Blog from a Famous Person

It’s Sunday night and I’m blogging. It only took me two weeks to throwout the “I’m going to blog every Sunday rule” so I’ve decided to make this blog super awesome, and I hope you have time to read it all the way through.

So a couple months ago I was trying to get Kal Penn to do a cameo in our movie, Bobby Khan’s Ticket To Hollywood. (Which by the way is coming out great, and you should check it out when we release.)

Also, before you read any further, this blog is not a dis on Kal Penn who couldn’t be a nicer guy. He’s cleared a path for people like me,and we at RaisingDesi wish him the best of luck with his new job at the White House. Continue reading…

Anyway, so I’m sending Kal e-mails. I mail him the script and stuff,and it’s not really going anywhere, and we’re about to give up. Now assume of you may know, I perform stand-up every Monday/Thursday in Westwood which has a karaoke room next door. So one Monday at about 12:00 am who do I bump into? Kal Penn! He’s just chilling with his boys. It’s a freak coincidence. Naturally, I bring up the movie and ask what’s going on. Kal’s like “I haven’t read the stuff yet” which is fine because he’s a busy guy, and I didn’t think anything of it.This town is all about putting yourself out there, and I would have kicked myself later if I didn’t ask.
However, one of our Raising Desi employees happened to be with me.We’re walking outside and he’s like “wow, what a d***! How could he not read it?! You sent it two months ago!”

I politely explained to my friend that Kal is on a network TV show and he probably has people pitching him stupid s*** all the time, and he probably thinks this isn’t any different. What surprised me about the situation was how quick my friend was to judge Kal after a two minute encounter. Trust me. I’ve met lousy people in showbiz and Kal Penn is a straight shooter.

Cut to two weeks later. My friend Tony Kundu, who could possibly be the best South Asian house dancer in the world (look him up on youtube) e-mails me from Canada. He’s like “Hey, my friend is coming to LA. Can you meet with her? I don’t think she knows anybody.”

I am a nice guy, just ask my mom. I hate Hollywood BS, and I look out for my friends, and even friends of friends. I also work my a** off and rarely hang out just for the sake of killing time. But I go because it is a favor asked of me.

The meeting goes ok, and I tell my new friend about LA and the next day, I even ask if she wants to roll with me and my comic friends to a few comedy clubs.
The next week I run into another mutual friend that knows the girl whoI just met with. The first words out of her mouth are “What did yousay to her?!”
“Excuse me?”
“She thinks you’re arrogant and completely full of it!”
Apparently, in her make-believe world , I started the conversation by saying, “Hi, I’m Tarun Shetty and I’m famous.” And then couldn’t stop talking about myself.
Although in retrospect, the line is hilarious and I wish I did say it,this is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.

Then it hit me. Her same pre-conceived attitude towards me is a lot like the attitude my friend had towards Kal Penn. I’m not saying I’m famous. In fact, I’m far from it.
One time I sold out a comedy show in Virginia only because people mistook me for M Knight Shyamalan. But as I’m finding out, no matter what I do and no matter how many fans I have there will always be someone ready to shoot me down.

What sucks is that people form opinions about someone and then share their thoughts with others, forcing that person to write a blog that is read by ten million people. My point is whether the words are good or bad, it’s a good reminder to myself and everybody reading, that only you can determine yourself-worth, nobody else. Luckily, my self-worth makes me famous. I guess that must make me pretty awesome.

Peace out.

Digits 101

Ok, so both of these stories are completely true!

I go for a casting last week and I meet this girl at in the waiting room who gives me her number. I get the digits, and I’m thinking EASY. It’s been a while since I’ve been in the dating scene. Why do guys make such a big deal about getting numbers? It’s cake. The girl was cute, good personality blah, blah. I’m Tarun Shetty, social interaction king. So four days go by and I call her and she doesn’t call back. Wow! OK NOW I UNDERSTAND why everyone complains about this.

Thankfully, I have a million other things going on to distract me but still, rejection sucks on any level so I was irritated. I mean why give me the number in the first place? Tell me you have a boyfriend, you’re a lesbian, you joined the peace corp! Make up something! Cut to yesterday night (Saturday) I get four missed calls from a random number. And then I get a text from the same number reading “DAM, I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT YOU” These calls are coming from a 323 number, around 11pm so obviously, someone out there in LA wants to get with me.

I lost my phone sometime ago with all my numbers so I have no idea who on earth is calling me. I call my friend Lak because we have a lot of the same friends and I’m like “can you call this number?” I really believe it’s this girl from way back when who used to call me but I never did anything. Fate has magically brought her back into my life.

Lak calls me back two minutes later, laughing. He’s like SOME DUDE PICKED UP! I put two and two together and realize it’s some actor/comedian guy who I met sometime back and obviously he got the wrong message.

A part of me was totally grossed out by the whole thing, but then I’m like. You know, this guy is just going what I was doing to that girl I met at the casting. You gotta try.

Ladies, if some guy is asking for your number, just remember he’s just putting in the effort and seeing where the chips fall. And fellas, if some DUDE who looks three days away from being homeless, like he just got out of jail, and you find out that he was selling himself for gay sex 15 years ago for drug money, asks for your number...well, it’s still gross and I get disgusted just thinking about it!

Over and out.

- Tarun

RaisingDesi Stars on Primetime!

Anyways, our friend Lak Rana was recently on CSI Miami. We were surprised that another one of our friends was on the same episode! Check out the clip posted above!

- RaisingDesi

Take that Kanye!

Ok. So here’s what I’m going to try to do. And I say this with caution. I’m going to try to put up a new blog post every single week. Both here and on my own personal site at TarunShetty.com. At least till our movie comes out or until I get bored and move on to something else. I’ve actually had a blog on my site for nearly six years but only update it like once a month because it takes me so freakin long to write a new entry. (I consider myself a writer so I always try to make the entries good) However, someone recently told me that Kanye West’s blog is the number #1 blog on the net. So I went to it and it’s like a bunch of pictures. It’s like a blog made by a fourth grader. When he does write I don’t think he’s even using complete sentences. I DIDN’T KNOW YOU CAN DO THAT!

So long story short, I’m going to blog how everyone else does. I guess that’s why they call it a blog. Not composition class 101. So from here on out don’t have any expectations for my writing. Anyways, so everybody knows by now that we are making a movie called Bobby Khan’s Ticket to Hollywood. (it’s on IMDB) It’s pretty exhausting and whatever but so far so good.

I’d like to blog today about the incredible shape I’m in. Yes, that’s really what I’m going to talk about because I don’t think anybody is ever going to realize the amount of work that this takes unless I blog about it. Everybody in the crew knows it because I drive everybody crazy asking questions like “do I look fat in this tank-top?” I think I go to the gym like 5 days a week. I can’t go any more because by the 5th day I’m bordering insanity and am going to shoot everybody. I’m realizing that I can’t get any bigger than what I look like.

Seriously, I’m not sure if it’s an Indian thing. Perhaps Indians can’t get big unless they start taking steroids, which may or may not happen. Its sad that I bust my ass every day and then someone sent me a video of Amir Khan (Bollywood film star) training for this movie and he’s all buff. The guy does like 25 pull ups which is crazy! Isn’t he like 60? He also has a home gym and so maybe my point to all this is that I should get a bo-flex.

- Tarun

Rising Desi's

Wow, a lot's happened in these last couple weeks huh?

Slumdog Millionaire won the Oscar (8 out of 9), showing that you really don't need big movie stars to sell a film; all you need is a good story. A.R. Rahman won for his brilliant score for Slumdog, as did "Jai Ho," for original song. Slumdog marks not on the first Indian technicians and best picture wins, but A.R. Rahman is the first Muslim to ever win an Oscar.

And Woody Allen and M. Knight Shyamalan have already grabbed Freida Pinto and Dev Patel for their next projects. Freida's going to be in Woody's upcoming untitled film, and Dev is playing Zuko in Shyamalan's live action Avatar movie, called "The Last Airbender."

I guess it's safe to say that Slumdog's success has given more hope to all the struggling Desi's out there, especially those trying to make it in Hollywood.

As for us, we're still shooting our Bobby Khan movie. Desi OC Episode 10 is now up, check it out if you haven't already. You can watch it on the RaisingDesi Youtube page at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNsKohyIJz0

Also, Lak Rana (Sanjay) was on scrubs a few weeks ago, Season 8, I think Episode 4 or 5, not sure.

And Aarti Mann (Seema) was on Heroes last week, opposite Amrapali Ambegaokar from "Superstars of Dance."

So that's the current update on RaisingDesi and all our Desiness. Hopefully Hollywood's new found fascination with all things Desi will make things a little easier, and a little more brown, in the future!

- RaisingDesi

Desi OC Episode 10 out now!

We know, we know...it's been awhile. But we've been busy working on the latest Desi OC and our film.

But here it is - Desi OC Episode 10 - enjoy!
For better quality click "watch in high quality," takes a bit longer to load but it's worth it!



and for all you lovers out there...and single people...

Happy Valentines Day!

- RaisingDesi

The Real Change We Need

Looks like "Slumdog Millionaire" got the top prize last night at the SAG Awards. Even though it was the heavy favorite to win, Anil Kapoor still appeared very surprised. I only wish I could understand what he said in his acceptance speech. I think he was speaking Afrikaans.

For us East Indian actors, Slumdog's win is monumental to say the least. I've felt that East Indians have made some very important gains in Hollywood in the last half decade or so. Though we haven't shaken completely free from Western stereotypes (cabbie, terrorists, goofy doctor, liquor store owner) there are quality shows out there like Heroes and ER that have non-caricaturized East Indians as central characters.

I hope that given Slumdog's win and the recent fascination with all things Bollywood, American writers are now able to see East Indian actors more as a precious resource than as an exploitable commodity. It's still going to take good writers to write good parts for us if we want to continue to shed the mask that we've donned for so long. Obviously that's one of the underlying reasons behind the creation of "Desi OC." It gives us a positive, creative voice. So keep watching--you're helping to change the world for East Indians.

Now if you'll excuse me now, I have to prepare for an audition. It's for ER...and I'll be playing a medical intern. Change is already upon us! Hooray!

- Lak Rana