The Martian courtesy xkcd.com
If you are a reader of my Book Blog, “Review Room”, you already know that I LOVED “The Martian”, and that it dethroned Ender’s Game as my favorite sci-fi book of all time. Combine that with the fact that I cannot think of anyone better than Matt Damon to play Mark Watney, and this becomes a film I cannot wait for. I wish it were releasing sooner.
There is one Indian character in the book, Mars Mission Director Venkat Kapoor. Rumor has it that in the film they have changed the original “Venkat Kapoor” to “Vincent Kapoor”, and that Irrfan Khan was initially approached to play this role, but he declined because he was shooting for Piku at the time. Kapoor is now being played by Chwiwetel Ejiofor, because apparently Ridley Scott couldn’t find another Indian actor to play this Indian character. The mind boggles, and is so very annoyed.
In the book, Venkat Kapoor is Hindu, but can’t say whether author Andy Weir intended him to be a 1st Gen Indian American (an immigrant) or 2nd Gen (son of immigrants).
