Just who are you rolling your R’s in a more American way for?

The “Indian goes abroad and comes back American even after a few days” argument has been around for decades now. All of us make fun our relatives who are settled abroad, all the time. One of the most beautiful women in the world Aishwarya Rai Bachchan won the Miss World pageant with an American accent. What followed after were interviews and talk shows in an British one. In 2017, most people are probably confused what accent she carries.

Alex Parrish from Quantico is a character who shuttled between India and America during her formative years, so naturally, the way she spoke was muddled. The kind where she had to have an American accent but at the same time, maintained her emphasis on certain words the way an Indian person would which, to some foreigners always seems comical. However, the fact that the actor playing the part carried the accent into her real one(which is fundamentally Indian in nature) is puzzling. She is an incredibly talented actress so exactly, what is Priyanka Chopra trying to prove to Hollywoodol?

Jacqueline Fernandez, an actor who is primarily a Sri Lankan native, grew up in Bahrain, studied in Sydney and has basically travelled all over the world. At 32, she has an American accent that doesn’t quite seem to find its roots and even deem necessary for the Indian film industry. She does act in Hindi films, after all. This makes it allthemore harder to decipher the change.

A general opinion about adopting accents is that people who have lived abroad for a considerable amount of time speak in a manner that makes them seem “in tune” with others, resulting in better understanding and being understood better as they speak. Although, actors who have taken just five red-eyes to Los Angeles suddenly have the urge to roll their R’s and order coffee, perhaps, in a Boston accent.

With Irrfan Khan, Deepika Padukone, Ali Fazal and more actors from India doing movies in Hollywood, it doesn’t look so difficult for them to be understood in their Indian accents. So the question is: why is it so important to “fit in” when you are already fitting in?

Image: Youtube