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Indian in Hollywood fantasy
Indian techie turned actor Vishwanath Iyer talks about his hollywood debut.
He has been a soft engineer, a real estate businessman, a Yoga guru, a self-confessed “relationship coach”, author and now an actor, US-based Indian origin Vishwanath Iyer is hoping to break the mould with his debut in Hollywood film, Neshima.
“It’s about time Hollywood gets some Indian flavour and that too in the lead. I won’t take normally stereotype accented roles in the future too,” Iyer told us while he was in India recently. Hailing from Chennai, he left India in 1994 for South Africa before moving to the US in 1996. Having dabbled in different spheres, he’s found his calling in acting. An independent feature film, Iyer calls the fantasy action adventure a “mix of The Lord of the Rings and The Mahabharata”. Slated to release by the year end, it’s a “warrior princess” outing where he plays her bodyguard-lover-husband.
To get into his character, Iyer had to “take boxing training and practice Kung Fu with real swords. “I had to lose 12 Kilos,” he said.
Iyer also uses “a little bit of Hindi and Tamil for surprise” in his dialogues in the film.
As for the future, he says, "my life right now is in Hollywood", but he’d like to work with "Mani Ratnam, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Gautham Menon" in the future. Iyer is also writing a "Matrix styled sci-fi movie with a spiritual message."
