Twinkle, twinkle Indian stars

HOLLYWOOD REEL

Much acclaimed actor and comedian Peter Sellers once played Hrundi V. Bakshi, an unimportant and bumbling Indian actor invited to a big Hollywood party by mistake.

The 1968 United Artists film was titled The Party and Sellers wreaked havoc at the Hollywood mansion. The Indian audience was not amused with the comedy. Protests and even a demand to ban the film in India followed.

That was many, many years ago. It's a completely different story today. Western actors need not play Indian roles and Indian stars are represented by the Hollywood talent agencies. Indian actors have come of age in Hollywood and how.

Aishwarya Rai plays a Byzantine warrior "Mira" in Hollywood producer Dino De Laurentiis' $67 million film The Last Legion, which began filming in Tunisia on August 9. Directed by Doug Lefler, it stars Colin Firth and Sir Ben Kingsley.

But long before Aishwarya Rai came to Hollywood, 13-year-old Selar Shaik "Sabu" was picked up by director Robert Flaherty from Mysore for his film "" Elephant Boy. Sabu moved to the United States in 1937 and worked in about 20 films including The Thief of Baghdad, The Drum and Jungle Book between 1938 and 1963.

Miss India, Persis Khambata, may not have worked in as many films but she made her mark in Hollywood as the bald Deltan alien in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The Mumbai born also did Nighthawks with Sylvester Stallone. Actor Amrish Puri also played a villain in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

The list of Indian actors having worked in Hollywood is pretty long. However, few are as well-known as Kabir Bedi who won recognition with his role in the James Bond film Octopussy.

Bedi also acted in almost all the major television series in the US including Dynasty, Knight Rider, Magnum PI and The Bold and the Beautiful. His most memorable role, however, was playing the lead in Segio Sollima's television classic Sandokan.

The Italian television series catapulted Bedi into being a major international star. Today, 26 years later, Sandokan will return to Italy for an Indo-Italian film joint venture called Sandokan In Sicily. To be produced by Aditya Bhattacharya's Destiny Films in association with Rosselini & Associates of Rome, the $3 million film will see Kabir Bedi playing himself.

Last week tennis star and Hollywood film producer Ashok Amritraj announced the launch of The Other End of the Line.

The film will be shot partially in India in 2006 and the search for the female lead has already commenced. This may be yet another opportunity for an Indian actor to glow under the arch lights on the international stage.

The writer is president of Lall Entertainment.
Email: lallentertainment@hotmail.com