Even for a crore no Hindi for Sendhil

He’s the Indian who’s a rising star in Hollywood with his portrayal of a geneticist in the hit TV series, Heroes, and will soon be seen in Gurindher Chadha’s comedy, It’s A Wonderful Afterlife. Born in Chicago to Tamil parents, Sendhil Ramamurthy’s taken up the challenge of his life – speak a little Hindi in an Indian project!
You’ve been on Heroes for four years now, and you’re quite famous.How’s it been?
It’s been an amazing, amazing, joy ride; I’ve enjoyed every moment of it. And it’s opened up so many doors for me. It’s A Wonderful Afterlife happened after Heroes – Gurindher would have never offered me the part otherwise. I had actually just left Heroes, and I’m doing a new show now, called Covert Affairs.
But Heroes was a serious, sci-fi action series. And Gurindher’s film is comic, loud, and set in India... big difference?
Yeah, of course! That’s one of the reasons I took the part, it was an interesting change from Heroes. After all, you don’t want to get typecast. I play a very serious kind of scientist on Heroes, and doing a romantic comedy with Gurindher Chaddha was exactly what I was looking for. And the fact that it’s set in London was also very appealing; I love London.
But was it difficult to adjust to a completely different world, a completely different kind of movie set?
No it wasn’t, I was so excited to be doing something new. It wasn’t difficult at all; I was so ready for it. It was all excitement, really, that carried me through. I lived in London for seven years and to get to go back there and work for eight weeks was a real thrill.
Did you have to speak Hindi in the film?
It’s all English. It’s actually a very British film.
Were you familiar with Shabana Azmi? Did you know she’s quite a stalwart in Hindi cinema?
I did not. I didn’t know her movies beforehand, but when I told my parents that I was doing a movie with Shabana Azmi, thesssy totally freaked out. They actually flew over to London, to see her really, not to see me!
How was it working with her?
She was a lot of fun. But I didn’t get too many chances to work with her, our characters don’t really interact very much. But we got to hang out on set, and we’re obviously going to meet up at the premiere in London, so I’m excited to be seeing her again.
Are you aware of mainstream Bollywood? Got any plans for a film?
You know, a lot of them have been coming my way, for the last few months, people have been approaching me, very big names that I know are huge in India. But they just weren’t things I was interested in doing. But I could never close the door on anything, if the right project comes along, I’ll obviously do it.
Do you see yourself doing the usual Bollywood stuff, song and dance?
Right now, no, I don’t see myself doing that. It’s just not what appeals to me. I understand how that stuff appeals to a large portion of the audience, but just me, as an actor, that’s not where my interests lie. But if the right thing came my way where, you know, if it weren’t the typical Bollywood song and dance thing, and did something that I found very interesting, I would jump at it.
What’s your role in Ekta Kapoor’s Shor?
My character’s an NRI. He comes to India, and starts a non-profit organisation to help the poor, but then he gets caught up in the underworld, and is forced to take matters into his own hands. It’s a very exciting project and I’m looking forward to coming to promote it. We finished shooting a month ago.
So it was easy here too ’coz you’re playing an NRI, so you didn’t have to speak any Hindi again...
No, I did. I had fifteen words, that I spoke diligently. I had them on my iPod. I would be in the gym, at the hotel in Mumbai, and it was always playing in my ears.
What were those 15 words, do you still remember them?
I remember them, and there’s literally not enough money in the world for me to repeat them for you right now! You could offer me crores and crores worth of money, it wouldn’t be worth it, for my dignity!
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