Anupam and Kiron Kher will star in hit American medical saga ER. Created and produced by best-selling author Michael Crichton, the series centres on medical personnel in the emergency room of a Chicago hospital.
For an unprecedented ninth year in a row, the drama series has been television's highest-rated drama. Now in its 10th season, the series boasts of 21 Emmy Awards besides a mammoth 108 nominations — breaking an all-time industry record. The couple are leaving for Los Angeles on August 1.
They are going to play Parminder Nagra's (Bend It Like Beckham heroine) parents. Nagra has been recently included in the starcast to play Neela Rasgotra, a British-Indian medical student who arrives in Chicago after finishing her undergraduate degree in biophysics and molecular biology at Yale. Despite her impeccable credentials, Neela suffers the humiliations of racism from patients and staff.
Speaking to The Asian Age Kiron said, "NBC had earlier asked us to star in David Schwimmer's Never Mind Nirvana. Soon after we landed in the US in April for our play Kuch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai, we were offered the parts. The role meant that both of us had to relocate to LA for seven years. They needed us to shoot for eight months every year. Initially we had agreed. But in the end we got cold feet and backed out." "Later, they offered us to star in one episode of ER. If we like it, they will write more episodes involving us. This way we will get to know how it is to act in an American series and whether we want to do it more often," she added.
Kiron is in Delhi to attend the 6th Asian Film Festival, where her film Khamosh Paani is being screened. Talking about her National Award winning role in Rituparno Ghosh's Bariwali she said, "Having acted some touching Bengali characters, I have become a total Bengali now. Though I have always been in love with Bengal, always wearing Bengali saris and specially Kolkata — a city so romantic and innocent, retaining a heart of a small town, I actually became a complete Bengali after I mastered how to talk in it. I love Kolkata because the people there are true with their emotions and are not embarrassed of showing it. Getting the body language and attitude of a Bengali was easy while acting in Bariwali. But learning the dialogues was tough. However Ritu had given me the script seven months before shooting and a tutor helped me learn the language."
She added: "I was optimistic about winning the National Award for Bariwali. I had also expected to win the award for Kalpana Lajmi's Darmiyaan — but that didn't happen. Bariwali is about a lonely middle-aged spinster (Banalata) living in a decaying mansion in Kolkata. She lets out her mansion to a film unit for three weeks. Banalata is suddenly shaken out by the sudden rush of strangers into her home and is drawn to the film director. After the unit departs, Banalata waits endlessly for the director, breaking her illusions. I always find roles where I have to underplay the character easier. Stronger and loud roles are more taxing."
