Brazilian Giselle Monteiro Causes Stir As Bollywood Actress

Nineteen-year-old Brazilian model Giselle Monteiro stars as Harleen Kaur in the Bollywood film Love Aaj Kal. The fact that Giselle is Brazilian has been found rather amusing by the Indian press. Her identity - and national origin - had been relatively unknown until recently. Notes one media outlet:

She looks sweet, innocent and like a wax-model. But no one can blame Giselle Monteiro for the last one! If you don’t know who she is, then well, she is Harleen Kaur of ‘Love Aaj Kal’. Till the movie got released, no one knew who the new face that played the character is.

The waxen beauty’s name did not even appear in the credits in the film. The director apparently thought she was perfect for the role of Harleen despite Giselle not knowing Hindi or how to do Indian dances.some outlets insinuate he didn’t want her ethnicity known to the public, fearing some sort of backlash against his movie.

In fact, the director, Imtiaz Ali, says she could not get the choreography right, despite maintaining that Giselle was “perfect for the part:

We wanted to put her through the paces with Sarojji (choreographer Saroj Khan). But it never happened. Sarojji didn’t have the time. For a foreigner to get the Indian adaa right is very tough. We take for granted those nakhra-jhatka-matkas which we’ve seen our sisters perform at weddings. Indian girls have those adaas without being trained. But for a foreigner it is tough. Giselle could’ve done with a bit more training.

Giselle had actually auditioned for the role of Jo, an Anglo character in the film, but the director felt she wasn’t right for that part. He did, however, like her adherence to “tradition” and to a “small-town mentality.” Luckily for the actress, the role of Harleen required only two lines of Hindi dialogue, which were dubbed. 

At least it’s nice to know that, next time a non-Latino or Brazilian actor portrays one of us by donning too much bronzer and hapharzardly rolling his R’s, that we can find work elsewhere.

Click Below for More Pictures of Giselle Monteiro

Love Aaj Kal’s Harleen is a Brazilian [The Times of India]