An Asian American advocacy group has criticised director of Hollywood blockbuster film "The Martian" for changing the race of Indian and Korean characters, saying talented Asian American actors should have got the role.
"In the 2014 best-selling novel by Andy Weir, NASA's Director of Mars Operations is Dr Venkat Kapoor, a decidedly Asian Indian character who identifies religiously as being a Hindu," Los Angeles-based Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANA) said in a statement.
However, director Ridley Scott's The Martian the name of Venkat's name is changed to Vincent Kapoor, whose father was 'a Hindu' but that his mother was 'Baptist', it said.
"In Scott's film, his name is changed to Vincent Kapoor, and he is played by British black actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, who says his father was 'a Hindu' but that his mother was 'Baptist,' implying his father was Indian but his mother was Black," it said.
MANA is a media watchdog group which monitors how the mass media portrays and covers people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent.
Other character Mindy Park which was acknowledged by Weir as Korean American, is played in the movie by Mackenzie Davis, a white blonde actress, for Fox's big screen version.
Both play crucial roles in NASA's attempt to rescue astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) who's been left on Mars by his crew, who thought he died in a sand storm, the statement said.
Park is the woman who notices movements of the facilities the astronauts left behind on the planet's surface, which indicates that Watney is still alive.
She alerts Kapoor, who then strategises with the rest of NASA on how to contact and rescue the astronaut.
"Was Ridley Scott not comfortable having two sets of Asian Americans talking to each other?" asks MANAA founding president Guy Aoki.
So few projects are written specifically with Asian American characters in them and he's now changed them to a white woman and black man, he said.
"This was a great opportunity to give meaty roles to talented Asian American actors--and boost their careers--which would've enabled our community to become a greater part of the rescue team. This feel-good movie, which has attracted Oscar buzz, shouldn't get any awards for casting," Aoki said.
Kapoor and Park weren't even the main characters of the film, he said.
"Was the director afraid that having too many Asian American characters would prevent 20th Century Fox from approving his casting, or that it would be a turn-off to the audience? It didn't stop the book from becoming a best-seller," Aoki said.
