Thaindian News

By Robin Bansal
New Delhi, April 7 (IANS) Indian American actor Sendhil Ramamurthy, who plays the lead in Gurinder Chadha’s “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife”, doesn’t want to do the song and dance routine and says the kind of work Bollywood actor Abhay Deol does is what interests him.

Apart from “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife”, Sendhil is known for his role in sci-fi TV drama “Heroes” and is also playing the lead role in Ekta Kapoor’s “Shor”.

“I wanted to come to India and do some work, but all the work that I was being sent I wasn’t interested in doing really,” said Sendhil.

“It had always been in my mind that it had to be for the right thing and not a typical song and dance Bollywood film. That is not what interests me and that is what I kind of kept being sent,” Sendhil told IANS in a telephonic interview from Los Angeles.

“I was waiting for something like ‘Shor’ to come along and I was just so pleased when it did. It’s something that I was really looking to do…When I was working on ‘Shor’, I met Abhay Deol. He seems to be doing the kind of films I think would be of interest to me.”

“There’s a similar interest in him as well. He is not really interested in doing song and dance movies either. He is interested in doing more character- driven and character-based films. What he said was a lot more of that is coming out of India and that made me excited,” explained Sendhil who was here in January-February to shoot for “Shor”.

Asked if he has been approached with other Bollywood offers, Sendhil said: “I have nothing so far that really keeps my interest. But I’m waiting. I’m hoping. I read everything that comes through my agents, but so far nothing has made me say yes.”

Born to Tamil parents from Bangalore in Chicago, the 35-year-old will now be seen in British movie “It’s A Wonderful Afterlife” releasing May 7.

Starring veteran Bollywood actress Shabana Azmi in a pivotal role, it’s a romantic comedy about a mother who goes to extreme lengths to get her daughter married.

It also stars Goldy Notay, Sally Hawkins, Jimi Mistry, Zoë Wanamaker and Mark Addy.

Talking about his role, Sendhil said: “I play a British Indian police officer who’s brought to London to go undercover to investigate a string of murders that are occurring in the Indian community. And through the course of investigations he finds out that one of the primary suspects is a family friend of his.”

“But through various comic situations he tries to prove that it is not her in the process of falling in love with her,” he added.

The actor is now “looking for more crossover films”.

Any particularly roles he is interested in doing here?

“There’s nothing specific and no specific role that I want to come to India to do. It’s really all about the material. I am not particularly bothered whether it is a comedy or a drama but whether it is a good part for me,” he said.

Language, however, is a bar for the actor.

“Nobody in my family speaks Hindi. My family are Kannada speakers. So it’s not really an avenue open for me to do a Hindi language film. (And) I don’t want to be dubbed,” he said.

“I don’t believe in dubbing. It just takes away the essence of the film. You don’t get what the filmmaker originally intended… I don’t want to rule anything out, but I don’t see myself learning Hindi or any other language just to do a film. It’ll be like robot talk,” he added.

But can he speak in his mother tongue?

“I am not fluent but I can get by,” he said.

Asked if he had any favourites in Bollywood, Sendhil said: “I am really kind of getting to know Bollywood actors only very recently because I never watched the films… I don’t watch movies - Hollywood or Bollywood… (but) I met quite a few while I was there.”

Apart from the two films, Sendhil’s future projects include a new show “Covert Affairs”.