Shelley Malil transforms into Steve Banerjee for new film 

By MICHEL W. POTTS
Special to India-West

LOS ANGELES -- When director David Payne cast Shelley Malil (www.malil.com) to play Chippendale owner Steve Banerjee in his film "Just Can't Get Enough," he made several demands of the young Indian actor, but Malil went one better.

"He wanted me to become as close to the character as possible," Malil told India-West. "He wanted me to gain 15 pounds, which I did, just eating, eating, eating, and he wanted to change my hairstyle to the way Steve wore his hairstyle."

Payne had also acquired from the FBI more than nine hours of tape they had collected as evidence against Steve Banerjee when he had arranged to have a competitor killed, and Malil spent hour after hour listening to the tapes to approximate Banerjee's speaking voice.

"One of the key elements of Steve Banerjee that I found was that when he became nervous, he had a stuttering problem, which was one of the key characteristics of his personality," Malil said. "So that's something that I brought into our film."

One of the co-producers of the film had been a close associate of Banerjee's during the club's heyday in the early 1980s, "and when she showed up on the set and saw me, she couldn't move," Malil said. "She thought I was a reincarnation of Steve and had this look on her face how you would look at someone who's come back from the dead."

Only recently Naveen Andrews had played Steve Banerjee in an original film made for the USA Television Network (I-W, Nov. 10), "and basically, it is the same exact story," Malil admitted, "but the film we did is based on a BBC documentary, and we're going for the heart of what happened."

Malil contends more sexuality occurred at Chippendale's than was seen in the USA television version. "I talked to a lot of the dancers who talked about how much sex took place backstage, and the drugs during the heyday, and our film tries to capture those times."

Malil auditioned three times for the part. "I couldn't pass it up, because it's such a meaty role," he said. When he finally convinced Payne he was right for the part, "I got to transform myself, which is something I've never done before."

Malil even went so far as to contact the warden of the city jail where Banerjee had spent his last days and asked permission to spend a night in Banerjee's cell so that he could experience what Banerjee had gone through.

"Of course the answer was no," Malil laughed. "He wouldn't allow it for safety reasons."

Earlier this month, Malil had the opportunity to work opposite Hollywood megastar Arnold Schwartznegger in a scene for the up-coming film "Collateral Damage," which will open nationwide in late summer of next year, only months after the Steve Banerjee film opens in theaters.

The scene is short, but it is the pivotal point at the opening of the film when Schwartznegger, the victim of an explosion that kills his wife and daughter, is brought into an emergency room and operated on by Malil.

In Hollywood there are more struggling actors working as waiters than you can shake a check at, a fate Malil has been successful in avoiding since his arrival six years ago. If his life were a script, the logline would read, "Cochin-born Indian actor has the luck of the Irish."

His father, a firm believer in education, brought the family to the United States in 1974 when Malil was 11 and settled in Dallas, where at the time a substantial number of Keralites were living and working.

Seven years later, the family relocated to Big Spring, 30 miles from Midland, "and here's this little Indian family in West Texas making curry in the midst of all these oil fields," Malil recalled to India-West with a laugh. "It was quite a sight."

At the tail end of his senior year at Big Spring High School in 1983, one of his teachers took him for an audition with Joann Miller, the head the Grandbury Opera House repertoire theater outside Dallas. Three days before graduation Malil received word he had been accepted.

"The day after graduation, I was literally in my car and I left Big Spring and my family and got my first job as an actor," he recounted.

For the next year and a half Malil appeared in such musicals as "Annie Get Your Gun" and "Showboat" in addition to any number of comedies and farces, "never any drama, but that's where I learned to dance," Malil said. He later auditioned for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.

Malil was one of 600 student actors accepted by the academy for the first year, and among the 60 who were allowed to stay on for the second year. Graduating in 1987, Malil was soon landing roles in Off Off Broadway plays.

But he was struggling, nevertheless, paying his dues working as a waiter, and soon decided to move back home. His parents, of course, were adamantly opposed to his being a actor, but Malil persevered, determined more than ever to be an actor.

Just as he was about to leave Dallas for California with little more than $600 to his name, Malil received a call from his friend Brian who passed along the phone number of David Williams, a friend in Hollywood, who in turn introduced him to Ken Kingsbury, who was a manager there. "If you're a friend of David's, you must be good, I'll represent you," Kingsbury told Malil when he arrived in Hollywood.

Two weeks later Kingsbury sent Malil out on his first audition, and he wound up getting the part on the "Briscoe County Junior" television series in a guest role, "which is how I got my SAG card and a great demo reel" that only days later landed him an agent.

Then, a few months and several television guest spots later, he was a Los Angeles Ovation Award nominee for Best Supporting Actor after appearing as Bottom in a local production of "A Midsummer's Night Dream" three years ago.

"And I have never played Shakespeare before," he said. "It was both my virgin attempt and quite rewarding."

This luck of the Irish "basically just all fell into my lap," he said. "I had this vision for myself as an actor, and it just appeared out of nowhere. It was the strangest, spookiest thing, and it's just been fireworks."