Hollywood has had a history of whitewashing its movies. For the uninitiated, that means white people playing coloured people’s part. To dumb it down to studio standards, people of different ethnicities aren’t deemed good enough to play major parts in Hollywood films. So starting from the Golden Age of Hollywood, right from the ’30s Hollywood movies have been guilty of casting American white people in the roles of Indian characters. To make matters worse, they even paint faces with tan make-up, not to mention the awkward Indian garbs and turbans on firang faces. Here are a few times Hollywood embarrassed Indian audiences with white people casting. We won’t get into Sir Ben Kingsley playing Gandhi because in reality, Kingsley is an Indian Gujarati.
The Rains Came (1939)
Tyrone Power played an Indian doctor. The Rains Came is based in Ranchipur, India. It features ’30s Hollywood stars like Myrna Loy and George Brent in the lead. But this love triangle of sorts is famous for Tyrone Power donning a turban, a pencil moustache and a healthy spray of brown make-up to look Indian. For the record Power was of Irish, English, French and German descent. He was also reportedly a distant relative of Sir Lawrence Olivier. The other big gaffe in The Rains Came was that it cast Russian actress Maria Ouspenskaya as an Indian Maharani.
Bhowani Junction (1956)
In this social drama based around the plight of an Anglo-Indian woman in the midst of a civilian revolution in India, Ava Gardner played the lead role. Gardner looked resplendent in her role, donning sarees and looking ethereal. Even though Gardner was a US born English person you can accept her in the role because her character Victoria is of mixed descent. But the film makes a meal with its supporting cast. Englishman Francis Matthews played Ranjit Kasel, Austrian Peter Illing played Ghan Shyam and Freda Jackson played the Matriarch called The Sardarni.
The Party (1968)
Peter Sellers had the reputation of playing odd and far-fetched characters with ease and élan. Even though The Party is a hilarious film, the very fact that Sellers, an Englishman with Christian and Jewish heritage played an Indian actor doesn’t quite go down well. Especially since his face was painted brown. In his defence, at least he gave the audience a jolly good time.
A Passage to India (1984)
In the historical drama film, white actor Alec Guinness played the Indian Professor Godbole. Big part of his Indian illusion was the cotton Kurta, dhoti and pyjama combo with a classic Indian turban. Did we mention the stereotypical Indian accent too? Alec Guinness, one of Britain’s finest actors ever, also the person who played Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars is of Irish-English descent. He was definitely not a Maharashtrian.
Short Circuit (1986)
In this memorable science fiction film based on a blundering robot white actor Fisher Stevens played an Indian scientist. The role didn’t invite too much criticism back in the ’80s, Stevens even reprised his role in the 1988 sequel. But recently Indian actor and comedian Aziz Ansari did make brouhaha about it. After all as Stevens’ description of himself goes he’s, “thin, white Jewish kid from Chicago”.
The Social Network (2010)
In another one of his fiery pontificating spree, Aziz Ansari ripped into David Fincher’s movie on Facebook’s creators Mark Zuckerberg and his team. The point of contention here was that Max Minghella was cast to play Facebook co-founder Divya Narendra. Minghella being a half-Chinese, half-Italian British actor as claimed by Ansari. In Fincher and Minghella’s defence, the actor did look like an Indian based in America.
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
We’re nitpicking here, but if you get down to history, then the supervillain in Star Trek: Into Darkness called Khan is essentially Indian. Creator Gene Roddenberry had named him after a friend Kim Noonien Singh, who was a co-pilot in World War II. Since Roddenberry had fallen out of touch with his old friend, he thought naming character could renew his forgotten acquaintance. So technically, Englishman Benedict Cumberbatch playing the character is whitewash, even though Khan is a genetically advanced human born in a laboratory. In his previous avatar, Khan was portrayed by Mexican actor Ricardo Montalbán back in 1967 and 1982.