Rapid Fire With Anant Goenka

You have acted in Designated Survivor. You've represented the White House. Which role was more scripted?

- Anant Goenka, Executive Director, The Indian Express Group, in conversation with Kal Penn in Mumbai

• I'm very proud of having served my country, but I love being an actor more than anything. And Designated Survivor was definitely more scripted. You're literally working off scripts.

• Your advice to an Indian student preparing to go to college in America. The one thing they need to worry about and the one thing they don't.

If you have the visa, you already have all the answers. You've been told by the consulate to unlock your social media. Obviously, delete anything that might be problematic. But also, despite all the news, there's so much support in the US right now for immigrants, both documented and undocumented. So take advantage of that sense of community.

• The one thing that disappointed you about Obama or his legacy... with the 2025 lens?

There's so much that even he would say, like 'Oh, I wish we could have gotten through.' The Affordable Care Act. The Dream Act, which failed by five Democratic votes. I wish we were better at the arts. We did so much on the delegation to Cuba, for example, but I wish we had codified a lot more of what it means to fund the arts. We caved to political accusations of politicizing the arts. Now the current president has basically gutted public funding for the arts, and you just sit there going, 'I wish we had made those institutions stronger, and were less naive about how quickly you could dismantle them.'

• One thing that feels alien to you about India and the one thing that feels alien about the United States.

Everybody says 'Oh you can get anything at any hour of the day or night in New York City or LA.' That's true, but the last time I was here, I had a cold and a friend just did two things on his phone and six minutes later the thing I needed was delivered. That feels really foreign to me.

In the US, there's a strong sense of community, which feels foreign and also reassuring that hope is not lost.