I didn’t so much work on this Bollywood film, as much as I worked in this Bollywood film.

I am not an actor and prefer to keep myself behind the camera, but in this case, an offer from a friend was too good to pass up to not only get paid to play a ’19th Century British solider’ in what some speculate is the most expensive movie in Bollywood history, but to be able to spend weeks on a very large Bollywood set with the cast and crew.  I did my own stunts, died more than a half-dozen times and ended the shoot in one scene leading a parade as the second commander in charge of the British military  (“Our Mongolian British Commander’ the director called me).  I conqured Bollywood…or more than most non-Hindi speaking Asian-American non-actors ever could.

Veer, set in 1880′s India still under The British Raj, was filmed, among other places in a 16th century castle rising atop a cliff in the rather flat desert of Rajasthan, with what seemed to be a cast of thousands and a crew of literally 700 people (whew, that makes American movie making look like child’s play).  Written and starring Bollywood mega-star Salman Khan, the film is an epic-action-adventure-drama-romantic-musical-period piece, think Braveheart but with singing and dancing.  (if that doesn’t make any sense, watch the trailer below…but that’s not saying it will explain anything.)

While I don’t intent to put any of this work on my reel (well, except the stunts), it was certainly an amazing experience and a chance to get behind-the-scenes to compare epic Bollywood film making to the film making I do a little closer to home.  The take away lesson is it’s 90% the same as Hollywood…minus the singing and dancing of course.

Project Title: Veer
Director: Anil Sharma
Role: “Actor”
Release Date: February 2010
Available: Amazon.com