As Dimple Kapadia bags role in Christopher Nolan's Tenet, talent manager recounts how she impressed Hollywood's visionary
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; May 24, 2019)

The Modi tsunami may have taken over the nation yesterday, but it won't be wrong to say that Dimple Kapadia came a close second in capturing the imagination of Indian cinephiles. And with good reason. The actor, 61 - who has unfortunately been seen all too rarely on the big screen - found herself in the enviable position of having landed a role in Christopher Nolan's next, Tenet. The film will see her rub shoulders with Robert Pattinson, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Michael Caine, among others.

Kapadia's talent manager Purvi Lavingia Vats tells mid-day that the role is the result of several discussions over the past one-and-a-half months. "With someone like Nolan, who is secretive about his scripts, the brief provides little information on the role. For the audition, they don't give you a scene from the script. They [Nolan and team] had already seen her footage and had loved her work. When they saw her audition tape, Nolan and the casting director came around, and the rest is history," beams Vats.

Even though Kapadia - whose career spans over four decades and numerous awards, including a National Award - has been a stranger to auditions, Vats says the actor understood the demands of the situation. "Dimple has never auditioned before. So I had to sit her down and make her understand that the idea of casting people, basis their taped auditions, is to understand if they fit the part. But they are respectful when someone is reluctant and are willing to watch tapes of their previous work."

Vats was previously also the brain behind Ali Fazal's casting in Furious 7 (2015). Quiz her about Indian actors breaking through in mainstream Hollywood, and she insists that it's a long road ahead. "Only when an Indian actor headlines a mainstream film in the West and plays it to the fullest, will it be a great scenario."