From Canada to Bollywood - KESHAV UPPAL

INTERVIEW

FROM CANADA TO BOLLYWOOD – THE ALWAYS DREAM

KESHAV

UPPAL

Interview By Armin S.

KESHAV UPPAL SET OUT FOR HIS DREAMS WHEN HE LEFT CANADA TO PURSUE THE ULTIMATE DREAM – THE DREAM OF BEING IN BOLLYWOOD. HE HAS MADE HIS MARK WITH PROJECTS SUCH AS DEAR ZINDAGI, FU…OK AND THE RECENT LIONSGATE PLAY’S HICCUPS AND HOOKUPS WITH LARA DUTTA. I TALK TO HIM ABOUT MAKING THE MOVE, WHERE HIS DREAMS CAME FROM, AND WHERE THEY HAVE TAKEN HIM.

36 Photo CREDIT:@shreyansdungarwal

INTERVIEW

THE FIRST THING THAT COMES TO MIND WHEN SOMEBODY SHIFTS FROM NORTH AMERICA TO MUMBAI – ALTHOUGH I IDENTIFY AS A SOUTH ASIAN THERE ARE CERTAIN THINGS THAT REQUIRE ADJUSTING – I CAN STILL EXPERIENCE A CULTURE SHOCK. WHAT LED YOU TO MOVE FROM HERE TO INDIA?

What brought me here was Shah Rukh Khan – like I grew up watching him act. Growing up, I remember doing school plays and one time, in Grade 10, a local reporter asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up and I said I waned to be an actor. Bollywood was always my main goal and that’s why I’m here.

“I JUST STARTED OBSERVING OTHER PEOPLE AROUND ME, REGARDLESS OF THEIR SEXUAL ORIENTATION.”

ONCE YOU WERE THERE, WHAT WAS IT THAT YOU HAD TO ADJUST TO AND UNDERSTAND ONCE THERE?

The challenge was really the transition – basically, from UofT to Whistling Woods in India – was the hardest part for me. Coming from university there to here, it was just hard, but I had come to India before and lived in Chandigarh, so I had no problems with the language. Just the way people function over here is so different so just adjusting to that took some time. I was lucky I had some friends in film school, and they helped me. The first year was hard, but I got used to it. Now I enjoy it.

WHEN PEOPLE SAY TO ME, ACTING WAS A CHILDHOOD DREAM, IT SURPRISES ME BECAUSE AT 10 YEARS OLD, SO MANY PEOPLE CHANGE THEIR MINDS. WHEN DID IT BECOME SERIOUS BUSINESS FOR YOU?

I think it happened in high school. I was doing a lot of plays and people came up to me and told me I was good. I was getting positive reviews. In Math class, I did a small act, and my teacher told me to consider acting when I grew up. In university, I got caught up in a phase of partying and maybe getting a job – but I knew I was destined to be in Bollywood.

WHEN YOU ARE GOING THROUGH THAT TRANSITION PROCESS OF AUDITIONING AND TRYING TO LAND A PROJECT, WHAT GOES THROUGH YOUR HEAD?

Honestly, I feel good about it because every time I audition, I know I am doing something right. That’s why people are calling me back over and over again. I won’t say it’s hard and you think you are sick of auditioning but then you get a call for a big movie or a big show, and you think, you got this. If you enjoy the process, and meet new people, and network – like I like talking – so I enjoy it. I also don’t think about the audition process after. I just enjoy it and learn from it, I look at it for practice.

HOW DID HICCUPS & HOOKUPS COME ABOUT?

I got a call from Mukesh Chhabra’s casting company. They let me know it was Lionsgate Play’s first Indian show with Lara Dutta and Prateik Babbar. They let me know the character was gay but not a “stereotypical” gay character. I told them to send me the script and when I got to the audition, I was asked to play myself but change one gesture, either a smile or a wink. Three days later, we went ahead with it.

YOU PLAY A GAY CHARACTER IN HICCUPS & HOOKUPS, HOW DO YOU STEER CLEAR OF STEREOTYPES?

The director said you are a business man, an artist, who is gay, but that is not a “characteristic” of yours. So you are just a person. I just started observing other people around me, regardless of their sexual orientation. I just observed them for their gestures, how they walk, where they put their weight. I was looking at a painting, and I changed my footwork, I point my toe upwards – that’s a scene that I just did something different.

Make sure you continue to follow Keshav’s journey – from one fellow Canadian to another.

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