Cultural WI: Indian Actor as Khan In "Star Trek Into Darkness"

[MerryPrankster]

One of the more controversial issues about the new film Star Trek Into Darkness was that the character of Khan Noonien Singh, explicitly described as Indian in the original series, was played by British actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Although Robert Orici defended his choice by saying it was important not to "demonize" people of color and that the point of the film was that the most dangerous enemies are internal rather than "some other race," some Indians were offended that such an iconic Indian character was "whitewashed."

So...

Say Robert Orici is willing to go along with casting an Indian actor as Khan, perhaps by nixing the 9/11-esque ending or making Admiral Marcus more prominent as the villain. The only prominent Indian-American actor I can think of is Kal Penn and he's too young (and casting him alongside John Cho would lead to this movie being mocked as "Harold and Kumar Go To Space"), so they go with a prominent Bollywood actor instead. My pick would be Hrithik Roshan.

Now what? Flocc said if Roshan or some other Indian actor were cast as Khan, it would be very popular in India, which might counteract the loss of "Sherlock" fans seeing the movie for just for the Cumberbatch. Would the movie be as much of a hit? And if it made less in the US and Britain but made up that amount in India (and the Indian diaspora elsewhere), could it lead to more importance for the foreign box office?

Also, I've heard complaints about how hard it is for Asian actors to find jobs in Hollywood. Would an Indian actor playing such an iconic role lead to more and better parts for Asians, especially in leading roles?

 

[Corbell Mark IV]

One of the more controversial issues about the new film Star Trek Into Darkness was that the character of Khan Noonien Singh, explicitly described as Indian in the original series, was played by British actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Although Robert Orici defended his choice by saying it was important not to "demonize" people of color and that the point of the film was that the most dangerous enemies are internal rather than "some other race," some Indians were offended that such an iconic Indian character was "whitewashed."

So...

Say Robert Orici is willing to go along with casting an Indian actor as Khan, perhaps by nixing the 9/11-esque ending or making Admiral Marcus more prominent as the villain. The only prominent Indian-American actor I can think of is Kal Penn and he's too young (and casting him alongside John Cho would lead to this movie being mocked as "Harold and Kumar Go To Space"), so they go with a prominent Bollywood actor instead. My pick would be Hrithik Roshan.

Now what? Flocc said if Roshan or some other Indian actor were cast as Khan, it would be very popular in India, which might counteract the loss of "Sherlock" fans seeing the movie for just for the Cumberbatch. Would the movie be as much of a hit? And if it made less in the US and Britain but made up that amount in India (and the Indian diaspora elsewhere), could it lead to more importance for the foreign box office?

Also, I've heard complaints about how hard it is for Asian actors to find jobs in Hollywood. Would an Indian actor playing such an iconic role lead to more and better parts for Asians, especially in leading roles?

Losing the 9-11ish ending would be good.

Weakening the overdone point that the "most dangerous enemies are internal" would be good.

Cumberbatch was pretty weak, so we could hope the Indian star does at least as well if not better.


Having Star Trek do better in India might be interesting in of itself, though I don't know how popular it is there or not.


Mmm, more Khan in the future movies would be a potential positive. He is a very good character.

My understanding is that foreign box office is already very important, and getting more so all the time.

 

[MerryPrankster]

Snip...

I thought Cumberbatch did a good job. It's just he's, well, miscast. It's like having Daniel Craig play Shaft or Denzel Washington play Sharpe.

The foreign box office is growing more important. I was just wondering if it would accelerate the trend. I remember someone claiming foreign box office isn't considered as important where sequels are concerned. However, foreign box office concerns are probably to a large degree behind "Hollywood PC"--Temple of Doom was banned in India and that would be a much bigger problem today.

About "the most dangerous enemies are internal," Orici seemed wedded to that. However, if the 9/11 ending is ditched and Khan does something else (preferably something else allowing him to appear in future movies, like stealing a Federation starship and declaring war on the Federation), it could make Admiral Marcus look worse--his recklessness in dealing with a potential threat has unleashed the Federation's oldest enemy (assuming the Democratic Alliance that defeated the Augments is the proto-Federation), who is a very real problem NOW.

Or, as Ian suggested earlier, Khan goes out of control and provokes the war at the worst possible time for the Federation (i.e. before Marcus's program is complete), possibly in a bid to take control of the Federation himself.

Changing the internal enemy plot would be more difficult than getting Orici to cast a non-white villain and emphasizing that might make it easier for him to go along with it.

 

[Garrison]

One of the more controversial issues about the new film Star Trek Into Darkness was that the character of Khan Noonien Singh, explicitly described as Indian in the original series, was played by British actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Although Robert Orici defended his choice by saying it was important not to "demonize" people of color and that the point of the film was that the most dangerous enemies are internal rather than "some other race," some Indians were offended that such an iconic Indian character was "whitewashed."

And we should treat the views of people who apparently don't know he was never played by an Indian actor seriously why?

 

[MerryPrankster]

And we should treat the views of people who apparently don't know he was never played by an Indian actor seriously why?

Claiming a man intended to be the pinnacle of human perfection would look like Ricardo Montalban took a lot of balls back then, plus there probably weren't very many East Indian actors in Hollywood back then anyway. It'd be much easier to have an Indian actor today.

And there's no need to be flippant. If they know Khan is Indian, they probably know Montalban wasn't.

 

[doctorx]

Back in the day maybe they should have cast Sammy Cahn in the role.

Say, that's a good idea... then they could have used the Rat Pack for the rest of the cast and make it a musical:

Frank Sinatra - Kirk
Dean Martin - Spock
Joey Bishop - McCoy
Sammy Davis jr - Ohura
Peter Lawford - Scotty

 

[Herzen's love-child]

Back in the day maybe they should have cast Sammy Cahn in the role.

Say, that's a good idea... then they could have used the Rat Pack for the rest of the cast and make it a musical:

Frank Sinatra - Kirk
Dean Martin - Spock
Joey Bishop - McCoy
Sammy Davis jr - Ohura
Peter Lawford - Scotty

The Tribble Pack?

 

[MerryPrankster]

Back in the day maybe they should have cast Sammy Cahn in the role.

Say, that's a good idea... then they could have used the Rat Pack for the rest of the cast and make it a musical:

Frank Sinatra - Kirk
Dean Martin - Spock
Joey Bishop - McCoy
Sammy Davis jr - Ohura
Peter Lawford - Scotty

I actually had the idea of a Bollywood Star Trek with an Indian Khan--and an Indian everybody else.

It involved a musical number with thousands of people singing and dancing around the Enterprise.

 

[RPW@Cy]

One of the more controversial issues about the new film Star Trek Into Darkness was that the character of Khan Noonien Singh, explicitly described as Indian in the original series, was played by British actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Although Robert Orici defended his choice by saying it was important not to "demonize" people of color and that the point of the film was that the most dangerous enemies are internal rather than "some other race," some Indians were offended that such an iconic Indian character was "whitewashed."

So...

Say Robert Orici is willing to go along with casting an Indian actor as Khan, perhaps by nixing the 9/11-esque ending or making Admiral Marcus more prominent as the villain. The only prominent Indian-American actor I can think of is Kal Penn and he's too young (and casting him alongside John Cho would lead to this movie being mocked as "Harold and Kumar Go To Space"), so they go with a prominent Bollywood actor instead. My pick would be Hrithik Roshan.

There's a get out for the creators in that Khan is the result of an artificial breeding project - he could look like almost anything.

I think you're looking too narrowly though - there are plenty of British-Indian actors who could do the job, such as Naveen Andrews who played Sayid in "Lost". Heck, this would even fit in with Hollywood's bizarre enthusiasm for casting British actors as villains, which is arguably as racist as anything else going on in "Into Darkness" - still, at least they didn't cast Alan Rickman this time...

 

[imperialaquila]

This would have meant giving up the directors' attempt to keep the fact that Khan was in this movie a secret until the release.

 

[Kalvan]

The biggest problem with casting an actual South Asian, or anyone else who could plausibly pass as one as Khan, is that it would have given the plot of Star Trek: Into Darkness away long before the two months until the premiere of OTL. That said, unless he has the board meetings on audio where they basically forced his hand, I expect that J. J. Abrams is probably going to experience a lot of headaches in location scouting in the Middle East, India, and the Malaysian-Indonesian archipelago.

Frankly, Cumberbach would have been far better cast as Gary Mitchell, Kodos the Executioner, Garth of Izar, or Trelaine.

 

[MerryPrankster]

I think you're looking too narrowly though - there are plenty of British-Indian actors who could do the job, such as Naveen Andrews who played Sayid in "Lost". Heck, this would even fit in with Hollywood's bizarre enthusiasm for casting British actors as villains, which is arguably as racist as anything else going on in "Into Darkness" - still, at least they didn't cast Alan Rickman this time...

That'd work, and it'd probably be easier than casting a Bollywood actor.

 

[MerryPrankster]

This would have meant giving up the directors' attempt to keep the fact that Khan was in this movie a secret until the release.

I don't view that as necessarily essential, but keeping it secret might not necessarily be that difficult.

 

[Herzen's love-child]

I actually had the idea of a Bollywood Star Trek with an Indian Khan--and an Indian everybody else.

It involved a musical number with thousands of people singing and dancing around the Enterprise.

Which may or may not play better than current Trek in India. Star Trek in any form never had much international resonance (as compared to other SF/Fantasy franchises) for whatever reasons. Particularly in Asia. Though the latest movie made as much money overseas as it did in N. America-- much better than its predecessor. Perhaps 3 is the magic number of Abrams-Trek movies to achieve breakthrough.

In any case, Cumberbatch wasn't really the factor in making or breaking the film. Although I thought he brought to the table an interesting variation to the theme of Khan (then again, I adore the actor). But it would have been better if Abrams had done an original storyline than dipping from the well.

 

[imperialaquila]

I don't view that as necessarily essential, but keeping it secret might not necessarily be that difficult.

How many prominent Indian characters are there in Star Trek? Khan, and that's it. You might as well shout it from the rooftops.

That said, I don't think that secrecy is a big deal. The plot itself will stay a secret pretty easily.

 

[MerryPrankster]

How many prominent Indian characters are there in Star Trek? Khan, and that's it. You might as well shout it from the rooftops.

That said, I don't think that secrecy is a big deal. The plot itself will stay a secret pretty easily.

1. Fair point.

2. That'd be easier. Even if they bring in Khan (which will make some traditionalists howl), nobody will know what he's doing.

 

[vultan]

Seeing as the Indian box office loves these Bollywood stars, I can easily see the movie making $100 mil - $200 mil more internationally. This, of course, would give Paramount more incentive to give another Star Trek movie the greenlight, so by now we might already be in preproduction on a new one.

In the absence of his casting in STID, though, what does Cumberbatch do? Seeing as he previously had wanted to work with Guillermo Del Toro, perhaps he's cast as the lead in Pacific Rim instead of Charlie Hunnam. Think he can pull off that look?

 

[MerryPrankster]

Seeing as the Indian box office loves these Bollywood stars, I can easily see the movie making $100 mil - $200 mil more internationally. This, of course, would give Paramount more incentive to put another Star Trek movie into production.

Could you elaborate?

 

[The Kiat]

What would happen if Khan was accurately portrayed? Sad truth is that some PC group or another would jump all over it.

 

[vultan]

Could you elaborate?

What I meant was that putting a Bollywood star in the movie would draw a lot more box office from the large Indian market, even if he is in a "bad guy" role. However, upon review, I probably overestimated how much more it would make in India alone. Maybe another $50-75% million in the international box office. Looking at the numbers, assuming nothing else changes (which it wouldn't, but just role with me), STID could possibly just edge out World War Z for seventh-highest grossing movie of the year at the international box office.

The problem is that the Star Trek franchise has always been an American thing (well, Anglophone), so establishing a foothold in the fast-growing Indian market would have been a prudent move for Paramount. Alas, what could have been...

(I still like my "Cumberbatch-in-Pacific Rim" idea.)