First Look : Outsourced

Starring: Josh Hamilton, Ayesha Dharker, Asif Basra, Matt Smith
Director: John Jeffcoat

WEG Entertainment Pvt Ltd brings to India, Outsourced, an award-winning this Indie-comedy on call centres sees refreshing Ayesha Dharker and Josh Hamilton come together. Interestingly, the film has made waves globally, winning awards and lauds at the Bend Film Festival Audience Award, Best Picture 2007, Bollywood and Beyond Film Festival Audience Award 2007, Cinequest Film Festival Audience Award, Best Feature Film 2007, Dubai International Film Festival Official Selection 2006, Goa International Film Festival Official Selection 2006, Hardacre Film Festival Audience Award, Best Picture 2007, Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles Audience Award 2007, Mumbai International Film Festival Official Selection 2007, Palm Springs Film Festival Best of the Fest 2007, Palm Springs Film Festival John Schlesinger Award 2007, Red Bank International Film Festival Official Selection 2007, Seattle International Film Festival Golden Space Needle Award for Best Film 2007, South Asian Film Festival Official Selection 2007, South Asian Indian Film Festival Official Selection 2007, Toronto Film Festival Official Selection 2006, Vancouver International Film Festival Official Selection 2007. Now, Outsourced finally comes home. The story goes thus…. Todd Anderson (Josh Hamilton) spends his days managing a customer call center in Seattle until his job, along with those of the entire office, are outsourced to India. Adding insult to injury, Todd must travel to India to train his new replacement. As he navigates through the chaos of Bombay and an office paralyzed by constant cultural misunderstandings, Todd yearns to return to the comforts of home. But it is through his team of quirky yet likable Indian call center workers, including his friendly and motivated replacement, Puro (Asif Basra), and the charming, opinionated Asha (Ayesha Dharker), that Todd realizes that he too has a lot to learn—not only about India and America, but about himself. He soon discovers that being outsourced may be the best thing that ever happened to him. "Outsourced" is a romantic comedy and Dharker plays the woman whose life veers of course with disgruntled Todd entering it. As Ayesha Dharker simply puts it, "Outsourced is a romance between two countries, not just two people." Director John Jeffcoat avers Dharker was a real trouper, turning in "a great performance under some very difficult circumstances, like excessive heat and lighting rigs falling upon her. I’d work with her again in a heartbeat." says Jeffcoat. Touche. Interestingly, according to Variety, Ken Kwapis, of The Office, has reportedly been tapped by NBC to create a television pilot for a potential spinoff of Outsourced.

CAST DETAILS

Josh Hamilton (Todd Anderson)
A longtime stalwart of the New York theater scene, Josh Hamilton’s film and television work includes Alive, Kicking and Screaming (just released on the Criterion Collection), The House of Yes, The Proprietor, On Line, Freak Talks About Sex, The F word, Absolutely Fabulous, Sex and the City, Urbania, Sorry Haters, Margaret, Neal Cassady, Tonight at Noon, Broken English, The Last New Yorker, and Diggers. Among his theater credits are last year’s critically acclaimed revival of Hurlyburly, Proof on Broadway, Kenneth Lonergan’s plays This is Our Youth and The Waverly Gallery, As Bees in Honey Drown, The Cider House Rules, The Violet Hour, Women and Wallacei, and Eric Bogoson’s Suburbia. He most recently worked on Tom Stoppard’s trilogy of plays The Coast of Utopia at Lincoln Center with Billy Crudup, Ethan Hawke and Martha Plimpton.

Ayesha Dharker (Asha)
In the international award-winning film, The Terrorist, Ayesha Dharker (Bombay Dreams, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones) played the lead character Malli, a role that earned her a nomination for Best Actress from the National Film Awards of India and the Cairo Film Festival award for Best Artistic Contribution by an Actress. She played the lead in Manika and appeared with Patrick Swayze in City of Joy. Her numerous television roles include the mini-series Arabian Nights and the acclaimed A Mouthful of Sky. She has also appeared in the Merchant-Ivory production The Mystic Masseur, as well as film and television adaptations of award-winning author Meera Syal’s novels Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee and Anita and Me.

Asif Basra (Puro)
Asif Basra is a film, television and theater actor. His performance in two of his more recent films, Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday and Rahul Dholakia’s Parzania, received much critical acclaim. He appeared in Micheal O. Sajbeland’s One Night With the King with veteran actors Omar Sharif and Peter O’Toole. Though his film performances have generated many a laudatory comment, Basra is also known for his theater performances; from playing a child with spinal bifida in Main Bhi Superman to Horatio in Hamlet to his much vaunted performance playing five different characters in Feroz Khan’s production of Mahatma v/s Gandhi, a play considered as one of the most successful in

Indian theater.
Matt Smith (Dave) A playwright, an auctioneer, an educator; Matt Smith is a man who wears many hats. He founded Stark/Raving Theater with Edward Sampson in 1988, fashioning and presenting five plays, including the acclaimed Here and There. His film and TV credits include Nora Ephron’s romantic comedy favorite Sleepless in Seattle and the early 90s dramatic comedy series Northern Exposure. Matt is currently a member of the Fine Arts faculty at Seattle University in Seattle, WA. - SAMPURN