The world today is ONE nation. People travel from one country to another for many purposes, so does the movie stars. As our Desi Girl Priyanka Chopra and versatile Irrfan Khan frequently appear in Hollywood ventures, a few actors from outside India have appeared in Bollywood movies and made a permanent spot in the hearts of Indians. Here is the list of 7 foreign actors who proved their mettle and will be remembered for ages for their roles in Hindi movies.
1. Toby Stephens ( Mangal Pandey ): Toby played the role of Captain William Gordon, who is a dear friend of Mangal Pandey in his biopic. Despite being an Englishman, he helps Mangal and other Indians and wants them to get free from the British. Though the classic film couldn’t shine at the box-office, Toby definitely won Indian hearts.
2. Paul Blackthorne ( Lagaan ): Who can forget this most loved and hated English soldier! Paul Blackthrone played the role of Captain Russell in ‘Lagaan’ and stole the limelight in no time. Soon after the release of the film, Captain Russell became the household Indian name and Paul became a desi guy for all the Indian fans. Remember his dialogue, “Shart yeh hai ki tum humko is khel mein haraao aur hum tumhara lagaan maaf kar dega". If you read the line in his accent, then he is still in our heart and mind.
3. Mish Boyko ( Queen ): Boyko played the role of Oleksander aka Sikander in Kangana Ranaut’s ‘Queen’ and his lover-boy character definitely made Indians fell in love with him. Boyko didn’t have a single Hindi word in the film and still, his one-sided love was felt by the masses. Boyko is the recent non-Indian to appear in a Hindi film, who will be remembered for a long long time.
4. Alice Patten ( Rang De Basanti ): Is ‘Rang De Basanti’ complete without Alice Patten or we say our very own Sue McKinley? The answer is HELL NO! Sue was the female lead opposite Aamir Khan and her innocent character and passion for making a documentary on Indian freedom fighters were very well appreciated by the masses. Though the movie had a gloomy ending, Sue will always be one of the most loved foreign characters.
5. Giselli Monteiro – ( Love Aaj Kal ): Giselli played the role of Harleen Kaur/ Harleen Veer Singh as Saif Ali Khan’s wife in the super-hit film, ‘Love Aaj Kal’. Though Giselli is a Brazilian, her character of typical a Punjabi Votti was praise-worthy. Despite having a limited screen time, she won our hearts and gained a lot of Indian fans.
6. Rachel Shelley ( Lagaan ): How can we forget Rachel Shelly from ‘Lagaan’! Her role of Elizabeth Russell aka Bhuvan’s Radha is by far the best role by any foreigner in Bollywood. Though the lead actress of the film was Gracy Singh, Rachel aka Elizabeth pens down is still the people’s favorite. Her true and pure feeling towards Bhuvan (Aamir Khan) and his villagers is till date the most generous characters in Bollywood. The movie released 17 years back and Rachel’s character is still fresh in the mind of Indian masses
7. Sajjad Delafrooz ( Tiger Zinda Hai ): The recent inductee who made a spot on this list is Sajjad Delafrooz aka Abu Usman from ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’. Sajjad played the baddie, the head of the terrorist organization and still won millions of Indian hearts. Though this action-packed film was Bhai (Salman Khan) centric, Sajjad successfully made an Indian fan base.
