A Movie Clip

When we moved to Delhi in 2005, my wife met a young lady in our neighborhood who was working in the film industry. Within a couple days, Amy and our youngest daughter were extras in an Italian film called "Lezioni di volo." This young lady has become a close friend of ours and she has given us the opportunity on several occasions to be involved with the projects that she has been working on.

Two years ago, I was an extra in the Bollywood film, "Cheeni Kum", starring Amitabh Bachchan. I could be seen for a mere split second in the background of the bar scene when Bachchan's character is speaking with his potential father-in-law, played by Paresh Rawal.

In April 2007 I was asked to take on a small speaking role in another Bollywood film called "Sunday". The following clip is from that movie, which was released in early 2008 and stars Ajay Devgan, Ayesha Takia, Irfan Khan and Arshad Warsi. The scene was shot in Delhi at the Red Fort and features Arshad Warsi as a taxi driver and tour guide. I'm playing a tourist, alongside an English girl. (No, that's not Amy. She was asked to play that part, but unfortunately we couldn't both be at the set that day.)

When the movie first came out in Delhi, Amy and I went to see it, not even knowing for sure whether the scene had actually made the final cut. We weren't too impressed with the rest of the movie, and we missed a lot of the details due to the fact that there were no English subtitles at that showing. But when my scene did hit the big screen we were quite surprised, and Amy could not stop laughing for the full minute that I was up there.

This wasn't a career move for me, but it was fun. And we've been amazed at how many of our friends in India have seen the movie and recognized me in it. All in all, I'm grateful that this experience has been a part of our ongoing Indian adventure.