Indian-American actor Kal Penn earned global recognition playing memorable roles in many international box-office hits such as the Harold & Kumar franchise, The Namesake, and The Big Bang Theory. Penn, who was born in America to immigrant parents from Gujarat, was at this year’s edition of Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) to talk about his book, You Can’t Be Serious, in which he narrates his experience of working in the Obama administration to promote diversity and culture. Penn talks about the relevance of Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian community and American politics. Edited excerpts:
What were the inclusion initiatives implemented by Obama that are now under threat?
In any democracy, things fluctuate back and forth. Obviously, the US is polarised, increasingly so, in the last few election cycles. In any democracy you have winners and losers at different times. It’s certainly something that’s a little different from the White House that I worked for, but we’ll see how things go. I think a lot of our politicians are rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives or policies. I think that’s a mistake.
What about the impact on the arts?
I think it’s early to see what impact it might have on the larger creative community, but I feel we should always be free to share our ideas with each other. It doesn’t bother me if you’re sharing an idea that I vehemently might disagree with. I think that is healthy in any democracy. We should be able to have those debates and those conversations.
How do you view the presence of several Indian-origin politicians in the current Trump administration?
I can’t speak for anybody else in the community, but I think they are diverse voices regardless. Some people were not happy about Nikki Haley being governor of South Carolina because they didn’t feel she represented Indian-Americans. And I said, she is the governor of South Carolina, not governor of Indian-Americans. I might disagree with her politics, but I take pride that she’s an effective governor.
Your grandparents walked with Mahatma Gandhi during the freedom struggle. How relevant are those ideals today?
The world has always been full of violence, sadly. Things are a bit more vitriolic now. My grandparents marched with Gandhi. They were secularists who were Hindu. They encouraged us about other religions and cultures. Those are still the values that I have.
You played the lead role in an Indian feature film on the Bhopal gas tragedy, Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain directed by Ravi Kumar in 2014…
Yes. I’m obviously not an expert on all of the things related to Bhopal, but being part of that film was, I think, a deep experience for all of us. I had the chance to work with Martin Sheen and Rajpal Yadav and all these incredible actors. It’s a heartbreaking story. It’s one that sadly tends to repeat itself when there aren’t the right regulations and checks and balances and everything from corporate greed to government corruption. And I’d like to think the world is better today than it was back then. But there are still survivors who have not been compensated for their losses and haven’t been properly taken care of. I hope that that will change.
How often do you visit India? Are there any plans for working on projects in the country?
I visit India at least twice a year. Zoya Akhtar was kind enough to be a guest on one of my episodes of The Daily Show last year. I would love to work with her, obviously with Amitabh Bachchan, Alia Bhatt. There are so many great artistes. My friend, Guneet Monga, I had the chance to work with her on a project called The Ashram years ago. I would love to work with Priyanka (Jonas Chopra). She’s a genius and a gifted artist. I’m not particular about genre. I’m open to coming to India to work.
