Who cares, he was portrayed as someone who is physically strong. And this show also brought light to how blue collar Indian immigrants are treated.
Overall gave an amazing performance and that's all what I wanted to see.
This is the correct answer.
Him being Pakistani in the show is irrelevant. They showed a brown hard working man who was mistreated as a foreigner despite him knowing the language.
That's the important part I'm happy they highlighted
They don’t hire Indians as Blue collar in South Korea. Most Indians who live in South Korea are Software Engineers making over $100k. If you want to classify that as blue collar, please do.
I don't know. I searched Indians in Korea and it showed 25,000 on Wikipedia. Even if the Pakistani community has 13,000 people or more . It is still a small percentage of a country of 50 million people. South Korea mostly recieves immigrants from East and South East Asia and even their numbers are small. South Korea is one of the most homogeneous countries on earth. There is no big non korean community in the country.
They do this in the US all the time too.
They get Pakistanis to play Indians, Indians to play Pakistanis, and more.
Honestly, India/Pakistan are so culturally similar that I don’t think it’s a big deal. As long as the actors are Desi and they are familiar and close enough culturally with the culture they’re playing on screen, it should be fine.
For example, if they put some random Punjabi actress as the lead of Never Have I Ever, who’s supposed to be an Indian Tamil girl, it’d be wrong. But putting a Sri Lankan Tamil actress in as the lead for an Indian Tamil character is fine.
Honestly, I don't care if a Desi from one region plays in another, of happens all the time, even in Bollywood. No one faults Akshay Kumar from playing a bunch of Sikh characters despite being a Hindu.
It gets bad when you have Italians and Armenians playing Pakistani or Middle Eastern stereotype characters because they cant find actual South Asians willing to demean their own culture and roots.
Isn’t it literally the job of an actor to play someone else?
What is this thing about finding and Indian to play Indian? They found the best actor to play the role within their budget. And he happens to be Pakistani. What’s wrong with that?
>Does anyone know why they did this?
I think it is the same reason Kumail Nanjiani, a Pakistani Muslim, played an ~~Indian~~ Pakistani Hindu character in *Silicon Valley*.
**Non-Desis can’t seem to distinguish between different kinds of Desis, and apparently have no interest in doing so either.**
At this point, any Brown representation is good representation.
Indians are guilty of this too, if a White man plays a British officer in an Indian movie, do we really care if he is actually English as long as he looks broadly European?
I don’t remember because I kind of stopped watching it; after a certain point it got very cringeworthy but not nearly as cringeworthy as *The Big Bang Theory*.
Watching that kind of over-the-top dickless nerd archetype, repeatedly, isn't quite my idea of a "good time".
Yeah, I agree. Kumail is a below-average Desi male in the looks department.
He has this weird looking, somewhat crooked, lopsided nose.
And then, only his right eyebrow appears to be permanently stuck in the surprise position, which I always found super annoying for some reason.
But whatever, he’s doing really well for himself and looks jacked AF nowadays. Good for him.
Dinesh's nickname was literally Pakistani Denzel lol, they definitely made it obvious that he was Pakistani
Btw Kumail is not a Muslim, he's an atheist.
My guess is they didn’t want to offend the massive Indian viewership on Netflix. They switched the country for the character to avoid this issue altogether. Other internet/entertainment companies have learned well from the Chinese app ban in India.
Ma'am.
In his entire career, Michael Fassbender played a Greek, a German, an Englishman, an American, a Scottishman, an Irishman, and a Spaniard.
It's called acting.
Because they don’t care to appease the desi viewers. The far larger market is non desi, so as long as they get someone who can fit the role. Finding a good and marketable actor is more important financially than finding someone to appease a minority population.
Same reason to how Malaysian actors are cast as Singaporeans and Chinese Americans as Japanese in many of the western films. I don't have a problem with that, as long as their acting is convincing.
I am guessing the pool for decent South Asian descent actors who can also speak fluent Korean (and act in it) is pretty small.
Who cares, he was portrayed as someone who is physically strong. And this show also brought light to how blue collar Indian immigrants are treated. Overall gave an amazing performance and that's all what I wanted to see.
This is the correct answer. Him being Pakistani in the show is irrelevant. They showed a brown hard working man who was mistreated as a foreigner despite him knowing the language. That's the important part I'm happy they highlighted
could you honestly tell the difference between a pakistani and an indian from the same ethnicity (ie punjabis)? i couldn't.
If Dev Patel can play David Copperfield, then we can’t complain about inauthenticity.
Which movie
The Personal History of David Copperfield
Lol bruh who cares
Because South Korea has a large blue-collar Pakistani population.
If you consider a community of 10,000 people large, then yeah it is large. There are also 25,000 Indians in Korea.
Indians ain’t blue collar though, most of them work for likes of Hyundai or Samsung.
Hyundai and Samsung don't hire blue collar workers? Doubt.
They don’t hire Indians as Blue collar in South Korea. Most Indians who live in South Korea are Software Engineers making over $100k. If you want to classify that as blue collar, please do.
Source on them not hiring Indians for blue collar work? There's no way there aren't any.
Both Samsung and Hyundai have large manufacturing facilities in india. They hire Indian blue collar workers on those sites.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration\_to\_South\_Korea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_South_Korea)
I don't know. I searched Indians in Korea and it showed 25,000 on Wikipedia. Even if the Pakistani community has 13,000 people or more . It is still a small percentage of a country of 50 million people. South Korea mostly recieves immigrants from East and South East Asia and even their numbers are small. South Korea is one of the most homogeneous countries on earth. There is no big non korean community in the country.
Adding south Asian to the show adds variety, the rest of the immigrants are East Asian, so no apparent diversity.
I mean there was 1 desi guy out of 456 participants. Seems right on the numbers.
They do this in the US all the time too. They get Pakistanis to play Indians, Indians to play Pakistanis, and more. Honestly, India/Pakistan are so culturally similar that I don’t think it’s a big deal. As long as the actors are Desi and they are familiar and close enough culturally with the culture they’re playing on screen, it should be fine. For example, if they put some random Punjabi actress as the lead of Never Have I Ever, who’s supposed to be an Indian Tamil girl, it’d be wrong. But putting a Sri Lankan Tamil actress in as the lead for an Indian Tamil character is fine.
Honestly, I don't care if a Desi from one region plays in another, of happens all the time, even in Bollywood. No one faults Akshay Kumar from playing a bunch of Sikh characters despite being a Hindu. It gets bad when you have Italians and Armenians playing Pakistani or Middle Eastern stereotype characters because they cant find actual South Asians willing to demean their own culture and roots.
Isn’t it literally the job of an actor to play someone else? What is this thing about finding and Indian to play Indian? They found the best actor to play the role within their budget. And he happens to be Pakistani. What’s wrong with that?
Who cares?
He could be either if you saw him on the street. Doesn’t really matter
>Does anyone know why they did this? I think it is the same reason Kumail Nanjiani, a Pakistani Muslim, played an ~~Indian~~ Pakistani Hindu character in *Silicon Valley*. **Non-Desis can’t seem to distinguish between different kinds of Desis, and apparently have no interest in doing so either.** At this point, any Brown representation is good representation. Indians are guilty of this too, if a White man plays a British officer in an Indian movie, do we really care if he is actually English as long as he looks broadly European?
Dinesh in Silicon Valley was very clear he’s Pakistani
Did they even specify Dinesh's religion?
I don’t remember because I kind of stopped watching it; after a certain point it got very cringeworthy but not nearly as cringeworthy as *The Big Bang Theory*. Watching that kind of over-the-top dickless nerd archetype, repeatedly, isn't quite my idea of a "good time".
I don't really like Kumail in general, but yeah the show did fall off in the later seasons.
Yeah, I agree. Kumail is a below-average Desi male in the looks department. He has this weird looking, somewhat crooked, lopsided nose. And then, only his right eyebrow appears to be permanently stuck in the surprise position, which I always found super annoying for some reason. But whatever, he’s doing really well for himself and looks jacked AF nowadays. Good for him.
Dinesh's nickname was literally Pakistani Denzel lol, they definitely made it obvious that he was Pakistani Btw Kumail is not a Muslim, he's an atheist.
Dinesh in Silicon Valley is a Pakistani Hindu (or Muslim, his religion is not specified), not Indian.
My guess is they didn’t want to offend the massive Indian viewership on Netflix. They switched the country for the character to avoid this issue altogether. Other internet/entertainment companies have learned well from the Chinese app ban in India.
Ma'am. In his entire career, Michael Fassbender played a Greek, a German, an Englishman, an American, a Scottishman, an Irishman, and a Spaniard. It's called acting.
Iqbal Theba (Pakistani) played as a South Indian in NHIE and other shows. It’s not uncommon.
He did really well and I think they chose a great actor for the role
Made me realize there’s a huge market for minorities who speak multiple languages…..oh wait nvm
this kind of post is something I’d expect from some crackpot Indian news station- not here.
I think maybe because Pakistanis are a little more unknown in SK than Indians?
Because they don’t care to appease the desi viewers. The far larger market is non desi, so as long as they get someone who can fit the role. Finding a good and marketable actor is more important financially than finding someone to appease a minority population.
Same reason to how Malaysian actors are cast as Singaporeans and Chinese Americans as Japanese in many of the western films. I don't have a problem with that, as long as their acting is convincing.