Harry Potter's Asian connection

Harry Potter's Asian connection

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The characters of twins Padma and Parvati Patil in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire are being played by second generation Bangladeshis

PTI

London: Harry Potter's new film is the latest to join the Hollywood trend of casting actors from South Asia.

In the forthcoming film — Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire — two Asian actresses share screen space with Harry Potter, currently the hearththrob of millions of children.

The girls — Shefali Chowdhury and Afshan Azad are second-generation Bangladeshis currently based in London. They play the characters of 'the Patil twins' in the film slated for a worldwide release this November.

Shefali and Afshan who play Harry and his best friend Ron's dates for the Yule Ball say they are "overwhelmed" to be a part of this huge film.

"I can't describe what I feel right now when I await the release of the film. I feel very very privileged. It's an opportunity of a lifetime," Shefali told PTI from London.

This 17-year old who is pursuing her A-level in college and has sociology and religious studies as her subjects says she's glad she did what interests her "the most".

"I was always interested in drama and even took it as a course earlier. So when this opportunity of acting in a film came my way, I was only too ready to take it," she says.

It was different for 16-year-old Afshan —also an A-level student learning chemistry, biology, English and media language in her college — who auditioned for the role for pure kicks. "It was a total joke for me. The casting agents came to my school and my friends and I did it for fun. But I became very serious about the entire thing once I got in."

Interestingly since the Patil sisters in the original book, authored by JK Rowling, are twins of Asian origin, the casting agents of the film — the fourth in the Harry Potter series — spent time visiting schools in the Bradford area searching for the perfect pair of Asian girls to play these characters.

However, when they failed to find twin Asian girls, they zeroed in on two girls, "who just had fantastic chemistry" between them.

Hence Shefali and Afshan studying in two different parts of London were chosen to play the roles of Parvati and Padma Patil respectively.


HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE

Harry's fourth summer and the following year at Hogwarts are marked by the Quidditch World Cup and the Triwizard Tournament, in which student representatives from three different wizarding schools compete in a series of increasingly challenging contests. However, Voldemort's Death Eaters are gaining strength and even creating the Dark Mark giving evidence that the Dark Lord is ready to rise again.

The film releases in India on November 18

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