Jobless SA trio to star as extras in SRK filmWendyl Martin Published:Aug 15, 2009Three unemployed South Africans have landed the acting roles of a life time — to appear in a Shahrukh Khan film.
Morgan Ntuli, Lotirna Mkhize and Nonhlanhla Ngubane are part of a group of 100 South Africans who will leave for Mumbai in two weeks to act in Khan's 2010 release My Name is Khan.
Khan and Kajol play the lead roles in the film, to be directed by Karan Johar.
Set in India and the US, it tells the story of Rizwan Khan (played by Khan), who embarks on a journey to meet President Barack Obama to clear his name after being arrested and detained for "suspicious behaviour".
The South Africans will be involved in a three-week shoot re-creating a New Orleans flood scene.
Local production company International Film Facilitators (IFF), which received over 500 responses to its adverts for extras in the film, selected 70 African and 30 white South Africans. Eight will have speaking roles.
Ntuli, 19, from Verulam, is among the extras who will have a speaking role. "I know about Bollywood, it's the biggest, and I would like to be there," he said.
Mkhize, 20, also from Verulam, said she wanted to learn more about Bollywood and was excited about meeting Shah- rukh. "I want to dance like him," she said.
Mkhize, who will also have a speaking role, added that the training she had received so far included how to stand in front of a camera and not to make eye contact with it. "It's an opportunity of a lifetime."
Ngubane, 19, said she did not speak Hindi but was willing to learn it if she needed to.
She added that the training they had received from IFF was "not easy" but that she still liked acting.
IFF events co-ordinator Soonil Panday told the Sunday Times Extra that it was the first time that people of African descent would be going to India to participate in a major Bollywood movie shoot.
He said that the selections were made according to the candidates' appearance as extras with an "African-American" look for the flood scene.
http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEditi...spx?id=1050016..
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