Chris Kattan is a Bollywood Hero
July 15 2009, Published 8:45 a.m. ET
Have you missed seeing Chris Kattan on TV? Luckily for you, the former Saturday Night Live comedian will be coming to the small screen nearest you in his new mini-series Bollywood Hero. OK! chatted with the funnyman about his latest project.
Have you seen the big red tour buses with your picture on them in NYC?
No, I’m kind of afraid to do that but I’ve gotten a lot of calls from people – an ex-girlfriend called and said, “I almost got hit, run over, by one of your eyebrows.” I hear it's very big. It’s exciting to be part of something as cool as Bollywood Hero and get to be the producer and writer of it as well, and be on a bus.
Tell us about the show.
I play a guy, me, Chris Kattan, who has the ego of somebody that thought he could be a leading man and truly believed it. I always did love Indiana Jones as a child and I did dress up, as you can see in the first episode. I think I wanted to be a leading man or I thought I could. I’m fine with not being one right now in my life, but the idea to do that and to go to Bollywood and pursue that dream makes for sheer fantastic comedy.
Where was it filmed?
We shot ten weeks in Mumbai. We shot with Take One India, which is the production team that just did Slumdog Millionaire.
Did Slumdog Millionaire help the show get some buzz?
I think so! It sure helped the show be as good as it is, because they did Slumdog and now they did our show. I mean we have the same crew, you know, we have the same taxi director, the same dance choreographer, Longie, who did Jai Ho. He did the 5 dance numbers in our show. While we were in Mumbai the Oscars happened and Slumdog Millionaire won, and we were like lo and behold working with the people who just got Oscars.
Did you research Bollywood?
I mean I played a person that didn’t know anything about Bollywood. I was there previously three years ago also that’s why they approached me with the project. I was there on vacation for a month. I was the tourist but this time it was more like, for ten weeks you become a resident in a way. It was pretty intense so it was a different experience. But I didn’t know much about Bollywood films until I got there and then I became a fan of them."
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Tune in on Aug.6 at 10 ET on IFC for the Bollywood Hero premiere!