The Many Shades of Brown

COLOUR-BLIND CASTING IN US AND UK SHOWS HAS OPENED UP THE STAGE FOR INDIAN ACTORS TO DISPLAY THEIR TALENT

- Suhani Singh

WHEN MOHAN KAPUR LANDED AN AUDITION for Disney+’s show Ms Marvel, he was sceptical. “Ab yeh takle ko junior artist bana ke side mein khada karenge,” he thought to himself, “aur Angrez sab bak bak karenge [They will put my bald self in a corner and the American actors will get all the talking parts]”. After landing the part and subsequently reading the script, Kapur was pleasantly surprised to find he had a substantial role playing the Pakistani immigrant father of the titular teenage superheroine. “I never realised the impact it would have,” says Kapur, who has seen his popularity soar on social media. “I had not expected so much adulation coming my way. There’s a sense of pride, joy and privilege.” Kapur wasn’t the only Indian actor in the six-episode series. Mumbai-born, New York-based actress Zenobia Shroff-played the mother; Farhan Akhtar appeared in one episode.

Indian actors in Hollywood are hardly a new phenomenon. Kabir Bedi made headlines in the 1990s when he got a regular role in the popular soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful after doing short stints in Dynasty and General Hospital. Naseeruddin Shah, the late Om Puri and Irrfan, Anupam Kher and Priyanka Chopra have all shuttled between India and the West. But with the surge of streaming platforms in the United States, Indian faces are no longer an unfamiliar sight in international projects. In the past two years alone, the likes of Shabana Azmi (Halo), Kubbra Sait (Foundation), Priyanka Bose (The Wheel of Time), Randeep Hooda and Priyanshu Painyuli (Extraction