The original post: /r/television by /u/Plane_Muscle6537 on 2024-07-20 00:25:13.
Interesting excerpt from this article - vogue.in/…/meet-rahul-kohli-the-newest-indian-fac…
“I reject a lot of scripts,” Kohli says. “It’s easy for me to shoot down working in a 7-Eleven or being the Indian guy getting an arranged marriage even though he doesn’t want one. I want to create a safer space that’s more inclusive and progressive.” Case in point: when Kohli was cast as Dr Ravi Chakrabarti, the eccentric medical examiner in iZombie, he wanted to avoid asexual Indian sidekick territory. “The creators were like, ‘we’re actually going to lean more into Ravi’s British-isms,” he recalls. “And I was like, awesome.’ But I don’t harbour any resentment for Indian actors who are up-and-coming and need to take those stereotypical roles,” he clarifies. “My advice to them is take those parts, get in there, then rebel against them.”
Riz Ahmed and Dev Patel have also echoed similar sentiments for south asian actors - that they were offered a bunch of stereotypical roles and kept turning them down.
Also interesting how he remarks that going over to America was what allowed him to build his career and escape certain types of roles. Idris Elba and Riz Ahmed have said the exact same things