Hey ho, people! How were your X-Mas and New Year’s? Mine was fantastic; actually, scrap that, my past couple of months have been fantastic. A few stage acts for August: Osage County, a shoot for a TVC to be aired Asiawide and an interview with… the BBC Asian Network, on DJ Nihal’s show!! Click through to read my account of the TVC shoot in Thailand and, listen to the interview, where I talk about, erm, the casting couch 🙂
Bangkok! That’s where I took off to in the middle of December, for a
four-day holiday
for the shoot of a TVC for Farmer’s Insurance.
Since the commercial was going to be aired in other Asian countries as well, it had a Korean and a Chinese actor playing the same part as me, in a montage advertisement. So what was the part? That of a new dad! Cradle a baby, deliver some lines in Hindi and English ‒ all in a day’s work :-p Which means, I had the three days off to…
…fend off a wild pack of lady boys! The hotel we were *put in* was right in the middle of red light area. Before your minds start playing up, no, I didn’t go for any of those body massages or their ilk. I was a good boy! That aside, Bangkok is quite the charming city that everyone says it is.
And oh, this industry is such a small world! I have a fellow actress matey, with whom I’ve done some plays back in England. I didn’t see her for a good few years and ‒ lo and behold! ‒ I see her, at the hotel’s reception as I was checking-in. Turns out, she was doing the same commercial as me ‒ what are the chances? And not only that, she also moved to Mumbai, from the UK, to chase her Bollywood dreams ‒ like me.
Right after I got back to BOM from BKK, I took off again, for a month, for pastures familiar, the UK. I took time off from stuffing my face with whatever edible came in my sight, to pull a few strings for a spot of free publicity (ha!). Proper chuffed I was, when a contact of mine sorted me an interview on DJ Nihal’s show, at the BBC Asian Network, BBC’s radio arm for the South Asian diaspora. On it, I talked about my journey to Bollywood, what made me make the move and… the CASTING COUCH!!!!
I don’t know why I kept on saying “to be honest” at the start of every sentence, in the interview… Check it out!
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