Kal Penn: I am always excited to come to India

'Eat dhoklas, walk on Juhu beach and eat pani puri -- and not tell my parents because I will get sick!'

In the second part of the interview, Kal Penn shares his game plan for India with Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/ Rediff.com

Also read: Part I of the interview: 'I'm not related to Narendra Modi!'

Part III of the interview: Kal Penn: I would love to shoot five Bollywood films simultaneously

'I'd do a Hindi film that's a mix of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and The Lunchbox'

Review: Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain is a haunting film

A second-generation Indian American/ Gujarati American, Kal Penn grew up in Montclair, New Jersey.

His father Suresh Modi is an engineer. Mom Asmita, a perfume evaluator.

Acting was a goal, pretty much out of school, where he was always active in theatre, apart from playing the saxophone. At UCLA, he majored in sociology and film. Sociology remains a special love and Penn lectures students at UCLA, some semesters, on sociology and political science.

The name Kal Penn, his stage name and not his legal name still, he tells you, was the result of a wild night in college.

"It was one of those partying-studying 3 am food runs -- sounds like a Harold & Kumar movie but it was not,” -- when he and his friends got to talking about screen names and decided to devise a future screen name for him.

‘“Why don’t you come up with a really catchy screen name?’ They started reciting, for an hour, every absurd version of my name they could think of -- What about Kal Pacino... ‘Oh my god, stop! Make it stop’. But at the end of the night, 5 am, it was decided that Kal would take his parents-given name and spilt it into two.

When he added it to his actor’s resume, that had a new picture too, his audition calls began to increase. He says he has always been puzzled if it was the new name, a new agent or the new picture that did the trick.

And wonders if having an anglicized screen name brings an “uptick” in roles.

Do you identify yourself as an Indian American? Or simply as an American? Or do you move back and forth between both identities?

You know, I don’t know how to answer that question. I think that is an old school way of looking at it.

At least the way I was raised I never saw those things as mutually exclusive. Maybe it was because I grew up in New Jersey and it was a pretty diverse upbringing to begin with.

We always sort of saw like there were the Italian kids in my school, there were Jewish kids in my school and Indian kids... Everyone’s American first and foremost; speaking Italian or Gujarati at home doesn’t make you any less American. It makes you more American, I think, because of the diversity of the country and the immigrations patterns and everything. 

I understand the argument.

In movies even -- like American Desi or to a lesser extent The Namesake -- issues of identity are represented. But my experience was not necessarily that. It was for the generation right before mine where it was a more pronounced issue. I think it depends on where you grew up in the States too. If you were growing up with maybe a little less exposure to diverse cultures, maybe your view of identity is shaped by that, right?

I can obviously only speak for myself. I think the way we grew up was a sign of being American -- that you are from somewhere else, unless you are native American.

Anything about this trip to India or this stint in India for this film that strikes you? The food you had or anything that stands out?

Fooood is always good (Indian intonation reserved for the word food).

I can bring it back to the film, a little bit, which was that I was really taken aback, in the greatest way possible, by all of the -- particularly the young -- talent that exists here. I have to underscore that: There are so many incredible young writers, journalist, filmmakers, artists, musicians all over India...

I feel I meet more and more of them every time I come. I certainly met a ton of them when I was shooting Bhopal. A lot of our assistant directors, who had just graduated from film school, who were working on our film and our projects. It’s really awesome to see all of that. That is one big takeaway.

I am always excited to come here selfishly to see cousins and family.

And to eat dhoklas?

And to eat dhoklas! And walk on Juhu beach and eat pani puri -- and not tell my parents because I will get sick! There’s all of that and there’s a romanticized notion of feeling what it was like when you were a kid.

But there is also this new notion of what it is like, professionally, in having a chance to work here and having a chance to meet other young professionals, who are doing what you do. I think that’s awesome and that’s what makes me look forward to coming back.

Also read: 'I'm not related to Narendra Modi!'

Photographs: Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/ Rediff.com

Also read: Part I of the interview: 'I'm not related to Narendra Modi!'

Part III of the interview: Kal Penn: I would love to shoot five Bollywood films simultaneously

'I'd do a Hindi film that's a mix of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and The Lunchbox'

Review: Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain is a haunting film