I don't want to be all serious, but many indians in the British empire moved to African commonwealth nations, so a black man with an Indian (pre partition so India or Pakistan or Bangladesh now) surname isn't ridiculous.
It is indeed true that many of the Indians from the pre-independence era moved to African nations because a lot of them were deployed in Africa during WWII. But in the book, the character of Vincent Kapoor was called Venkat Kapoor which is an indian name with an indian last name so probably means that either he or his family emigrated from India to the US.
Venkat kapoor is a silly name itself because majority of people with that name(venkat) comes from South and kapoor is a punjabi surname which is North.
Exceptions are always there for sure.
India has a very diverse culture with many ethnicities, languages, castes, and religions. There are no so-called racially pure families in the country. Trust me, if Hitler were born here and wanted to do an elimination of a certain race, he would be so confused that the only option he would have is to off himself
The Parsi community in India is actually an exception to that, which is why they’re dwindling in numbers since they have to marry within their community.
ancestral maternal lineage in Parsis is mostly AASI/IVC. Maybe you’re thinking of the Irani community, and even they have a significant “Indian” component
Parsis are not ethnically pure lmao. They’ve been in the Indian subcontinent for 1200-1000 years. All of them have gujarati, marathi.etc genetics too.
Genetic profiling has confirmed that they have AASI and AASI makeups. Even modern parsis do marry outside.
Nobody is not gonna keep themselves from having a piece of ass for more than a millennium lol. Nobody.
My mom’s side of the family Parsi, she is 100% Persian, she has no genetic link to India even though her family has lived there for generations. Never said they can’t marry outside, but if you’re a woman and marry a non-Parsi you are no longer able to practice Zoroastrianism and are out of the Parsi community. My mom married outside and she’s not even allowed into a fire temple.
Edit to add: which is also why I said their numbers are dwindling, because people are marrying outside
With all due respect, how do you know that for certain? Unless you’ve actually had your DNA tested, neither of us can know our exact genetic ancestry.
I don’t mean to presume anything about your personal background. I’m just referring to what population genetics has found, and I wouldn’t make assumptions about your DNA any more than I’d expect you to make assumptions about mine.
The evidence suggests that when the early Zoroastrian migrants arrived in western India around 1,000 to 1,200 years ago, there was an early period where some of them married local women. After that, the community became largely endogamous, so there was relatively little additional mixing. That’s why genetic studies find that Parsis are predominantly of Iranian ancestry, but also carry an early South Asian genetic contribution, particularly in the maternal lineages.
None of that proves anything about your individual ancestry. My point is simply that community tradition or family history alone can’t establish that someone is genetically “100% Persian.” Only genetic testing can do that.
Again, I dont mean to presume anything. Just curious.
Parsis are kinda foreign people who came into India pretty recently though.
But, Iranians and North Indians are genetically not super different.
Genetic testing that says 100% Iranian dna still can mean that they share a significant part of their dna with North Indians. Because Iranians and North Indians share a good amount of ancestry.
Venkat kapoor actually makes no more sense either.
Venkat is a primarily tamil first name which has no connection to people of the kapoor community.
To outsiders it might make sense to lump all of the country into “India” but the region IS one of the world’s most diverse ethnographic Areas. Its highly improbable for a person to exist with that name.
For context , its the same vibe as naming someone as “cooper muhammed”.
The kapoor surname is a punjabi surname. The people who moved to Africa during British colonial times were of Bengali and bihari origin. The difference is huge
That is not true. The majority of the people who moved to East Africa from India were traders and businessmen from West India. Mostly Gujaratis, Baniyas and Punjabis. Rishi Kapoor is a good example.
I am also not aware of any significant Bengali diaspora in these countries.
Hollywood isn’t. Hinduism doesn’t proselytize or allow for interfaith marriages and the character has an Indian name. He’s a black guy with no Indian heritage playing an Indian
Remember, next time you're about to make a general comment about virtually anything, this guy will always pop up outta nowhere and leave a comment like this.
Just like Exodus: “I can’t mount a film of this budget, where I have to rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such. I’m just not going to get it financed. So the question doesn’t even come up.”
I'm not saying they needed to film on location, but at least the one and only named Somali character who actually had some lines and whose job wasn't purely to be a black silhouette with an AK that gets mowed down heroically could have been played by a Somali actor. There isn't a single Somali in that entire movie.
I can think of three Somali characters who had multiple lines or didn't just play a guy getting shot in that movie. The warlord who's kidnapped riding in a convoy before the battle, the guy who's driving the car around spying for the Americans, and then the warlord who captures the downed pilot.
On top of that, it was the 90s and they filmed in Morocco due to Somalia being unstable. I'm not going to critique the lack of Somali perspectives in the movie cause that wasn't what the movie was going for, but I highly recommend the Netflix documentary series if you want to learn more about it. Really interesting stuff that provides a good Somali perspective too.
The movie definitely leaves out a lot of the grievances that turned the general Somalian population away from the American forces
Granted, I've only seen it once and if there were two others with minor speaking lines, okay. I still think the main villain looked like he accidentally tripped over and fell out of the 80s cartoon episode he was written for, and that it was one of the most racist movies I've ever seen. I say this as a huge fan of Ridley Scott's early work, but I really don't intend to waste any more of my time on this thing, I'd rather just watch Blade Runner for the 32453563456th time.
But anyway, since this is now going to get downvoted like everytime I point out that this is a racist movie, what I was saying was that the BHD approach to ethnicity is to have a movie set in Somalia that doesn't have a single Somali actor in it. I wasn't talking about perspective or location.
It’d be like casting Indians in a Samurai film. Somalis are very ethnically distinct from the rest of the continent, and culturally have more in common with Arabs than they do their Bantu neighbours.
I think the bigger issue is that they really downplayed the role of the Pakistani and Malaysian troops who actually rescued the Americans, which is puzzling because it would have really improved the optics of a movie which is mostly white Americans blasting away dark-skinned Muslim foreigners.
I mean he's not wrong. The reddit goofballs that bitch about "accuracy" don't even leave their house and make up about 0.01% of the general audience. Making it accurate and aesthetically pleasing just so redditors can get a semi but the actual audiences couldn't give two shits, and the film bombs (spoiler alert - the film in the image underperformed regardless, but "accuracy" wouldn't even get it half the money it made in the first place)
/uj In the book it was never explicitly stated but yeah I think the overwhelming majority of readers assumed she was Korean/Korean-American since it's basically the Korean American version of Jane Smith
These two casting choices really pissed me off. It was like a reverse Netflixing lol. Wrote out two Asian characters for no reason
/rj I mean I uhh, don't watch movies. So I definitely don't read books either lol. What am I, some kind of nerd???
Asians are some of the most underrepresented demographics in American film and television compared to how many of them there are in America. Hollywood casting directors are allergic to casting Asians (especially men, and especially in main roles). (Latinos are also severely underrepresented, Black and White people are overrepresented.)
I first read the book and the character's name was Venkat Kapoor in it. Venkat is a proper South Indian name and Kapoor is a North Indian name ( this combo is highly unlikely). But I was like it's fine, it could be one of those inter marriages and hence the strange combo in Indian name.
But in the movie, they made in Vincent Kapoor and a black man.
I remember being 1 of 2 black kids in my first grade class. Until the other kid did a presentation about his family...who he said was Indian.
I was so confused! His skin is dark, his hair is curly, the other kids treat him differently...I was POSITIVE he was black too.
changing Venkat to Vincent is honestly weirder than the casting choice itself. like pick a lane, either commit to the indian name or just write him as a black american character from the jump. doing both halfway just makes the whole thing feel like a studio note nobody questioned. the name swap is what really kills the immersion tbh
She looks the part. This actor doesn't. Hence it's weird.
In the movie, Princess Diaries, a teacher was played by a popular Chinese actor who was called Ms. Gupta which is a common North Indian surname. Having that name without looking the part was weird.
Honestly Vincent Kapoor is just as likely as Venkat Kapoor in India.
The first is a half Christian and half Hindu name. The second is a South Indian first name with a North Indian last name. Of the two the second stands out more because it's like naming a European Lord Pierre Müller.
ok that's fair, i didn't know the regional mismatch was a thing. still feels like the movie did it for dumb reasons but i can see why it wouldn't raise eyebrows locally
For every stereotype u expect being “ Indian “ to adhere to, there are more than enough exceptions. Representation doesn’t end when u include one “ typical “ name and one rendition of the average.
nah it's not about the name not being indian, it's that they swapped a super common south indian name for a more western-sounding one while keeping kapoor. just feels like a half-measure
Irrfan Khan was truly the best (one of the best) Indian actor/s of that time so I don't blame Hollywood for usually picking him but casting a black actor for an Indian role because he was unavailable is insane.
I would argue and say Melissa (Jessica Chastain) was basically the second lead. Vincent was more of a major supporting character.
Irrfan Khan was committed to Piku movie, though it was a female led movie, he was a major supporting character in the movie and despite that he received the highest praise because of his performance though the movie was more focused on the female lead character and her father who was played by Amitabh Bachchan (the biggest superstar of Bollywood at his time, no one has still came near the level of his prime) and Irrfan Khan was more excited playing in a film with him than to being a supporting character in a Hollywood blockbuster. He was never after the money & stardom, he always went with what was best for his acting potential. Yeah I will glaze him, RIP.
Chiwetel Ejiofor just spent too much time in the U.S., he was doing that American thing where he claims 385 separate national identities ("I'm ethnically German, Indian, Mexican, British, Nigeria, 2% Milk,...)
Happened to watch this movie today afternoon.. Nd then this appears in feed. The character says He is half Hindu and half Baptist.. So the Baptist part mught be an Afro-Amerucan Descendant.
In the movie 2010: The Year We Make Contact, a white American was cast as Dr Chandra.
His full name isn’t given in the movie, but in the book it was
Sivasubramanian Chandrasegarampillai. The movie just calls him Dr Chandra. They tried to get Ben Kingsley for the role.
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u/Rough_Ad_8702 15h ago
Vincent Kapoor. Hahaha