British-Asian actress Parminder Nagra has revealed that she was once turned down by a renowned US TV show because they "already had an Indian person" and that it had "too many brown people", therefore it would not sell.
Known for her 2002 UK film ‘Bend It Like Beckham’, Nagra told a podcast, "We're having the conversations happening more and more and things have moved on. My fear is that - which I think was happening a few years ago - it became about, 'Oh well let's get this box ticked'. I remember asking to go for a job because an actress basically left - it was a well-known TV show here. I remember phoning my agent and I went, 'Do you think maybe you could just suggest me? The character is very non-specific in terms of family and between 35 and 40 [years of age].
"And the word that came back was that they've already got an Indian person on the cast. I went, 'Yeah but I'm completely different to that person'. Is that ever gonna happen when you say that, 'No we've already got a white person on the show'?I don't think that conversation is happening - so it's just very hard,” she said.
Previously Nagra had also told the press that during the promotion of Bend it Like Beckham, a magazine refused to put her on its cover alongside co-star Keira Knightly because of the colour of her skin.
She went on to speak at this podcast and said, "I've been in rooms where people have gone, 'Oh that's not going to sell because there's just too many brown people in it', and you go, 'Oh. OK'. Do you keep pounding? There's moments where you get tired and then there's people that do keep doing that and then they break another glass ceiling. You've got Riz Ahmed and Priyanka Chopra - they've got deals with networks and stuff like that, and so things have moved on. But, yeah, that was a story for the books and there were lots of little stories like that."
