Casting Breakdown for BUNTY BERMAN PRESENTS

[NIZWAR] Male.  38. Needs to be able to play South Asian but open to all ethnicities. Bunty’s right hand man and frequent collaborator, a screen writer with a Communist streak in him a mile long. He’s generally a voice of reason for Bunty but an admitted coward with big ideal but questions whether he has the guts to realize them.  A loyal and devoted employee.  Must sing.

[SALEEM] Male. 21. Needs to be able to play South Asian but open to all ethnicities. A spot boy, a general dogsbody/servant, usually attached to the stars of the movies. An orphan from the streets who believes he can one day become a star. Earnest, a romantic, and filled with integrity, but empty of the belief in himself to reach for his dreams. Until he comes under the mentorship of Raj and gets to show Shambervi there’s more to him than just tea.  Must sing ROLE CAST

[SHAMBERVI] Female. 20. Needs to be able to play South Asian but open to all ethnicities. Smart, ambitious, and knows how the system works: a Heroine only has a small window of opportunity to make her mark and ensure a career for herself. She’s got all the talent in the world but is being dragged down by Raj’s decay. She’s not looking for love but is thunderstruck by the handsome Saleem when he consoles her over the studio’s woes. Her own woman in a time when it wasn’t so popular or accepted to be one. Must sing.  ROLE CAST

[DOLLY] Female. 38. Needs to be able to play South Asian but open to all ethnicities.  Bunty’s long suffering secretary who has a deep affection for her boss. Dolly handles the day to day operations of the studio and puts more sweat into making it run smoothly than anybody. She’s level-headed, strong willed, the voice of reason with more of a spine than Nizwar but is no less loyal to Bunty.  Must sing.

[SHANKAR DASS] Male. 55. Needs to be able to play South Asian but open to all ethnicities. One  of Bombay’s most successful gangsters. He came up the hard way, crawling and murdering his way to the top. A hard man who has recently become obsessed with a torch song singer, the enigmatic Sandra de Souza, who he hired to be his own night club’s headliner in hopes of winning her but finds his attempts always spurned. The rebuffs to a man who is used to getting everything his own way is driving madder by the day. Fueling his rage is the suspicion his son, Chandra, is having an affair with her.  ROLE CAST

[CHANDRA DASS/SANDRA DE SOUZA] Male. 29. Needs to be able to play South Asian but open to all ethnicities. Grew up hating his father because of the way Shankar treated Chandra’s mother. And Chandra’s got the cunning and the drive to take his dad’s top spot. But more than just that, he has plans to become the biggest star in India under his persona, the stage siren Sandra de Souza! He intends to make his father’s lust for Sandra a weapon and the platform of Bunty Berman’s studio as the perfect launching pad to achieve his dreams as Sandra. Must sing.

[MOHAN BATT] Male. 30s-40s. Needs to be able to play South Asian but open to all ethnicities. One of Shankar’s henchmen. Loyal to his boss as long as he doesn’t have a better offer on the table. Brother of Mitlal.

[MOTILAL BATT] Male. 30s-40s. Needs to be able to play South Asian but open to all ethnicities. One of Shankar’s henchmen. Loyal to his boss as long as he doesn’t have a better offer on the table. Brother of Mohan.