It's not often that an actor gets to play virtually the same role twice in a short career. But it says a lot about the stories coming out of India and the lack of courage of our male actors in auditioning for international roles that Dev Patel gets to play the heartbreaking role of an abandoned child who runs away from home and becomes a success twice in nine years.
But the best thing about Dev Patel is that if he didn't exist he would have to be invented. Simply because Bollywood men are too timid to go where the women have like Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone, who started with a TV series and a big role in a big franchise respectively. Or Nimrat Kaur, who took on a powerful cameo in a hugely popular series like Homeland.
Think of it.
Slumdog Millionaire was offered to a series of young actors in Mumbai no one had the right physicality for it, Danny Boyle said, which was a polite way of saying everyone refused him. The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which put Riz Ahmed on the map, was offered to Ranbir Kapoor by Mira Nair but he said he just didn't understand the role.
More stories are being told out of India, either made by Indians for the world, or by the world from India, as it should be. But as long as India's male stars remain reluctant to have the courage to audition for roles in big films, and are content to be big fish in relatively smaller ponds, the tribe of Dev Patels will grow.
Anupamaa
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