Diversifying Our Times

Dev Patel and Freida Pinto on the Oscar Red Carpet for Slumdog Millionaire.

by Fauzeya Rahman

This year’s Academy Awards will be like any previous year.  We’ll see the usual red carpet scene, celebrities either looking fierce (or not so much) and awards will be given to the top movies of the year.  Unlike previous years, however, there’s a good chance we could see a movie whose storyline came straight out of the slums of Mumbai win best picture of the year.

“Slumdog Millionaire” has received both critical acclaim and widespread popularity.  Its success has been analyzed by hardcore film buffs and casual moviegoers alike.  Whatever its appeal is for the individual viewer, the movie succeeds in bringing the South Asian identity out from the sidelines into the forefront.

It is very rare to see South Asian characters in popular sitcoms or movies in the States.  Whenever there was the rare Desi cast, they were always portrayed as a recent immigrant with a heavy accent, usually as a taxi driver or a similar profession.  Needless to say, it was hard to identify with Apu from “The Simpsons,” and most of us never really saw much of ourselves portrayed in Hollywood.

Kal Penn in the hit series "House".

Flash forward to 2009.  Aishwarya Rai is starring in the new “Pink Panther” movie.  Snoop Dogg collaborated for a track in the Bollywood flick “Singh is Kinng.”  Kal Penn is a household name (well, in households with teens or 20-somethings present).  There is a definite fusion and collaboration that is taking place, a clear step in a new direction.

Seeing as how Asians account for 13.5 million of the U.S. population, a stronger presence in pop culture is to be expected.  Rather than having the token Asian fulfilling some stereotype, we’re starting to see South Asians cast in major roles in TV and in movies.  We aren’t 100 percent at accurate representation, but slowly we’re getting there.

Lakshmi Menon in an ad for Banana Republic.

One big difference (and improvement) is that South Asians aren’t solely represented as “exotic” anymore.  Take Lakshmi Menon for instance.  She’s appeared in Banana Republic commercials, has modeling contracts with Hermes and Givenchy and has walked in runway shows for top designers such as Michael Kors and Vera Wang.  She’s achieved great success not only as an Indian model, but as a model in general.

This wasn’t always the case for Indian models.  For model/host of “Top Chef” Padma Lakshmi, during her modeling days she was usually featured in ethnic clothing in exotic locales.  As the advertising and editorial world is heading towards greater diversity, we’re starting to see differences in our everyday lives.

So what does this all mean?  Well for starters, maybe the younger generations growing up seeing such diversity will be uninhibited in choosing their career paths.  They will further break down barriers and stereotypes and we’ll be seeing fellow South Asians filling more non-traditional roles, further erasing stereotypes.  Maybe we’ll see more Bollywood and Hollywood collaborations on the big screen.  Maybe rather than being seen as “exotic,” we’ll be seen simply as we are.

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