Not really relevant, but has anyone else noticed how many series in the US now have an Indian-origin actor in them? More than 10 years ago, the only programs from North America that had any Indians in them were all Canadian or were US programs shot in Canada with Canadian extras.
However, all of a sudden, I've started noticing quite a few Indians on US programming when channel zapping.
- Something boring called 'Heroes' has the Indian guy who had earlier appeared in ITV channel's 'Ultimate Force'. Something Ramamoorthy is his name. His overly Brit accent is a trifle annoying, but I don't mind him too much because his face looks a lot like two of my cousins. His being Tamil too, might explain why.
- Then there's a program called 'Men in Trees' which has a Indian-looking woman playing a Canadian or Alaskan native American. She looked S Indian to me.
- Then there was that Tony/Ridley Scott series 'Numbers' with an Indian actress called something (Neha?) Rawat.
- And finally, there's the remake of the sci-fi 'Battlestar Galactica' which has gained an Indian actress to the existing variety on the show. A Rekha Sharma.
There might be more, but these were the ones I noticed in the last month or so. It has always been a conscious choice not to have Indians on US tele before, so what has made the US change? Even if today the Indians sometimes don't play Indians at all, and if otherwise they end up playing people with 'christian' (western) names, it's still a big change from not having had any Indians on US TV shows before. Curious development.
There was one person whom I recently saw on the pilot episode of 'Supernatural' -the usual monster series. I was sure she was an Indian (she looked exactly like the mother of a Kannadiga friend of mine), but I was wrong. Her name was a 'Sara Shahi'. She's not a Veerashaiva Kannadiga, as I had guessed - nor an Afghan of the Hindu Shaivite Shahi dynasty either. Turns out she's *Iranian*. <!--emo&:blink:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' /><!--endemo--> Didn't know that Iranians looked that Indian. Also, her surname 'Shahi' seemed curious, but then the word 'Shah' was common in Persia.
<b>EDITED</b> to make it shorter
However, all of a sudden, I've started noticing quite a few Indians on US programming when channel zapping.
- Something boring called 'Heroes' has the Indian guy who had earlier appeared in ITV channel's 'Ultimate Force'. Something Ramamoorthy is his name. His overly Brit accent is a trifle annoying, but I don't mind him too much because his face looks a lot like two of my cousins. His being Tamil too, might explain why.
- Then there's a program called 'Men in Trees' which has a Indian-looking woman playing a Canadian or Alaskan native American. She looked S Indian to me.
- Then there was that Tony/Ridley Scott series 'Numbers' with an Indian actress called something (Neha?) Rawat.
- And finally, there's the remake of the sci-fi 'Battlestar Galactica' which has gained an Indian actress to the existing variety on the show. A Rekha Sharma.
There might be more, but these were the ones I noticed in the last month or so. It has always been a conscious choice not to have Indians on US tele before, so what has made the US change? Even if today the Indians sometimes don't play Indians at all, and if otherwise they end up playing people with 'christian' (western) names, it's still a big change from not having had any Indians on US TV shows before. Curious development.
There was one person whom I recently saw on the pilot episode of 'Supernatural' -the usual monster series. I was sure she was an Indian (she looked exactly like the mother of a Kannadiga friend of mine), but I was wrong. Her name was a 'Sara Shahi'. She's not a Veerashaiva Kannadiga, as I had guessed - nor an Afghan of the Hindu Shaivite Shahi dynasty either. Turns out she's *Iranian*. <!--emo&:blink:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' /><!--endemo--> Didn't know that Iranians looked that Indian. Also, her surname 'Shahi' seemed curious, but then the word 'Shah' was common in Persia.
<b>EDITED</b> to make it shorter