Beautiful sexy Indian women to star in new mini series Foreign Body
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By Ashish Kumar Sen
Washington BBC NEWS |
An American web mini series that portrays
attractive young women as part of a
“group of dangerous Indian beauties”
is creating ripples in the expatriate
Indian community.
The two-minute clips are part of a 50-episode
prequel to best-selling author Robin Cook’s
latest medical thriller, Foreign Body, which is
centred on medical tourism in India.
The women are taken in by a group of
“young, cut throat medical entrepreneurs who hope
to train them and cultivate their nursing skills for
their own mysterious ends”,
according to the show’s producers.
The series ends on 4 August, a day before the
book hits the shelves.
The novel’s storyline will pick up from where
the web series leaves off.
Cook supplied the outline for the prequel to
Big Fantastic, a California-based production company.
The episodes have been filmed in Los Angeles and Delhi.
Rachna Khatau plays Samira Patel,
a free-spirited Indian woman who grabs an
opportunity to chase the American dream.
She admits with a laugh that her character
“gets a little wild” when she tastes the
freedom offered in America.
Shamita Dasgupta, who heads the New Jersey-based
South Asian women’s rights group, Manavi, says the
web series promises a “parade of scantily clad brown
bodies of Indian women”.
“As an immigrant from India and a feminist activist
in the South Asian American community, my first
reaction is to say, hurray, at least I will get to see
some faces that look like me,” said Mrs Dasgupta.
“Also, I rejoice that a few Indian actors
are getting visible jobs.”
But her second reaction is more guarded.
“Here we go again, I say. Historically, Hollywood
portrayed Asian women as mysterious, bizarre
and strange and contributed a lot to their being
perceived as such.”
She added:
“Now, Indian women are being exoticised and
presented as sneaky murderous intrigue-mongers.
“The ‘Indian’ characters in Foreign Body are nurses,
who are as far away from any care-giving mission
or characteristics as possible.
These women will be unleashed in the US to
wreak havoc in the health care community
and perhaps even in the system.
“Could this be a sign of the dominant community’s
palpable alarm at the increasing health care
tourism to India? Most likely.”
Rachna Khatau admits she was a little
uncomfortable at first with the portrayal of her character.
“I think people know that sex sells.
But I wanted to make sure it was done
professionally and would not be gratuitous,”
she said, adding: “But this is not who I am.”
The London-born actress moved to America
at the age of four and has family in India.
Khatau was not taken aback by the fact that
the nurses were being portrayed as sexy because
“this is not a Bollywood film. It is being produced
here in Hollywood. It was going to have the
style of a Hollywood film.”
Like actress Pranidhi Varshney, her character
Veena Chandra is born and raised in India.
Varshney says she wasn’t offended by the portrayal
of Veena as a “sexy Indian nurse”.
“Rachna and I have become very good friends
and we talked a bit about this,” Varshney said.
“We have not done anything that we are not
comfortable with. This is all in line with our characters.
We are actresses.”
Shamita Dasgupta anticipates
a backlash from the series.
“By presenting working Indian women as
deceitful vamps, [the series] has reinforced
the harmful stereotypes of empowered Indian
women and fanned the flames against immigrants
currently rampaging in the country,” she said.
Big Fantastic did not respond to an
e-mailed interview request.
Both Khatau and Varshney say their families
have been supportive of their new roles.
Khatau’s parents haven’t missed
a single episode of the show.
“They are proud and excited that this
opportunity came about.
They know it is so hard to find an
Indian role [in Hollywood],” she said.
She says the producers have the option of
converting the project into a film and is
keeping her fingers crossed
“that they do and that I will
have a part to play in it!”
Varshney and Khatau have not read any
of Robin Cook’s books, but both are eagerly
awaiting his latest thriller.
Khatau said:
“I want to see what happens to my character!”
It is high time that the world comes
to realize that India is home to a huge number
of the world’s most beautiful women
and that they have poise and class
in abundance without the clumsy
brashness of American women.
Gerald - December 28, 2009 at 6:32 am |
Real Indian women are beautiful like an arab women.
Jul - February 9, 2011 at 9:16 am |