Manipuri Actress Lin Laishram Says Northeastern Actors Offered Roles Of Prostitutes And Spa Workers. Why Are We So Racist?
We Indians aren’t exactly inclusive. Sure we do all the required posturing that would put us in the woke category, saying the right things and latching on to the right hashtags but when it comes to actually walking the talk, we choose to curl up comfortably in what we know. Now challenging the status quo is actress Lin Laishram who is calling out Bollywood for its stereotypical representation of the people of the northeast in Bollywood. Which is true.
She said that while Priyanka Chopra did all the leg work to play the role of Mary Kom, surely someone from the northeast could have been cast in the role? And she’s right. We didn’t need a Peecee representing a community that is hardly showcased on screen anyway. Lon Laishram played the role of Bembem in the film. Lin Laishram has also opened up about racism that she’s been subjected to. In 2020, she talked about an incident in a city like Mumbai where a man called her coronavirus and kept saying that till she left. It was still February 2020 and coronavirus wasn’t a known thing like it is now. Lin went home and read up about it was then that it hit her. That she was being singled out for the way she looks.
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But it wasn’t only on the streets that our racist mindset was putting on a show. Even in Bollywood, the racism was rampant and Lin says that the roles for people from the northeast were limited. Lin said, “One is approached to play stereotypical roles like a spa girl, prostitute or a waiter. Not that playing these characters demeans an actor but it’s how we are seen and typecast. Its little knowledge about our culture that bothers us. When it comes to playing an achiever from the Northeast a non-North Eastern person is chosen as seen in Mary Kom. On the other hand, why not cast people from Northeast also as normal Indians in all walks of life which we are.”
Lin Laishram played a role in Axone, a movie about people from the northeast. Lin Laishram’s comments come hot on the heels on her comment about The Family Man 2 where Tamil actors speak Tamil.
There have been several instances of girls from the northeast being called coronavirus or being spat on. Acceptance is incredibly hard to come by but it’s time it did.
