Nik Dodani, Sujata Day, Kiran Deol on the evolving space for Indian-origin creatives in western cinema

Where once, being brown brought with it stereotypes and typecasting, now a new generation of creatives of Indian origin, including Sujata Day, Kiran Deol, Nik Dodani and Avantika Vandanapu, is effecting change in western cinema — with diaspora narratives and creating their own support structures

“The producers actually asked if I’m ‘100% Indian’,” recalls Sujata Day about an unfortunate audition experience for a major sitcom in 2018. The actor-filmmaker, along with four other Indian-American actors, was vying for the role of the fiancée of one of the show’s lead characters. “In response to the producers’ query as to whether or not I was ‘100% Indian’, I said, ‘My parents are from Kolkata and I speak fluent Bengali, so yes.’ But the fact that I had to defend my Indianness was very strange. I know I didn’t book the role because I clearly didn’t look ‘Indian enough’ to them.”

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Day, during a video call with The Hindu Weekend, shakes her head as she talks about the then-and-now of South Asian representation in western film spaces. But the 37-year-old is not alone in her views of a culturally-stagnant cinema industry in the West. The industry boxed its South Asian actors and filmmakers into what they deemed acceptable. But in the past five years, creatives have continually expressed their dissent, announcing on social media, as well as during roundtables, protests and even stand-up routines that they are tired of the ‘identikit Indian’ roles.