How Mirabai Chanu's biopic can be a boon for north-eastern actors
- IndiaGlitz, [Monday,August 09 2021]
Mirabai Chanu became a household name after bagging the silver medal in women's 49 kg weightlifting. As bollywood loves to produce biopics on successful sportspeople, it's only a matter of time when someone decides to tell the story of Mirabai's historical win on the big screen. Since Mirabai belogns to Manipur, there is an uproar about casting a northeastern acting in the role of the famed opinion.
Mc Mary Kom's biopic faced criticism for the casting of Priyanka Chopra instead of someone for the same ethnicity as the popular boxer. Talking about this issue, actor Bijou Thaangjam said, Film is a visual medium, and people connect to it faster. It’ll be a shame if an actor of another ethnicity plays the role in today’s day and age. Inclusivity is a big thing across the world, and it’s about time that we as a country practice it as well.
Further talking about the bias that north easterns face in the industry, Bijou said, Unfortunately, northeast Indian actors get typecast as people with thick accent who often just get cast as extras. Such stereotypes provide people with a template and they don’t see it as something wrong. Northeast Indians have no intention or desire to dominate Bollywood or take all the major roles, which seems to be what people fear the most. What actors from northeast India really want, is positive and fair representation when they do happen to be on screen, i.e. three-dimensional characters that don’t portray stereotypical roles. Now, why would anyone object to this unless they’re overtly or covertly racist?