I hope more and more educated Indians start boycotting this overhyped institution called “Bollywood”. Please acquire some good taste and watch international cinema or support home-grown talent making small-budget nice movies. Don’t waste your time and money on mental torture media like Ra.one. “Bollywood” is a sham industry where they use underworld money (the same money used to conduct terror attacks on Indian soil) and plagiarize content from creative writers and musicians. The high-earning actors and directors (except for a notable few) are arrogant assholes who think their shit doesn’t stink. Whatever you do, don’t put your hard-earned money in their hands in the name of entertainment.

The fairness cream concept is a good one that you’ve brought up. If only we could apply some more fairness to our characters.

Best wishes, as always and thanks again for your well thought out comments.

Look, I don’t really care who they cast in these movies. Of course, by rights, I would prefer that they cast the correct nationality for the correct role and stop stereotyping. But I realize we are in the west and in Hollywood in a country which is 80% white so the odds are somewhat against us.

However, my real beef, I guess, is the way that Shyamalan in particular is being hit on. It just doesn’t make sense given that this stuff goes on all the time and nobody says a word. That is what annoys me the most.

These critics and journalists, many of whom are caucasian, should be consistent in their condemnation of racist miscasting and stereotyping. Why pick on this guy? It just doesn’t add up to me.

By the way, I do appreciate the irony in your post and do think it is funny. My concern is not an attack on you, it is an attack on what I feel is the almost racist persecution of Shyamalan in this instance. That is what bugs me the most. Especially since he probably had to endure quite alot of racism in his time in Hollywodd and probably still does.

Take Ebert as one example – he never said a word about Robert Downey Jr being “blackfaced” in Tropic Thunder? He never mentioned anything about Mowgli in The Jungle Book being played by Jason Scott Lee?

And there is a now a new film out called Essential killing, which stars Vincent Gallo as an Afghan, which he is clearly not. Can someone explain why there is no furore over that?

All I’m asking is that you think about what I am saying and see if it makes sense to you.

In my opinion, that in itself is what makes it exceedingly difficult to frame an appropriate response (if indeeed the charge of racism is frivolous).

Curiously, many of the most vocal critics of Shayamalan’s involvement in the casting are other Asians – mainly of East Asian ethnicity (including the author of the blog I quoted in the post). Other Asian Americans may indeed be picking on an Indian American, but is a little hard for me to call all of their grievance unjust. A sticky situation indeed!