Thaindian News

New York, June 19 (IANS) Mike Myers, the star and writer of the controversial comedy “The Love Guru”, which opens Friday in North America, has said that he would “love to be in a Bollywood film”. Talking to the South Asian press here Wednesday, he said: “If a Bollywood director wants to hire a 45-year-old Scottish-English-Canadian actor, who does comedy, I’m their man.”

“The Love Guru”, which is inspired by new age guru Deepak Chopra and pokes fun at the way the West is co-opting spirituality and not the religion or Hinduism, as some protesting Hindus believed after watching just the trailer.

The film’s trailer has some Bollywood style elements, even a dance sequence in which Jessica Alba wears an orange sari.

Myers, who plays Guru Pitka in the film, also said the protesting Hindu groups should have first seen the film. Incidentally, people, including journalists, who have seen the film at previews have not found it offensive to Hindus.

Myers, famous for the hugely successful Austin Powers films, said they were closer to a Bollywood musical than being a parody of James Bond as believed. “You will find in them the same colour palette that you would see in a Bollywood film,” he said.

Given a chance to work in a Bollywood film, Myers said he would love to document the experience for HBO, comparing and contrasting the experience of a working actor there and in Hollywood.

Myers, who turned to spirituality after his father died some 15 years ago, became close to Chopra after reading his books. The two have appeared in some stand up events in New York and Toronto where Myers would imitate Chopra’s accent, as he does throughout the film.

Chopra plays a cameo as himself in the film and Indian American actor Manu Narayan plays Guru Pitka’s student.

“The Love Guru” will be released in India later, but, because of its theme, it is specially being promoted among the South Asian community in the US and Canada.