Known for his work both on the big screen and small, Omi Vaidya burst onto the Bollywood scene with his incredible performance in Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots. The actor continued to work in Bollywood and then came back to the US to delve into some fabulous, varied and very interesting characters and projects.
I was able to have a long catch up chat with Omi about his current work including an important movie, a cool Bolly-mentary, a funny Netflix show and his newest special television project. Check out what Chatur has been up too.
First up we talked about his newest film For Here or To Go?, which is releasing this Friday, March 31st. The dramedy puts the spotlight on immigration status in America. Along with Omi, the film stars Ali Faizal, Rajit Kapur, Amitosh Nagpal, Samrat Chakrabarti and Melanie Chandra.
For Here of To Go? is the story of Young Silicon Valley software engineer Vivek Pandit whose work visa has less than a year remaining and he loses a new job. Having learned the hard way about the flaws in his “its just paperwork” mentality, Vivek battles forces beyond his control to get his visa extended, whether at his existing company or a new job. Along the way, his eyes are opened to the similar struggles of his own roommates and those around him. American in mind and Indian at heart, this is a contemporary story of ambition and ambivalence fueled by one’s immigration status that characterizes the dilemma of modern cultural displacement.
Omi explains, “It is about Indians who come to America and they get jobs in tech. They have H-1B visas. They don’t ever really get to feel like they are citizens, because they don’t know if they are going to stay. They just have to keep extending their visa every year or two. It is about do they stay or do they go? Do they feel like they belong here or should they go back to India? It is a really nice movie.”
About his character he says, “I have a very interesting role in that. I play a closeted gay character. It is something I have never done before. It was challenging. It is something that I really wanted to do and explore.”
With the political climate in America today, he says this film is very important, “It’s super important to see the struggles of young ambitious, caring immigrants. To understand their stories and not just villainize them as ‘the other.’ These restrictions and travel bans not only affect immigrants but Americas ability to get the best talent and stay ahead of the competition.”
The writer and producer of the film Rishi S. Bhilawadikar, spent 7 years on this story and in an open letter appeals to Indian Americans to get the word out. Omi fully supports this film and its message, “If we want to see more South Asians in films and want to see more films about Indian American stories then we have to support, For Here or To Go, instead of going to the newest blockbuster film coming out from the studios. Unless distributors and corporations see that money is going to these smaller films with South Asian talent and diverse stories, nothing will change in Hollywood.”
Big In Bollywood
Besides For Here or to Go?, Omi has several other projects including the premiere of his documentary Big In Bollywood, which showcases his journey during the promotion of the blockbuster hit 3 Idiots. Of course you remember his outstanding turn as Chatur aka Silencer in the film directed by Rajkumar Hirani and starring Aamir Khan, R Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Boman Irani and Kareena Kapoor Khan.
Telling us about how the documentary came about Omi revealed, “Some of my friends are documentarians. They are sort of crazy, fun guys. They do a lot of traveling and they had originally gone to Nepal. While they were talking to some friends they made, they said, ‘Oh by the way we have friend who is in a movie with some guy named Aamir Khan’. Their Nepali friends sort of flipped out and got really excited. My friends, who are all white Americans and don’t watch Bollywood movies realized that this is a big film and really exciting. ‘Omi you are going to be famous’. I said, ‘Oh you are sort of exaggerating. I have a role in this movie, but this movie has Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor – so many big stars. It is directed by the Martin Scorsese of India. People may see my face and maybe I will get another film, but I think you are sort of over exaggerating.’ So they said, ‘Well, we want to come to India during the premiere. What do you think? We will shoot you during that time to see how that experience is and see how you get famous’. I thought it is not going to be a very good documentary because it is just me going to the premiere and that is going to be it. But they decided they wanted to come anyway.”
The documentary showcases his time in India from the premiere, to the outstanding response and the huge crowds, to his first award, which is the climax of the film. “They shot a few scenes of me before I left for India, before the premiere, of me and my wife and sort of our expectations. Then the whole process of coming to India. I would walk down the street and I was just a regular normal person. Then the premiere happens and sort immediately after the premiere things went crazy. Not only the reviews but also the incredible exposure and everyone asking, ‘Who is this guy? Where did he come from?’
“I was also invited to go on the PR tour. It initially was just supposed to be the three guys going to like six or seven cities, but after the reviews came out and everybody was sort of talking about me they wanted me to go as well. So the documentary followed and showed me on this huge press tour with Aamir Khan. The amount of fans that came out, I mean in some places there were 30-40 thousand people out in the street. Then moving on there to the award ceremonies and winning my first award.”
Adding, “The premiere was in the end of December and the first award ceremony was in late January so it was just about a month. So going from a struggling actor in America to this well-known name or household character in India within a month is a whirlwind story. It is very exciting and fun. It is not a serious documentary in any sort of way. It is just really funny. You are on this journey with this guy who is a fish out of water and how he is dealing with it. Will he get this recognition or won’t he? What happens to him? It is sort of all that – it is quite fun!”
The film is now on Netflix, “We had a couple different distributors but they didn’t really understand how to get it out there,” Omi says. “Ultimately and just recently we were able to finish a deal with Netflix. Now we can get it to so many different countries – 190 countries have access to this movie. Now I am getting responses from people all over the world. It is very exciting to see this story being told to many people all over the world.”
So what does he think and remember as he watches what he was going through during that crazy time? “I think that it was a wonderful, exciting thing that happened to me, which I was ill prepared for completely. I mean I don’t know how you can be prepared for something like that anyway. It was a wonderful series of events that I was lucky enough to be a part of. Having my friends there made it really fun and enjoyable. It was a really great time in my life. I am really glad that it happened.”
Does he want to go back to Bollywood? “You know I did like four or five films and I definitely enjoyed it. They are really fun to shoot. You are given every liberty – all the freedom in the world. You are treated really well. But the quality of the films that I was doing sort of became less and less and being an actor, it is difficult to have control over what the end product is going to be. I would really have to have a lot of faith in the project or really find an exciting character. Chatur was a really exciting character,” he replies.
Going on to say, “Taking it to the next level is really what I want to do. Not your typical Bollywood film. I guess I want to keep doing exciting different things. For me 3 Idiots was a risk. I was doing very well in America and I had to leave to do this movie in India that paid very little. I had to give up a year of my life with very little to no expectation. I got into this field because it was exciting and it was a big risk. I have to continue and even though it is uncomfortable and it may not be the most lucrative choices that I make, I have to continue following that same method if I really want to do something of value. I have to keep challenging myself and not just the status quo.”
He adds, “A lot of the characters that I do now are really exciting. I choose very wisely now. You know, before it was just do everything because I had the time. I was free, but now I have a family. I have many other goals than just being an actor. If I want to choose a role, it better be something that is extremely challenging, because I will have to sacrifice a lot to do that role. Right now, I am producing many projects on the side and I have another Netflix show that is out Brown Nation.”
Brown Nation
Describing Brown Nation, which stars Rajeev Varma, Shenaz Treasury, Omi Vaidya, Remy Munasifi, Melanie Chandra and more, Omi says, “It is like The Office and Everyone Loves Raymond about Indian immigrants.”
Describing his character Brown Nation he says, “Balan is a South Indian and he is really fresh off the boat from India. He is extremely poor and very, very hard working. But his language skills in English are limited as well as his ability to sort of comprehend what is going on. He is extremely positive and willing to volunteer for pretty much anything. He is like sort of the pure servant to his boss, but his effectiveness and his efficiency is poor. He is a very sincere character and that is why he becomes very likable immediately, but his lack of knowledge and pure ignorance and naïveté about everything creates a lot of hilarity.”
He says Balan is a really fun character to play, “I did a lot of ad-libbing and just adding little tiny moments here and there that were not specially written in the speech. Just little adlibs that really added some more funny. Anything that I could put in there that I thought would make someone laugh I tried to do that.”
It is really amazing that a show like this now exists he says, “It is so cool! You know, even when I did it I had little faith that it would get distributed because it was too Indian for America and it was too American for Indian television. I thought this isn’t going to sell. It is too much in the middle. It’s funny and it’s good but these TV companies they want a product that they feel that they know already and works with the pre-existing products that they have made before. This is just too different.”
But it did find a place, he says. “It took two years for it to finally find distribution. That also was because Netflix was going global and it opened in India. It was looking for original content. It wasn’t looking for Bollywood films and Bollywood stuff. It was looking for stuff that works for Indians but also stuff that works for a global audience. I am really glad about that because we really made it for a large audience, a wide audience. You see this small world that these people live in, but we made it open to everybody.”
Speaking about the rave reviews Brown Nation has gotten he says, “It feels great. You know, it is all about just being honest with the subject matter and getting the right people involved and a little bit of magic. I knew on 3 Idiots, that there was some magic on that when we were shooting that last scene. And when we finished this project and another I am working on, I knew there was some magic. I knew there were some scenes that were just straight out magic and it was just worlds aligning. Everything just lined up perfectly. That feels great. The reviews are all great and all, but it is seeing the work and seeing me. To be honest, I don’t even remember my performances and then watching them two years later and going like Oh My God that is hilarious – it is like I am watching somebody else. That is really satisfying to me. I am really happy.”
Metro Park
“Brown Nation is taking us out of the typical, traditional America sitcom,” he says, “and another series I am doing Metro Park, will be taking us into an Indian American community and how that world works. Showing that world to non-Indians hopefully as well and give them a different perspective.”
Talking more about Metro Park, which stars Ranvir Shorey, Purbi Joshi, Pitobash Tripathy, Omi reveals it is ‘about Indians living in Edison, New Jersey. Sort of a comedy of living in an Indian enclave.’
“I play Kanan. He and his wife are sort of modern Indian Immigrants from New York- they are from Manhattan. They are not involved in the Indian community as much. They have assimilated more. His wife is pregnant and they decide they should move out of their one bedroom apartment to Edison, New Jersey, next door to his wife’s cousin and his family played by Purbi Joshi and Ranvir Shorey. That couple are hard core Gujaratis and are deeply involved in the community. So it is this one Indian family that is very modern and sort of out of their comfort zones and are adjusting to this life in little India with this other family that is extremely super Indian. And about all the high jinks that go on.”
Omi also discussed the fact that now there are more shows and films featuring South Asian storylines and characters. “First of all the money shows that it can be done. It started with Slumdog [Millionaire] but now there has been Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, 100 Foot Journey, Million Dollar Arm, Infinity and now Lion, the movies are not only making money but getting critical success from reviewers. And these are not just being watched by Indians, they are being watched and enjoyed by wide audiences. The market shows that these movies are wanted and that is why they are being made more frequently.
“In terms of seeing them on TV, I think that it is really exciting. I am very happy about it. I think right now we are only seeing wide audience best selling book types of films but hopefully things like Brown Nation and Growing up Smith, and these sort of smaller films and quirky characters showing these different worlds and these different narratives will be done more and I think it will be very exciting. We just have to continue doing this. I think it will help in many regards not only in terms of entertainment but also people not being uncomfortable with ‘the other’. I think that is really important.”
Be sure to catch For Here or To Go? in theaters on Friday!
We wish Omi all the best and look forward to talking with him again soon!
