The Indian maiden fantasy
Even in a Hollywood movie directed by a desi, male desis whose names are not Kal Penn will be waiting a long time before they ever play romantic lead.
But if you’re female, walk right in.
“Chris Tucker will be playing the main character in [Gangsta MD, a remake of Munnabhai MBBS],” said Nair, adding that filming should begin after Tucker finishes making Rush Hour [3]… Nair said she may cast some actors from the Bollywood original, and is on the lookout for an Indian woman to star opposite Tucker. [Link via SM]
The American mainstream is much quicker to plug desi women into romantic fantasies than men (Mistress of Spices, the entire Gurinder Chadha oeuvre…) A modern Pocahontas fantasy isn’t very New World at all:
So here we’ve got Hollywood’s gender-specific treatment of desis neatly encapsulated in a single movie. Desi women are cast as random babes, men as servants and terrorists. It’s tribal: kill the men, fuck the women. About the only role I remember where the desi guy was neither mocked nor feared was Kal Penn’s in the little-seen A Lot Like Love. [Link]
Why is Kal Penn singular? Who knows? His slightly nasal cadences parse as American. More power to him.
on Tuesday, May 30th, 2006, 8:27 pm in Film, Issues, Kal Penn › 
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i’m not a moviephile but even i can come up with the english patient - not a diminishing portrayal I think.
i’m sure amir khan is doing his best to balance the tilt, cf. rang de basanti, lagaan. funnily while i’ve heard this mostly from the asian guys - the women though, seem way more pragmatic - hardly a loss of identity for them. dont agree with your premise that there’s something fascist about signing up an indic opposite tucker - dont know about you - but most of us are just trying to get by dude - any warm body will do and cant afford to be picky.
Excluding scripts about desi characters (English Patient, The Guru), Hollywood directors will tell you desis in romantic lead roles are not commercially viable. There’s no focus group data.
you might have a point… thinking randomly… in my sleep deprived state… hmm… i saw parminder nagra in twelfth night - a beeb production… incidentally othello should be ripe for an indic as well… one of these days… when i;ve made my chunk of change… i’ll pen a screenplay based on crime and P… with an indic raskolnikov, an ukranian sophia, a chinese porfiry…. based in TO of course… ok. how’s your novel coming along… hope it doesnt cast a strapping punjoo with loins of oak ravishing the vestern beauties.
the real indian maiden fantasy - my kind of girl.
there was a similar rationale behind the Will Smith movie, “Hitch”. Originally casting wanted an african-american female for the romantic lead, but the bureaucratic powers that be felt that a movie with both african-american leads would immediately pigeon-hole it as a “black” movie, and thus not rake in the $$ at the box office. Which is total crap, IMHO, but I suspect a similar logic may prevail in Gangsta MD. Mainstream American moviegoers view desi males as doctors and computer geeks, not ganstas. Though Manish is the exception.
I don’t count The Guru because Jimi Mistry’s role capitalized on all the fetishism and stereotypes. It’s not like he was cast entirely on his acting abilities in a color-blind role.