Rita Powers Casting Group - The Gateway to Bollywood

Imagine this.  You work in film and you branch out to do some of your own work.  To facilitate this you put out an ad or two in the newspaper expecting a modest response.  When you walk in on Monday morning you see a message from Yash Johar saying he wants to work with you.  Now for 99.9999% of the population this is simply a figment of their imagination… a dream.  For casting director Rita Powers this was a reality. 

Rita has an extensive history that you can read about on IMDB but what I found most interesting was that her first go at casting for a Bollywood film involved collecting high-caliber artists in the US that could live up to the YRF, SRK, SEL(Shankar Ehsaan Loy) banners. 

When I asked Rita what she looks for she told me flat out “I am always looking for professionalism.  They don’t need to be trained or have experience, I have cast South Asians who never had training but fit the role.”

How did you feel about doing the movie?

“When I saw the final product I was just amazed how it came out.  I like that the genre is so family clean.”

She also gave me some tips and I thought I would forward them to you. 

1. Be on time.

2. Come dressed as a character if you know what you will be playing.

3. Be prepared with lines, If you read from the script that is there you won’t get the role.

Rita has also worked on English Vinglish and is currently work on a locally produced new show for Star Network called Brown Nation.  You’ll be hearing more about that in an upcoming blog post!