Indian Actor Abhay Deol who has earned his much-deserved break in Hollywood will be soon seen in Disney’s upcoming ‘Spin’. The actor feels glad that the world of West is working hard to fill the void of lack of right representation, and reflecting the world as it is.
“I’m glad it (Hollywood becoming inclusive) is finally happening. There needs to be right representation in Hollywood, and they’ve been lacking for a long time,” says Deol.
“They have been talking about it for a long time, but it’s never been much of a follow up. But in the last couple of years, I have noticed that they have been following up on what they have been saying” the actor adds.
Abhay feels that getting the representation right is crucial for the kids, who look at the entertainment sector to reflect their culture while growing up.“Kids, who look like us, and whether it be the Indian American community or the Latin American community, or Asian community, we need to see ourselves represented in the way we are, so that kids who grew up in that country feel like they belong. I have been getting feedback after Spin, in which I play the role of father to a teenage daughter in an Indian-American set-up,” the 45-year-old is quoted saying.
“It gives them a sense of belonging. Because a lot of kids who are from an ethnic community outside of the US, and who were born and raised in the US, try and find where they belong by going to the countries where their parents come from, and realize they don’t belong there. And they feel like they don’t belong in America either” he further explains.
However Deol, doesn’t mean to make ethnicity the plotline to make a point for him “making a statement without making it about ethnic identity is important”. Giving the example of his film, Spin he says “We shot the film during the pandemic, is not about finding your identity on the story level. It could be any family, with the same kind of issues. A father and daughter would have the same kind of issues that teenagers would have. We make a statement by making a family Indian American, but not making it about ethnic identity,” Abhay concludes.
