Dileep Rao trained to be a surgeon. But after theatre and starring in two of the biggest hits of Hollywood, acting is his only call, says the Indian-American actor

Aseem Chhabra (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 15, 2010)

When Dileep Rao read the script of Inception he understood most of the film. “We all got it to varying degrees,” says Rao, who plays Yusuf, the chemist in Christopher Nolan’s hugely popular cultural phenomenon of this summer.

“But when you make a movie you don’t need to know it all at the same time. It was really about what we were shooting at that moment and how it was informed by everything else.”

Inception was the second major film in less than a year for the Santa Monica-based Indian-American actor. He also played a slightly smaller role of Dr Max Patel in James Cameron’s mega-hit Avatar.

The back-to-back successes led New York magazine to refer to Rao as the Indian Will Smith. A trained stage actor, he has acted in one more film - Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell.

“I think Inception is original and doesn’t talk down to you,” Rao says, sipping his lemonade at a coffee shop in Manhattan.

The actor is currently in New York City rehearsing for an Off-Broadway play The Awesome Dance. “It is like a great meal with many flavors.

People see it again and again because they get it, but they are not entirely sure. Chris has the ability to unspool the narrative at a speed that confronts everybody.”

Son of immigrant Indian parents - an engineer More >