With all due respect to the star of “Corky Romano,” it would in no way surprise me if you were to react with shock at the news that Chris Kattan is going to be doing a rather intelligent comedy miniseries for the Independent Film Channel. And to be fair, my impressions of “Bollywood Hero,” the miniseries in questions, are based solely on a trailer that was made solely for promotional purposes and that they haven’t actually started filming “Bollywood Hero” yet. But from that trailer and the description of the concept, I have to admit that I’m really, really looking forward to seeing the final product…eventually.
The concept, since I’m sure you now wondering about it, is thus: fed up with Hollywood’s inability to recognize that he is leading-man material, Chris Kattan decides to prove his acting mettle in Bollywood, India. The problem, however, is that he really has no idea what he’s getting into.
“It’s a fish-out-of-water show,” says Kattan. “It’s human-based. It’s grounded. It’s about real people, but it’s obviously going to be funny. It’s not a slapstick sitcom kind of a show, and that’s what appealed to me the most. It was…it’s like a ‘Curb (Your Enthusiasm),’ I would say. It has a great story, as opposed to a lot of television now. It has strong cast and situations, but this has a strong cast as well as a great storyline to it. And IFC has been great about letting it be protected. A lot of network television…nothing against them, obviously, but there’s always a lot of voices that don’t necessarily protect what we want to do, how we want to have fun and have a great time.”
So what made Kattan decide that he was up to the challenge of playing an exaggerated version of himself? Actually, the idea is one that’s appealed to him for quite some time.
