In what promises to be a very encouraging Autumn for British Asian actors, the BBC is setting one of its upcoming and highly regarded Canterbury Tales within an Asian family. The episode was unveiled at a screening today, in which Om Puri plays the lead role of 'Jetender', along with Nitin Ganandra who plays the part of of 'Pushpinder' and Indira Varma who is 'Meena'.

The adaptation of the Sea Captain's tale is set in Gravesend, where Jetender is a wealthy money lender and importer/exporter; an Asian 'Godfather' figure to his community. He goes into business with the young Pushpinder, who falls in love with Jetender's beautiful and extravagant wife, Meena. Meena claims that Jetender is a tyrant who makes her life hell.

Pushpinder and Meena begin a passionate affair and Pushpinder borrows money for Meena from her husband. Slowly, though, Pushpinder starts to learn the truth about Meena and her manipulative, lying ways.

Avie Luthra, the writer, set his adaptation among British Asian businessmen; "It's a world that has its own rules, that sees itself as separate from the rest of society. Every community, whether it's Asian, Italian-American, Jewish or white liberal, has a certain insularity. There's a brotherhood within the community, a set of rules that you have to obey if you're going to survive. "

The Sea Captain’s Tale is about Asians in Britain, but it’s a noir, a tale of sex and money and simmering violence, with a full-blown femme fatale lurking at its dark heart", said John McKay, the director.

You can view a clip by clicking here.

---

OM PURI - Jetender
"He's a bit of a 'Godfather', he says ominously. "There’s a sense that he’s been quite dangerous in his past; you get occasional flashes of aggression and violence that are just beneath the surface. Now he’s a successful middle-aged businessman, he’s quite respectable, and so he wouldn’t do anything violent himself.

But I think he’d be quite capable of hiring a couple of goons to do a job for him. He’s not the sort of man you should cross, because there’s always the danger that he might turn nasty."

With the amount of roles Om Puri has taken over the last few years in the UK, you would expect the maverick actor to be stationed here permanently. Instead, he still resides in Mumbai for now.

"I sometimes think I’d like to move here permanently. My wife would certainly like to. But it’s so easy to come here – it’s only eight and a half hours on the plane, and it feels like a second home because there is such a big Asian community here. ... I could certainly work full time in Bombay, but I know that if I want the really meaty, serious roles, I have to come to Britain."

“I’ve been working in the UK since 1984, and over the years the standard of roles that are available to Asian actors has got better and better.The quality of scripts that I get sent now is generally very high – much better than in India. ... .The only channels I watch at home in India are BBC World,Animal Planet, Discovery Channel and CNN. In Britain, though, there’s amazing stuff – and so much of it is Asian-based. My Indian friends over here were raving about Goodness Gracious Me, which we all loved.”

Having worked on movies such as East is East and Brothers in Trouble, and more recently in Channel 4's White Teeth, Om Puri certainly has had some meaty roles. He also has another big role coming up, which Asians in Media will reveal next week.

---

INDIRA VARMA - Meena
"Meena’s superficial, shallow and materialistic, but I like her, says Indira Varma mischievously. "I know she’s not a particularly good woman, but she’s got balls, which makes her fun to play".

"She’s quite childish: she thinks she can have her cake and eat it too. And in a sense she can, because she’s very sexy and she has youth and glamour on her side, so she gets away with a lot. But that’s the only power she’s got. Apart from her sexuality, she’s totally dependent on men, particularly on her husband.And she’s in the grip of an addiction. She can’t stop shopping, and she gets herself into terrible debt as a result.”

Indira first made major headlines when she starred in Mira Nair's Kama Sutra in 1996. She has done a fair bit of TV too (Attachments, Psychos, the forthcoming forensic drama Donovan on BBC). She also stars in Gurinder Chadha's adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, which is currently shooting.

Nevertheless, she seems quite happy with her new role.
"As an Asian woman you tend to get the demure shopkeeper, the serious doctor or the ‘exotica’ – the dirty Asian girl who wants it, who’s so repressed by her family that she’s sex-mad.They’re such stereotypes and the plots are usually pretty clichéd – arranged marriages and so on.This is such a refreshing change – it’s literate and intelligent"

---

NITIN GANATRA - Pushpinder
"When I was first discussing the character of Pushpinder with the director, John McKay, he said 'He’s a Peugeot who wants to be a Ferrari.' That sums him up, really", says Nitin quite candidly.

"Jetender and Meena are real Ferrari types – they live life in the fast lane. Push thinks he can handle it, but he hasn’t got the speed or the power. He’ll never go beyond his capacity. At heart, he’s a small family car: not bad, but not very exciting or stylish."

The forthcoming way in which Nitin talks about the role he plays, it seems that he was fairly excited by playing the character. Did it offer him anything different than the roles he had been playing before?

"The way that Asians are usually portrayed in British films and television is depressingly predictable. We’ve had Asian doctors, Asian shopkeepers, Asian businessmen, but you very rarely get an Asian villain or an Asian romantic lead. The Sea Captain’s Tale has a criminal, gangster element, which is refreshing. It’s a bit like The Sopranos. It’s great to see Asian characters behaving badly. Political correctness can go too far. Not all Asian people are decent and law-abiding, you know, and some of them actually do have sex."

2003 has definitely been a good year for the actor and is likely to be the year he gets greater recognition for his work. Having just completed two projects at BBC 2, a monologue called You're Breaking up, and a 60 minute drama called The Village, Nitin also stars in Ray's Days - coming on BBC 1 later this year. In addition to that, he also plays a part in Gurinder Chadha's Bride and Prejudice along with Indira Varma.

Keep your eyes out for a more in-depth discussion with him at a later date here at AiM.