Kal Penn Interview with the muro calle Journal 

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Indian-American actor Kal Penn on the sets of ‘Bhopal- A Prayer for Rain’.

Thirty years after one of the world’s worst industrial disasters — the Bhopal gas leak — filmmaker Ravi Kumar has narrated the story in a film, “Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain.”

Thousands of people were killed by a gas leak at the Union Carbide Corp. pesticide factory, now a part of Dow Chemical Co., on Dec. 3, 1984 in Bhopal a city in central India.

“The event is far enough in the past for us to have an emotional distance from the tragedy, in order to make an objective assessment of how the events unfolded,” says the film’s director Mr. Kumar.

There’s still no agreement on the number of people who died on the night of the disaster or those who subsequently battled lung injury, neurological and reproductive disorders and respiratory difficulties — or died years later as a result of health complications.

“Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain,” starring Martin Sheen and Mischa Barton, examines the run up to the disaster.

Indian-American actor Kal Penn plays one of the lead roles as a journalist.

“We wrote the journalist as an over-the-top ridiculous character with penchant of headlines such as ‘Elvis lives in Bhopal.’ But as events unfold the real journalist emerges and actually he’s an educated man who really cares about his people,” says Mr. Kumar.

Kal Penn talked to The Wall Street Journal about making a film based on a real-life tragedy, working in India and his hopes to do so again.

The Wall Street Journal: What were your first thoughts about playing a tabloid journalist?

Kal Penn: When I first read the script, I was very moved by how powerfully written it was. I appreciated that Ravi Kumar navigated the complex issues of industrial greed, government corruption, and trust with such humanity. I was even more impressed once I sat down with Ravi and he really explained how passionate he was about telling this story.

WSJ: The Bhopal Gas disaster was perhaps the greatest industrial accident to have hit India. How much did you know of it and what more did you learn while making the film?

Mr. Penn: The Bhopal tragedy is one of the world’s worst industrial disasters, period. I did know the basics of the tragedy before the film, but learned a lot more through research and the shoot itself. In particular, the real complexity of what happened. There was such a multitude of other factors at play: corruption within government, lax safety standards, lack of enforcement or oversight, intimidation, the need for jobs, and of course corporate legal loopholes. I think learning from real-life cases upon which our fictional adaptation is based is important in preventing disasters like this from happening and in holding all parties accountable for actions of the past and future.

WSJ: Did this project give you a chance to reconnect with India?

Mr. Penn: I’m more familiar with Western India, since that’s where most of my relatives live. We shot “Bhopal” primarily in Hyderabad, so it was an opportunity to live and work in a new city, a new part of India, and to experience more of the diversity that exists there. I loved it.

WSJ: What did you learn through the making of the film, while shooting here?

Mr. Penn: I learned a lot through the making of the film. This was really the first time that I’ve shot a film entirely in India — “The Namesake” was shot mostly in New York, with about two weeks in Kolkata. The ways in which producers and actors work in India is very different, so I enjoyed getting to know their process so intimately over the course of the “Bhopal” shoot. There are so many young, talented, emerging filmmakers, writers, and crew in India, it’s exciting.

WSJ: Are you looking to do more work in the Indian film industry?

Mr. Penn: I would love to work again in the Indian film industry. There are a lot of filmmakers there whom I admire – everyone from Zoya Akhtar to Anurag Kashyap, to Ritesh Batra. I would jump at the chance of working with them.

Priyanka Pereira is a freelance writer based in Mumbai. You can follow her on Twitter on @priyankapereira.

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