN to indians.

alright bozo, how many films do you see indians in, playing roles that have nothing to do with being indian? a big fat zero, pal. wake the fuck up and backpedal outa that ditch buddy, because indians have exactly zero roles out there for them that have nothing to do with ethnicity & race. name me a superhero, a random schmo, that has nothing to do with being indian. indian food, or indian parents, its all the same thing, being cast in the same vein of familiarity.

thankfully we're getting more immigrants over here due to laws that've still not completely righted the injustice of years and years of sheltered immigration laws, only allowing certain types of people into the country. did you know indians were not allowed to immigrate from 1918 to 1945? and that the quotas of those allowed to immigrate into the country werent lifted until the 1960s? do the math buddy, there's more white than any other here, and thats because of white made laws keeping others out. had there been more diversity you can bet your ass there'd be more actors of indian origin in the spectrum, but as is there just arent any. people like the actor from harold and kumar fulfill a stereotype. its the actors that come after that can really shine light upon a particular role. otherwise, you're just bitching about nothing.

now talking about green... do you have any idea how many indians there are in the world? third populous country in the world ring a bell? if they actually made a movie that appealed to these folk, made it in america with american tech, they could make a killing. but do you ever see that? no. its the same with books, walk through barnes and noble, and youll see the same thing time after time, about 3 or 4 books on people of indian origin, and thats it. absolutely rediculous. whereas native americans have tons, as do all the other more overtly and commonly understood asian gruops. south asian, desi, whatever you wanna call it, we're a distinct group, we have our own trappings, we can't be lumped in with "asians". im sorry but its just not gonna work that way. the differences are too profound for there to be this real distinction abridged.

how many films do you see indians in, playing roles that have nothing to do with being indian?

this's a question i'd have to think on, because honestly, i don't think i've seen any. and i'm being very serious. a movie where a person with brown skin is not immediately identified as being an indian. i mean... overtly identified, as in... stated within the film as part of the dialogue. it just is something that you dont see. the absense of this. i'd love it though, i'd love for indian-origin people, basically folks who you're really stretching to make the connection to india any longer, to be cast in roles that highlighted personality and not cultural differences. those roles would be the ones worth sinking teeth into, and the ones more enjoyable to watch. to continue to see rehash after rehash of movies summing up the indian experience just boils folks who happen to have folks born in india (mine were, all four grandparents from punjab, mother and father born outside, me being born in wales). honestly its dumb for me to even call myself indian. as a rule i typically don't, but without that tag, there just isn't any culture, or anything, for me to explore, that i guess you could say ethnically, i could be apart of. it's a shame, there's so many things out there extended towards me should i take on this "indian" distinction, but should i shrug it off, all hands are withdrawn.

did you know indians were not allowed to immigrate from 1918 to 1945?

this has got to be one of the most rediculous things ive ever learned to be honest. like the fact that americans were literally so immature when i came to race, that they felt certani groups were evil, perhaps bad intentioned, for wanting to come to america and be successfull, the very same things these people who put such laws into effect wanted as well. what was the difference? well they looked different, and at first they sounded different. they had different views, coming from a different part of the world insulated from the prevailing views of the american majority at that time. for some reason, this difference was considered dangerous. why, im not sure. but because indians were different, in look, in belief, in sound, they were considered scarey, a threat, and in the end, protected against. but really, how much harm did indians really do. they come over, work the hardest jobs, get the highest qualifications, and contribute greatly to the society by working from dawn til dusk. when will indians be seen as equal contributors and not just some kindof second class knockoff that can't be assumed to be able to speak proper english, nor can they be expected to understand the ways of america. take any immigrant and they'll act foriegn, let them have kids and youll see how rapidly they seem "normal" to you.

if they actually made a movie that appealed to these folk, made it in america with american tech, they could make a killing.

here's a thought. why don't we see this kind of thing? now the slumdog movie, yes, people may point to it, but to me... what a god awful premise for a movie. love story? pleaase. lets see something more interesting than that please. sci-fi. fantasy. something that captures the imagination. but... fucking romance... get off your fucking rocker do you really think youre going to get a mainstream audience to watch that baloney. please... spare us... instead lets see movies that take the rarely talked about indian mythologies and folklores and turn them into action packed films. perhaps even films loosely based on the shit. turn it into a hollywood LOTResque blockbuster, throw in all the trappings, and see what you get. don't be surprised if it works, if it makes a killing, and those who hadn't tried it before smack themselves for being so conservative about film. casting only whites in asian roles will only damage hollywood cred in the eyes of the excluded. allowing brown skin onto the stage will foster positive relations and encourage young brown skinned folk to go into the industry, and perhaps in 10 to 20 we'll start to see the new class emerge, of americanized indians who are not stereotypical in perhaps the fashion you'd expect. yes, there are conservative jews, but also liberal.

i'd love it though, i'd love for indian-origin people, basically folks who you're really stretching to make the connection to india any longer, to be cast in roles that highlighted personality and not cultural differences.

this's actually be pretty cool. like perhaps an indian cast in shakespeare. or one of these many remakes using an indian to play the role, of perhaps a reporter, or some other deal. i mean there were indians in america throughout the 20th century. even indians in the house of representatives ( the first guy in managing three consecutive terms and losing a fourth due to a stroke ). the prblem with alot of these folks is they just don't really make roles for indians. then, when casting roles, they don't really entertain the idea of picking up someone with brown skin for the job. it's just not done really. and the end result is a white-washed movie screen with tails taken from all around the world told with white actors. this is essentially blackface, modernized. as folks from many parts of the world are sidelined, the white-hollywood types are kept in the limelight, shoveled role after role, time after time. in a world with such a large population how can the hollywood actor scene be so limited in its upkeep of various screen-artists. i can understand the robin williams, the jim carrey, but how can you keep on dramatic white actors whilst shelving dramatic brown ones. and i saw brown because really its down to color. it has nothing to do with anything else. a brown skinned black haired actor has just the same capability to be badass as a white skinned blonde haired one.

well they looked different, and at first they sounded different.

going back in history, thinking about the first indian immigrants, yes, they did sound different, yes perhaps they dressed different, perhaps they even looked different, beyond i'm guessing the skin color, because lets face it, there's all sorts of skin tones, from all around the world, and a skin tone / hair color combination should not be enough to be able to just evaluate someone so thoroughly. hell, you could take brown skin black hair and call out italian. its possible. so really don't just jump the gun when you think of the brown skin black hair. but any other difference besides that, well, ask yourself would any other immigrant from anywhere else in the world be any different. you could even take a united kingdom immigrant and place them in america and it still wouldn't be a hugely smooth transition. people get hung up when they move countries. it just happens. instead of lynching people for facing perhaps what is one of the greatest difficulties a person can face in society, essentially losing one and trying to enter another, perhaps folks should be a bit more sensitive to the difficulties that folks will most likely face. in the face of help, perhaps folks would be more likely to succeed. instead there's the upturned nose of disapproval and then the disallowal of entrance into society. how welcoming.

see movies that take the rarely talked about indian mythologies and folklores and turn them into action packed films.

now this would be cool. a hollywood movie regarding the sikhs, hindus, buddhists, or other religions, or perhaps more in depth, like the histories of the kingdoms, the kings and queens, the armies, or the villagers, the adventures of individual soldiers, or perhaps entire armies. the building of monuments, the creation of inventions. these are all things that honestly deserve to be thrown into movies. there are so many different stories that could be told with the backdrop of ancient india, or perhaps modern india, or even future india. there's just alot of cool stories that could be told. first of all there's the geography, the monsoons, the himalayas, the ocean, the bamboo forests, farms, tigers, the dusty roads, the pop music, the classical music, the linguist situation where folks are trying to preserve various languages that're being stamped out by the colonialism-influenced education system in place today, there's just alot of cool oppertunities for people to sit down and write fiction about. or take the 1984 attacks on the golden temple. i mean really, there's alot of drama, well of course, the entire human spectrum of tails to be told. its just a compelling thing, and people of all types could be shuffled into the deck to tell a rich story encompassing all walks of life. its worth a try i think.

the problem with alot of these folks is they just don't really make roles for indians.

imagine lord of the rings right? with some indians cast as minor characters. could it hurt to make some of those folks NON european? i mean im not sure i saw a single non white character in that film, beyond the pirates who'd taken the ships to enter the lands, and then even they were hardly seen and hurridly thrown in and hardly focused upon. or take a gander at star wars. yes we'd had a black actor as one of the mains, but this movie has even less of an excuse to ignore the indian diaspora. now yes, there were fewer numbers of indians in america at the time. take a look at the simpsons, who actually created an indian character, although not one that i was all that fond of heh.