Desi Dose: Adhir Kalyan Gets Paid and Laid - Nip, Tuck, and More
May 19th, 2008
Don’t worry, Adhir Kalyan AKA “Raja.” You’re going to greener, sluttier pastures.
But you, Dan Byrd: continue worrying.
[Blogger: S.I.] Another batch of links and stories to brighten your day or piss you off.
* Adhir Kalyan, whom we blogged about in our review of the CW’s “Aliens in America,” bagged a role as an up-and-coming wunderkind doctor on FX’s “Nip/Tuck.” Amazingly, the writers of the show displayed their all-world creativity when they named the character “Raj.” On a happier note, that boy is going to get LAID, both on the program and in real life, because of his role on that show. It’s LA, you know. And I 100% support the sexual objectification of the Indian male by women as well as the resulting residual play from the trickle-down effect. [Thanks Angry Asian Man]
* As you could have guessed from the above bullet, “Aliens in America” went belly up. A shame really, because while it wasn’t hilarious, the show tried something new and did it pretty well. And it did have its funny moments. Too bad it was 1) on the CW and 2) shown Sunday nights at 8:30pm or some such nonsense. Raja never had a chance. At least Adhir’s fine, but what about Dan Byrd? [Thanks again Angry Asian Man]
* And as I just saw the season (and I suppose series) finale last night, I must point out that I do not know nearly enough about the guest star, actress Sunita Prasad. She is niiiice, and it’s good to see a desi American girl on TV who can be just that–desi American. Then they had to go ruin it by having her (though she was a seemingly conservative Muslim) burn Raja by sneaking around with some white guy. The hilarity of seeing her, in hijab, holding hands with ‘Matthew’ was lost on both Raja and me. Sure, they weren’t exclusive or anything. But that shit’s still cold. Actually, maybe I won’t miss this show so much. Seek your vengeance in “Nip/Tuck” Raja/Adhir! Anyway, Uber Desi has a more mature postmortem on the show and the finale.
But yeah, anyone know anything about her? Story, background? To help unify the few desis in entertainment, of course.
* Related note: Santosh of Uber Desi had a write up on the season finale of the CBS show “Numb3rs” and how it starred many desis as Pakistanis, terrorists, and even had brownface–as a plot point.
* While we’re on the subject of “Nip/Tuck,” I once temped at a studio that distributed the show. We received a ton of hate mail from those supporting the Parents Television Council. Funny to me is that these same people likely never wrote a letter to FOX, the company that owns FX, because they were too busy believing everything they saw on Fox News.
Anyway, many a raging conservative sent in nasty letters from which I derived much joy. But one stood out as most articulate in its condemnation. An exact reproduction: “YOUR DOING THE DEVIL’S WORK!”
OK, fine, to be fair, not all the letters were from nutjobs, some were well-written and respectful, and really, do you even have to be that conservative to object to some of the stuff on N/T?
* This group from Lehigh University, however, is doing work unrelated to the devil. Unless being brown makes you unholy, which it does in some circles–and if so, tell them. They’re aiming to do a lofty and comprehensive study of the day-to-day discrimination faced by mud people like us, and they’d like participation from the desis in the US at large. Fill out the survey if you want to share (or just send the story to us, as we’re one giant survey anyway). [Thanks SAJA Forum]
* More Indians in Hollywood: Anil Ambani’s Reliance Big Entertainment plans to invest in a number of films made by Hollywood’s A-list, including Nicolas Cage and his Saturn Productions, George Clooney’s Smokehouse Productions, Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment, and Tom Hanks’ Playtone Productions. The deals have been signed, so this is the next step in India’s ongoing interest in Hollywood. Don’t expect Clooney to be singing and dancing just yet, though. It’s most likely that they simply invest in American-made and conceived films, though they’ve chosen companies that may put a worthwhile picture out every now and again (which is more often than the major studios in either country). Unless this is true: “Bollywood is somehow personified by song and dance and Hollywood by sex and violence, and there is this idea that neither can meet,” said Khanna. “We don’t believe this is true.” First, gee, somehow those stereotypes exist. Second: you want them to meet?
* And, as an interesting flourish to end the day… sex workers in Kolkata have been granted life insurance. Many surprises, including a large corporation openly defying the law, the sheer organization of sex workers, and how sex workers, rather than hoping to escape their industry, wish to legalize it instead. Hey, if they want to do it, and if it’s practiced safely (a big concern with this group being at high risk for AIDS / HIV), then I’m all for it whether it’s India, America, or anywhere in between. A question would be, what is their legal recourse should this company rip them off? That’s the world’s second oldest profession.
I wonder if they’d accept men.
Tags: Adhir Kalyan, AIDS & HIV, Assimilation Issues, Bollywood, Dan Byrd, India, Los Angeles Life, Muslim / Islam, Pakistan, Prostitution, Sunita Prasad, Terrorism, TV
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May 19th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
most people i spoke to enjoyed the show. it seems it was a victim of poor timing and a lack of publicity. this could have survived had it been on fox or abc in a similar spot. but until more brown people run such companies, it will not be smooth sailing. a shame.
May 20th, 2008 at 10:19 am
til we have brown people running such companies and we have more brown people in the arts in general. the lack of desis in that field is glaring. this show was not even written by desis, but by two white americans (from what I was able to find on google, anyway).
May 20th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Why aren’t more desis capitalizing on the huge yoga/new-age/metaphysical market out here in USA?
I mean, it’s a no brainer really, what with India being the original Mother Land of all this stuff.
And what with desi women already being exotified as hot kama sutra yoginis….. big bucks could be made!
There is so much money to be made and so many yonis (and lingams) to be laid in this field.
Yeah, we have Deepak Chopra, but he’s just one, and he’s male.
Plus he’s old… like the rest of them. It would be nice to see some younger and browner blood. I’m getting sick of all the middle-aged balding men who have been at the helm of New Age for decades.
As a woman I would like to see some young, hot, manly yet sensitive guy up on that podium speaking. And I’m sure all the men in the culture would love to see some young, hot desi new-age goddesses up there talking about awakening to the God/Goddess within and “opening up” to sacred sexuality.
Yep, it’s a no brainer. Time to reclaim and repackage our heritage!