‘I lost a role as I was an Indian’

ACTRESS Parminder Nagra (above) has accused a TV show of turning her down because of her race.

Nagra claimed she was once rejected for a role on a wellknown US TV series because they “already had an Indian person”. She had also heard producers of an unnamed production say “too many brown people” would not sell.

Nagra became famous with her 2002 film Bend It Like Beckham and later appeared in the popular US medical drama series ER. She currently stars in space drama Intergalactic being shown on Sky.

“I remember asking to go for a job because an actress left – it was a well-known show here. I remember phoning my agent and I went, ‘Do you think maybe you could just suggest me? The character is nonspecific in terms of family and between 35 and 40 (age). And the word that came back was they’ve already got an Indian person on the cast. “I went, ‘Yeah but I’m completely different to that person’. Is that ever going to happen when you say, ‘No we’ve already got a white person on the show’?