New Delhi: “Tenet” star Denzil Smith believes the world of cinema is operating without any geographical and cultural barriers today as there are more opportunities for actors out in the West. The 60-year-old actor, who has been part of the global hits such as “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”, “Viceroy’s House” and Gurinder Chadha’s series “Beecham House”, said audiences have started noticing incidents of crossover because of streaming platforms.
“The barriers have broken down as the crossover has been happening now. We see it more now because of the emergence of the OTT platforms. “So it has been happening for quite a while and I feel good to see many parts of the world coming together through cinema. It is a great unifying medium for all humanity,” Smith told PTI.
Indian actors have often been cast in stereotypical roles in Hollywood but Smith believes this aspect is also changing gradually. “There was also the stereotypical portrayal of people from the West in Indian cinema. It happens everywhere in all countries, across cultures. But everything has changed now. Fortunately, we’re moving away from that.” In Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet”, Smith played businessman Sanjay Singh, husband to Bollywood veteran Dimple Kapadia’s character Priya Singh, who is an arms dealer.
Billed as a globetrotting game of international espionage with a time-bending element at the centre, the film stars John David Washington in the lead alongside Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Kenneth Branagh, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Michael Caine and Clemence Poesy. “It’s a great film and we have the genius Christopher Nolan who is a master at his craft. I hope this one will bring back people to the theatres because this is a big, grandiose film that needs to be seen in theatres,” Smith said.
The actor said working with director Nolan, known for movies such as “Memento”, “Inception”, “Interstellar” and “Dunkirk”, was “fabulous and fantastic”. “Nolan is a genius at his craft and knows how to take control of the medium. He is a master manipulator of time, space, reality, all of which is in this film. It is a well-crafted piece as all his other films have been. I’m sure the movie buffs will not be disappointed,” he added.
A Warner Bros film, “Tenet” released in India on December 4 in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. Smith had also featured in critically-acclaimed 2019 Netflix series “Delhi Crime”, which recently won the best drama series honour at the 48th International Emmy Awards.
The show, directed by Richie Mehta, deconstructs the case of the 23-year-old physiotherapy intern who was abducted and gangraped in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012 before she was abandoned on a Delhi road. The actor, who starred alongside the likes of Shefali Shah, Rasika Dugal and Adil Hussain in the series, said “Delhi Crime” was “one of the best things that ever came out of India”. “It is a fabulous piece of art, owing its allegiance to the truth in all its glory and fullness. However, macabre the subject might be… on one level it is difficult to celebrate this story but on another level where cinema and India is concerned, it is a great victory.
“So it is what I call an essential paradox because the story is quite actually grim, something that we do not wish ever happens again. But for cinema and for India, it is a fantastic moment,” Smith said.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here
Comments
0 comment