HOLLYWOOD: Notes - and audio - from SAJA/SAMMA panel on South Asians and Hollywood

As part of pre-Oscar festivities, SAJA and SAMMA - South Asians in Media and Marketing - hosted a chat on South Asians in Hollywood on Friday, Feb. 22. Actors Kavi Ladnier, Aasif Mandvi and Manu Narayan and SAJA Board member and entertainment writer Aseem Chhabra touched on a wide range of themes ranging from the mindset of casting directors to the number of South Asians in television and film today.  You can listen to the archived webcast at this link or using this player:

Discussing the 2007 Oscar nominations, Aseem Chhabra expressed disappointment that Tabu and Ifran Khan of "The Namesake" were not nominated. “The Academy tends to forget Indian actors when it comes to these types of awards,” said Chhabra. He also noted that Fox Searchlight concentrated its marketing efforts on promoting "Juno," which garnered four nominations. He also said that "The Namesake" opened so early in the year (March of 2007), that it was easy to forget about it by the time nominations were being done at the end of the year.

Both Manu Narayan and Kavi Ladnier marveled at how far attitudes towards casting have come in the last few years.  “I think they are getting more and more open and welcoming actually,” said Narayan of casting departments. “Because as they see more and more South Asians who want to see themselves reflected in the entertainment of this country [they will] at least consider casting people who are not white or black Americans.”

Said Ladnier (11:30): “There are times when I’m in a room and there are five of us auditioning for a part and we all look different.” She continued (at 18:33): “If the role has depth, I don’t mind playing the Indian with an accent because that wouldn’t be what I was playing I would be playing a human being who happens to have an accent.  But when it becomes a stereotypical thing you know then you feel like ‘I can do more.’”

Narayan also pointed out that the South Asian community needs to be open to non-South Asians playing South Asian roles, as many South Asian actors are now being considered for a wide variety of parts.  Naveen Andrews, for example, currently plays an Iraqi on the ABC drama Lost.

At 27:37: “If we expect to have open minded casting and not be put into a box well then we should not worry about when somebody else is put into a South Asian role… As long as they are true and I believe it.”

Other South Asians currently on television include Kal Penn (Fox's "House"), Mindy Kaling (NBC's "The Office") and Parminder Nagra (NBC's "ER").

Aasif Mandvi is best known for his work as a correspondent for "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," but has also acted in movies such as "The Siege" and a successful off-Broadway one-man show, "Sakina's Restaurant." He was asked what he has learned about journalism since he joined "The Daily Show" (36:39):

That they are all liars.  No, it’s funny, I know nothing about that world.  Sometimes I worry that real journalists go after stories the same way we do.

As the program began to wrap up, each panelist was asked what advice they would give to an aspiring South Asian actor.

Narayan (38:10): I think that the best advice I can give someone is, you know, educate yourself as much as you can.  Both about the business but if you want to be an actor go to a couple of acting classes.  That will only help you as you go further along in my career.

Mandvi (43:09): “As a community we need to start coming together and creating our own voice as artists. In the larger collective of Hollywood, NY, Broadway, wherever, I think that the diaspora needs to start to speak and have a voice. We need to create. We need film makers, we need writers, directors.  We don’t need just actors actually.”

A listener e-mailed the program to warn of “falling into the ‘what it is like being an Indian in America’ trap." The panelists took strong exception to the suggestion that the South Asian American experience has already been told.

Aasif Mandvi (57:08): “There are stories within our community and those stories are valid.  You can’t say oh I don’t want to hear another story about Indian Americans and their experience. Because those stories because if they are real and their true.  You know, African Americans tell their stories about African American Culture.  Jewish Americans tell stories about Jewish American culture. And nobody says ‘we’re tired of hearing stories of African American culture.’”

Kavi Ladnier: One of the very reason it is important that we write our own stuff is that the stories that are reflective of the South Asian experience are over simplified.

Kavi Ladnier will next appear in the film "Karma Calling" and recently narrated the documentary film Jihad: Searching for Answers.  Her website is Kaviladnier.com.   Manu Narayan will appear in the Mike Myers film, "The Love Guru" and is the lead singer of the band Darunam. Aasif Mandvi regularly appears on The Daily Show and is currently working on "7 To the Palace," a film that he has written and hopes to begin soon.  Aseem Chhabra is a freelance journalist in New York and also made his film debut this year in the animated film "Sita Sings the Blues."

What do you think? Post your comments below.

Comments

[deepal]

Listened to this discussion and there were some very good points. There is one distinction I want to make though. There was a lot of talk about making films that connect with non-Asian audiences. That doesn't require catering to the non-Asian audience at the expense of Asians. Generally people say the more specific you get, the more universal it becomes. I think the beauty of films like Monsoon Wedding and Do The Right Thing is that there was no explaining "our" culture in the movie.