Luke Kenny says the Indian film industry is taking time to accept him because of the colour of his skin.
Luke Kenny left many wondering when he disappeared from the scene after his successful Bollywood debut in Rock On, but the VJ-turned-actor says that despite the plaudits won by the film, the industry is taking time to accept him because of the colour of his skin.
Mumbai-based Kenny, who is of British-Italian parentage, said he had made a conscious decision to stay away from stereotypical roles.
"The industry tends to quickly stereotype people, and whenever there was the role of a white guy, an angrez police officer or something like that, I would be called up because of the way I look. The industry sticks with the stereotypes and is quick to put you in a box.
"Thankfully those days are slowly dying down and I have a few interesting projects in the pipeline, which will be out by next year," Kenny said in an interview.
Meanwhile the actor has gone back to his first passion, music, and is hosting the show Rolling Stones on NDTV Good Times, which profiles bands and musicians.
"We are doing a show on U2, which will be aired this Sunday. The world first came to know of the band in 1987 with Joshua Tree but I sort of have a upper hand here because I had been listening to them since 1984 when they came out with Unforgettable Fire," said Kenny who was one of the founding editors of the Indian edition of Rolling Stones magazine.
But India's first celebrity DJ laments the lack of TV shows that offer international music.
"The so called music channels are either all about Bollywood film promos or pure reality TV. There is a huge void for programming which caters to people who want to listen to genres other than filmi music," said Kenny adding that Bollywood is gradually waking upto the popularity of rock.
"Bollywood and rock go a long way back. RD Burman borrowed heavily from rock all through the 70s. And there is this popular notion that rock is mere noise created with guitars and drums. That's not true and Bollywood is gradually realising that because as one of the most popular mediums in the country they have to take into account the choice of the people," said Kenny who began his career in showbiz as a choreographer with Arshad Warsi.
Spotted at a college dance competition, he joined Arshad Warsi's dance team as a dancer and became an associate choreographer. While DJ-ing at a party he was spotted by people from Channel V and became the first Indian VJ on the music channel.
And after having tried his hand at singing, anchoring and acting, Kenny then turned to direction after deciding that he wanted to find a new outlet for his creativity.
"I have always wanted to do things never done before so at a certain point I decided that I wanted to direct a film. So I made this movie Thirteenth Floor. It was shot digitally with just two characters in an elevator. It is not impossible to make an out of the box film without any financial backing," said Kenny who is currently travelling to various cities to showcase the film to niche audiences.
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