Interview: Sir Ben Kingsley

By: Simran Mody, India Correspondent

The knight in shining armor finally arrived in Bollywood, complete with his Oscar-like gallantry. Thankfully, the Hindi film industry is not a maiden in distress, so the award-winning Hollywood actor and British knight Sir Ben Kingsley really has nothing to worry about as he finally rediscovers his Indian roots by starring in his first-ever Bollywood flick.

Talk about a big splash of a debut this weekend, as Kingsley finds himself starring opposite two of Bollywood’s biggest names in Amitabh Bachchan and R. Madhavan. While it may have been a long time coming, it is only fitting for Kingsley, who is half-Indian, to be the first Oscar-winning actor to also have a leading role in a Hindi film.

While he was honored to work opposite one of Indian cinema’s biggest legends (Bachchan) and fastest rising stars (Madhavan), perhaps the knight’s only regret is that he did not film any scenes for Teen Patti in the motherland.

“I was hoping that my scenes might be in India, but all my scenes were in the U.K.,” Kingsley said in an interview with reporters earlier this week. “It did [however] give me an opportunity to work with the best in Indian cinema and to see the rhythm of work. It was a kind of delightful experiment in perhaps re-entering the Indian subcontinent after being away for too long.”

Of course, Kingsley hopes his starring role in Teen Patti means further opportunities for him in Bollywood are in the cards, even though he is not too good with card games to begin with.

“I’d like to make a film of my own in India, [but] you are not going to see me in a mainstream Bollywood film,” the Hollywood actor said in his telephonic interview with the press. “I do intend to hopefully produce and star in my own film in India. We are having some progress on that. Rather than creating offers, I am creating my own work in India, which, to me, is very satisfying.”

When he attended the 40th edition of IFFI in Panaji, Goa, Kingsley told reporters he was looking into the possibility of producing a historical-based film in Taj, the story of the building of the Taj Mahal.

Whether or not his role in Teen Patti will translate into the opportunity to realize his production ambitions in the very near future, Kingsley just hopes his film acumen is better than his ability to play cards, even though he does have a bit of an affinity for numbers, financial or otherwise.

“I am always asking people to remind me of the rule. I always pick up a card in my hand and say, ‘What does that mean?’ So I completely give the game away,” Kingsley told the press. “I do recall that, as a child at school, learning my multiplication tables, I did the fastest in the class which got me prizes at school for being a little boy extremely quick at mathematics. Mathematical patterns in life and science do fascinate me, but I haven’t kept company of mathematicians, but it is something I find attractive.”

Something else Kingsley finds attractive is the different ways Indian cinema is appreciated by its diverse audience, which itself is larger than the entire population of the United States and United Kingdom combined.

“You have very distinct styles of cinema,” he humbly told the media. “You have your popular Bollywood movies which are loved by the massive Indian Diaspora. Your film-making is perceived in different ways in the Western world. One is for the Indian Diaspora, which we call mainstream Bollywood. Then there are other new films that are coming out of India. They have great popularity among Western audiences.”

Kingsley elaborated the distinctions in Indian cinema by narrating a conversation he had with a personal driver in London.

“When I was traveling recently in London, my driver was Indian. I asked him if he had seen Brick Lane, After The Rain, The Namesake, Slumdog Millionaire… He said, ‘We don’t watch these films when we sit down together, and as a family, what we can watch together are the Bollywood films,’” Kingsley recalled.

“Among the Western audience, I would say Brick Lane is popular, and I would say [films] by Mira Nair [are] popular. Mira Nair has an interesting following in the world,” the 66-year-old Oscar-winning star added.

Kingsley now hopes to parlay Teen Patti to develop his own interesting following, as the knighted movie star hopes to blaze trails in successfully transitioning from Hollywood to Bollywood.

Teen Patti is now playing in theaters worldwide.

(Indo-American News Service contributed to this story.)