Desi food videshi tadka

Circa 1950: A hero is playing a piano trying to woo the heroine in a party. As the camera moves, it closes in on the junior artists enjoying the song in the background. A long pause on a foreigner in a short dress. Wine glass in hand, she���s obviously caught the cameraman���s eye, if not the hero���s, who keeps returning for a closer look.
Cut to 2009: The hero is singing a song, to woo the girl of his dreams, only this time the heroine���s a foreign actress!
From making fleeting appearances as party-attenders or empathising bystanders to the skimpily-clad back-up dancers sometimes grabbing more eyeballs than the heroines.And from item girls to now being wooed as heroines by desi heroes Bollywood ishtyle, foreign actors have come a long way here. What���s more, several like Giselli Monteiro in Love Aaj Kal are easily passing off as Indian kudis.
The past decades have been silent observers of the foreign influence creep from the shadows to now sometimes even overshadow the actors here. The change has been slow, but gradual. And this interest in Bollywood is not only limited to foreign tourists who along with carrying back home fond memories of the exotic country also hope to carry back films to their credit.
Rather, yearning to taste the Bollywood pie are international theatre actors, supermodels, pop stars and even Hollywood superstars. Sample this: Kambakkth Ishq saw Hollywood action star Sylvester Stallone play the knight-in-shining-armour to desi hottie Kareena Kapoor, even as James Bond sexy lady Denise Richards vied for Akshay Kumar���s attention. Pop queen Kylie Minogue can be seen chiggy-wiggying to AR Rahman���s beats in Blue, while Mexican starlet Barbara Mori heats it up in Kites with Hrithik Roshan. Not to be left out, several international cricketers including Brett Lee too made their Bollywood debuts with Victory. In fact, this year itself, almost ten foreign actors are set to make their Bollywood debuts, that���s as many as the Bollywood newbies here. But this is a more recent trend and the earlier decades had a different story to tell.
Though some filmmakers like Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand exploited the Indian male���s fixation with the fair-skinned beauties, and even had some play lead characters in Mera Naam Joker and Swami Dada respectively, most preferred to play it safe and the foreign artists often remained in the backdrop, silently enhancing a film���s appeal by lending a cosmo feel to the film. But much before that, Fearless Nadia had tickled every male���s fantasy here. Mithun Chakraborthy too, in 1991, had a Russian beauty Irina Kushnareva play the lead opposite him in Shikari.
Known to earn anything between a few thousands for a few hours work per day, several foreign tourists have turned extras more for the thrill of being a part of Bollywood, than to make a quick buck. And though, this type of casting does violate the rules related to recruitment of junior artistes, the closed environments on the sets make it difficult for anyone outside the set-up to keep a tab. The fact that these foreigners have little or no qualms in posing even in revealing outfits makes them an obvious choice to lend glam.
Over the years things have only become better for the numerous models and actors who come down here for easy stardom. Though, it was not until the recent decade that the foreigners were picked from obscurity and cast in the lead. Call it an effect of globalisation or need of the script, or simply a result of the film industries across becoming a melting pot of actors, but most of them have been readily accepted into the Bollywood mould.
Rachel Shelley in Lagaan was one of the early videshi babes who struck a chord with audiences here. The film changed the way the movie-goers here looked at the foreign actors. Yana was one of the earliest item girls who rocked the male fantasies with her Babuji track in Dum. Vashu Bhagnani���s love triangle Out of Control saw Riteish Deshmukh marry Baywatch Brande Rodericks. But these roles were far and in between. A slew of item numbers later, the year 2005 saw a resurgence of films with foreign actors in the lead. And there���s been no looking back with foreign actors now becoming a regular occurrence on Indian screens.
With films continuing to bridge the gap between the east and the west, and the markets becoming a freeway with the diminishing cultural divides, even foreign studios have opened up their kitties to collaborate with Indian production houses. Not only actors, but even international filmmakers are now eyeing the possibilities of making films with ensemble international casts. Steven Spielberg tying up with Anil Ambani���s production house, Hollywood studios producing Hindi films and Indian filmmakers roping in international biggies are just pointers indicating that there���s more to come.