People are taking fewer risks in content creation: Kal Penn

TALKING ABOUT HIS nearly three-decade-long career in Hollywood, Kal Penn, American actor-producer of Indian origin, said that he stands on the shoulders of so many Indian and South Asian diaspora actors who are older than him by 40-50 years and whose names people don't know because they never had the opportunities that he had.

- ALAKA SAHANI & NARESH S

"I had those opportunities because of the doors that they kicked down in Hollywood," he said, emphasizing that contrary to popular perception, there was no "overnight switch" that created platforms for diaspora artists. Penn, also an author, TV show host and former White House staffer, was in conversation with Anant Goenka, Executive Director, The Indian Express Group, at the Express Adda in Mumbai on Friday.

"It is easy to use a 2025 microscope and say I should have done that in 1998," said Penn, recalling that he was told he couldn't study acting and was called a "sell-out" for choosing to pursue theatre and arts.

Talking about his early films, he said: "People ask me if I regret playing the character of Taj Mahal in Van Wilder (2002), a teen sex comedy. I always say, first of all, you are welcome. Because without that, there would be no Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (2004). And without that, I would not have got The Namesake (2006)."

It was Mira Nair's then 14-year-old son Zohran Mamdani, who is now a New York State Assembly member running for Mayor, who suggested Penn's name for The Namesake.