Brett Lee: Bowled over by an Indian divorcee

Brett Lee’s always been an entertainer but needed coaching to become a star.

Brett Lee with Tannishtha Chatterjee for unINDIAN film, by Kate Ryan. Image supplied for The Sunday Times Guide.

Brett Lee laughs as he says he didn’t have to lift his game for his first lead role as an actor “because I didn’t have a game”. The former Test cricketer and member of the elite 300-wicket club is the co-star of the new cross-cultural romantic comedy unINDIAN.

The Sydney-set movie is the first production of the newly established Australia India Film Fund and could presage more collaborations between two nations that are mad about movies.

The $4.5 million film is “presented” by the fund’s co-founder Devendra Gupta. The IT millionaire, via Paradigm One, and venture capitalist is ready to launch further collaborations if this ambitious and well-intentioned film proves to be a success here as well as in India.

Lee’s cachet across the Indian Ocean may be crucial. He is no stranger to Indian audiences, having appeared in a cameo role in a 2008 Bollywood film, Victory, as well as in commercials.

His blond hair, height and intimidating speed as a fast bowler meant he naturally stood out as a cricketer in the subcontinent. And a song he recorded with his band, Six & Out, to coincide with the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy in India, You’re the One for Me — in which he shared the vocals with prolific Indian singer Asha Bhosle — rose to the second spot on the Indian (and South African) music charts.

In unINDIAN he plays Will, a teacher who introduces migrants to Australian language and culture. He falls in love with Meera, a divorced executive played by Indian actress Tannishtha Chatterjee, best known for Brick Lane and Anna Karenina.

Director Anupam Sharma’s debut feature film explores the cultural divides that are standard in multicultural Australia’s but tend to infrequently be explored often in our mainstream cinema.

Long ago, They’re a Weird Mob was a fish-out-of-water comedy that looked empathetically at immigration and integration.

Yet unINDIAN explores the issue amusingly the week before another cross-cultural comedy, Alex & Eve, this time focusing on the divide between Greeks and Muslims, is released in Australian cinemas.

Lee says the film’s message of tolerance was a key reason he wanted to be involved.

“It’s a romantic comedy that had some underlying really beautiful messages to it — you can’t put any boundaries on love and the whole cross-cultural thing,” he says.

“The film says you can’t help who you fall in love with, and there are a lot of people in my character Will’s position in Australia who go through those exact same issues.

“There’s a lot of boundaries and a lot of cross-cultural things to be ticked off for people to be happy, but that’s life.

“I do have a passion for India and for what it stands for,” Lee says of a country that wasn’t the happiest hunting ground for him as a fast bowler (he snagged eight wickets in four Tests but was far more successful on Indian pitches in shorter forms of the game). The film role reflects his determination to challenge himself in different fields.

Lee has previously had offers to appear in Bollywood films, yet the timing was never quite right as he continued to play professional cricket, notably in the Twenty20 leagues over the past few years.

“The film ticked every single box — that’s probably the best way to describe it,” he says. “And then I had to get my head around becoming an actor.

“And I guess to a certain extent, when I’ve been out playing cricket and crossed that white line or walked through the gate, it’s like I almost have been acting while playing cricket the last 20 years — because you are an entertainer if you’re playing sport.

“Certainly I’ve always gone out to entertain the crowd, have fun and please while being out there. If someone’s paying a lot of money to watch a game of cricket, the least you can do is make them feel they’ve really enjoyed their day.”

But Lee concedes he was a completely different person on the field to who he is off the field. The separation between his private and sporting persona has been important.

“So it is playing a role of a person while playing sport, and I’ve really enjoyed playing a role,” he says. “So when it came to this next step, I’ve tried to use that experience to kind of aid what I was doing.”

The preparation included acting classes before production, and acting coaches working with him on set.

He discovered that working in commercials for almost 20 years didn’t really add up to the kind of experience that would stand him in good stead in a leading film role. Besides, the aspects he anticipated to be the most difficult turned out to be easy, and vice-versa.

“The advice was to be a good actor you’ve got to be a good listener,” he recalls. “Listen to your co-actor and not be thinking about your next line and what you’ve got to be doing but react to them and have chemistry on set.

“They’re things I had to really learn and focus on.” Lee certainly sounds quite the actor when discussing the ways in which he imbued Will with mannerisms and actions beyond the dialogue.

And he is delighted to note that some of his mates who have watched the film tell him they see the Lee they know for five minutes before the character of Will takes over.

So is acting a thing now? “We’ll wait and see, mate,” Lee says with a laugh. “Did I enjoy the three months doing it? 100 per cent yes, loved it. Would I do another one? I want to see how this goes.

“The reports I’m getting are people are enjoying it. If the general consensus is people can walk out having enjoyed it, that makes me smile.”

unINDIAN is in cinemas tomorrow.