Nargis Fakhri has embarked on a journey to the larger than life terrain of Hollywood with film "Spy". The New York-born Bollywood actress says among the dissimilarities that widen the gap between Hindi silver screen and West, there is one similarity that weaves them together -- the pool of talent.
Nargis, who ventured into Bollywood opposite Ranbir Kapoor in film "Rockstar" in 2011, added that Hindi filmdom and Hollywood -- two of the most prominent film industries of the world -- can scale more success by learning from each other.
"At the end of the day, the one commonality that both Hindi cinema and Hollywood share is that they are full of talented and inspirational people. Outside of this, there are many differences from the scheduling and rehearsal to promotion and directing techniques," Nargis told IANS in an email interaction from New York.
The 30-plus actress added that she fell in love with the industries "because of these differences" and believes that Hollywood and Bollywood "can really learn from each other".
Most often, words like 'bigger, grander, louder' are used to define Bollywood films, which are painted on a big screen canvas filled with myriad hues of feelings along with music and dance, whereas Hollywood films are devoid of the music hoopla and considered more subtle in their live action dramas.
Nargis has crossed borders with a mission on mind -- not to fade away, but leave a lasting impression.
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"I'm hopeful to be another person to be able to reinforce that we (Indian actors) are not just there to make up numbers, but to influence, add and inspire in Hollywood," she said in support of the several Indian actors like Irrfan Khan and Priyanka Chopra, who are making their mark in the west.
For her first Hollywood outing, Nargis has picked "Spy", an action-comedy film, which is directed by Paul Feig and has a star-studded cast including Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Jason Statham, Jude Law and Miranda Hart.
The film narrates the story of a plus-size CIA agent who takes up a mission to break free of her monotonous life. She gets out on the field to fight all the villains. The movie traces the story in a light manner infused with action scenes to add the adventure spirit.
Nargis essays a character with evil intentions as she comes into the picture to buy a nuke bomb for a terrorist organisation. The film hit the screens in India on Friday.
She mentions that the Hollywood film steers away from the "outdated stereotyping of female" in spy films, which shows woman as a distraction prop.
"The old school, misrepresentation and outdated stereotyping has been flipped wonderfully by the mind of Paul Feig, who in my opinion is a maverick in modern cinema. His vision created a female spy which Melissa plays amazingly and by the end of the movie you'll wonder why it took so long for there to be an awesome female spy who saves the world," she said.
Nargis took the first step towards the world of glamour with modelling in 2005. After "Rockstar", she did films on a wide variety of topics ranging from serious to fun like "Main Tera Hero" and "Madras Cafe".
The actress says her journey in the showbiz was "unplanned and organic", adding that she "has always been a go with the flow type of person".
Meanwhile, a lot of things are going on on the professional front other than "Spy" for Nargis.
"I'm really excited about furthering my film career in Bollywood and Hollywood. In Bollywood, I have three upcoming films. I'm also looking to becoming more vocal on many issues outside of the studio.
"Health and well-being as well as how we can live in harmony with our planet is something I'm passionate about. Fair treatment of human beings and animals in many different realms strikes a chord with me," she said.
(Sugandha Rawal can be contacted at sugandha.r@ians.in)