Malil, Penn Get Top Billing in Comedy Projects  

By MICHEL W. POTTS
Special to India-West

LOS ANGELES -- The acting careers of Shelley Malil (www.malil.com) and Kal Penn pegged up yet another notch this month when Malil signed on for a lead role in the comedy television pilot, "Bad News, Mr. Swanson," and Penn was cast in a leading role in the "Van Wilder: Party Liaison" comedy film.

In "Bad News, Mr. Swanson," a pilot being shot for the FX Entertainment cable network, Malil plays Ashid to Frank Whaley's Clark Swanson, an ad executive who on the same day he learns he has cancer he finds out that his wife is leaving him.

While Swanson has a on-going conversation with 'Death' (played by Johnny Rotten of the "Sex Pistols" rock band) and looks back on his life to discover what he had taken for granted, he also turns to Ashid, his best friend at the ad agency, "and throws all these ideas back and forth through me," Malil told India-West. "I'm his sounding board."

According to the script written by co-executive producers Darryl Rowland and Lisa DeBenedictis, Ashid is a married man from Canada who since the age of nine has been bethrothed to an Indian woman through an arranged marriage.

"Even though he loves his wife, he sees nothing wrong with going to topless bars and having lap dances, as long as he doesn't have an affair, because in his view, having an affair is more disrespectful to his wife," Malil explained.

"So Ashid is the one who's giving Frank's character advice and all these rationalizations, but coming from him, it just seems twisted and doesn't make sense. In fact, it confuses him even further, since he's already confused to begin with."

Aside from a few references in the beginning to establish Ashid as being Indian, his characterization "will not focusing on Ashid as being an Indian as much as being this guy who has got a twisted view on life," Malil explained, adding that as far as accent goes, "they wanted it very, very light, just a coloring of accent."

Produced for the FX television network by Columbia Tri-Star, "It's a dark subject, but it's done in a very sharp, edgy comedy about a man who starts living the day he finds out that he is dying," Malil said.

The sitcom is one of many that have been ordered this year along with several original films that FX Entertainment president Kevin Reilly expects will broaden programming to the extent that it will make FX a competing network.

Unlike many network sitcoms, there was no live audience during taping and the "Bad News, Mr. Swanson" pilot was shot with a single camera instead of the usual three, "which is harder to do, but I think the quality is a lot better, since it will have a movie feel to it," Malil contended.

Malil burst on the small screen during the Super Bowl last January when he appeared as a Yuppie in a Budweiser commercial that spoofed its own "Whassup?" campaign, a gig that later landed him three spots for Shady Brooks Farm Turkey, which are currently airing on television.

While he was shooting the Shady Brooks commercials, the president of Anheuser-Busch informed Malil that the company wanted him for three more commercials based on his character but in different situations. Those spots have already been shot and will be airing within the near future, most likely during the NBA finals.

"While all this was going on, my agent was really pushing me and got me the sitcom," said Malil, who just finished shooting a guest spot as a Democratic party strategist on the season finale of the NBC-Television hit series "West Wing."