By Hindustan Times
Indian actors has been making brief appearances in Hollywood films. But things are different now. Cameos are becoming substantial roles for Bollywood A-listers like Anil Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Amitabh Bachchan and Irrfan Khan. Right now, Anil Kapoor is in talks with director Anand
Tucker of Intercalary year fame for a Hollywood film titled The Indian Sherlock. The actor has earlier starred in crossover films like Slumdog Millionaire and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol.
The Indian Sherlock is reportedly a mystery-thriller based in modern India. The tale revolves across the investigation methods of the Punjabi character, Vish Puri. When contacted, Kapoor confirmed the advance to Hindustan Times. “Yes, I'VE BEEN approached, but nothing is finalised yet. Let’s see how things go,” said the actor.
It's not just Kapoor who's making waves overseas, increasingly more mainstream actors are dabbling into Hollywood projects. So when Shabana Azmi makes news for Kathryn Bigelow's next Zero Dark Thirty, you aren't surprised.
Recently the primary promo of Bipasha Basu's Hollywood debut Singularity hit the internet. The actor plays a Maratha warrior within the film opposite Josh Harnett and by the look of it, she seems to have done justice to her role.
Directed by Roland Joffé, Singularity is a time travel adventure film set against the backdrop of the primary Anglo-Maratha war across two time periods and continents. The film is centred around four characters and Bipasha is certainly one of them.
"Bollywood actors work so much. I remember I COULDN'T fit my dates for Singularity. Roland Joffe (director) wanted me to coach for a month and that i could get just a week. There has been a time when Roland would have dropped me because I USED TO BE not giving enough time for the preparations," Bipasha told PTI.
Interestingly, Aishwarya Rai's blink-and-miss performance in Pink Panther 2 was more mentioned than Bipasha's full fledged role in Singularity. Probably India has got used to Bollywood stars venturing into Hollywood now.
That's probably why when Amitabh Bachchan signed Baz Luhrmann's The good Gatsby, it made news, nevertheless it didn't hog millions and millions of newsprints.
Big B revealed on his blog that he had "refused any remuneration" for his portrayal of shady businessman Meyer Wolfsheim within the film. He said he had agreed to enroll in the solid – in his Hollywood debut – as a favour to Luhrmann.
"Baz Luhrmann, during his private visit to India last year, had dropped by my office to fulfill me and presented me with some paintings of a prominent painter who was accompanying him," Bachchan wrote. "He called last month and wondered if I MIGHT do that small role in his film, and that i agreed. This is a gesture," he said on the time.
Irrfan Khan is portraying the role of Dr Ratha within the next installment of Spiderman titled The fantastic Spiderman. The film is being directed by Marc Webb.
Dr Ratha is a key character within the film, the face of the research laboratory Oscorp and a detailed associate of Dr Curt Connors aka The Lizard, who plays Peter Parker's dad's ex-business associate.
Ask Irrfan, how the project came through, that is what he needed to say, "It just happened. I still wouldn't have a PR. International films didn't come to me on account of P Rs. It came to me as a result of my work. It came to me because I USED TO BE destined to work there,” he told IANS.
Apart from Spiderman 4, Irrfan Khan may be doing Ang Lee's Lifetime of Pi. In line with the Yann Martel bestseller, the drama tells of a boy named Pi (Suraj Sharma) who's stranded at sea for months on end, in conjunction with a tiger named Richard Parker, a hyena, a zebra and an orangutan.
Set for a 3D release in December, Lifetime of Pi co-stars Tobey Maguire, Irrfan Khan, Adil Hussain and Gerard Depardieu.
Indian actors' previous Hollywood outings
Aishwarya Rai in Pink Panther 2: Aishwarya Rai played a camero in Harald Zwart's spy comedy film The Pink Panther 2. She played the role of criminology expert Sonia Solandres. The film however didn't sizzle the BO.
Anil Kapoor in Mission Impossible 4 and Slumdog Millionaire: He played a villain in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and a job with negative shades in Slumdog Millionaire.
Mallika Sherawat in Myth, Hisss and Love, Barack, Obama: Though she has an outstanding list of Hollywood films to turn off in her CV, a Hollywood hit still eludes the actress.
Om Puri in East is East and West is West: Om Puri portrayed a first-generation Pakistani immigrant within the north of England, struggling to return to terms together with his way more westernised children. He also worked within the sequel to the film West is West.
Naseeruddin within the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: He played Captain Nemo within the Hollywood comic book adaptation The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Kabir Bedi in Octopussy: He played the role of villainous Gobinda within the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy.
