Twenty-three-year-old Francis Chouler got more than he reckoned on when he met with casting director Mito Skellern. In fact, he almost never made it to the reading at all, after being given one day’s notice to study three sets of four page lines, on his birthday no less. But the young acting student, who is studying for his Honours degree in acting from the University of Cape Town, impressed the producers when he read a Heath Ledger monologue from Dark Knight, so much so that they cast him in a leading role.

In the Bollywood film Crook, directed by Mohit Suri, Francis plays an Australian thug opposite Emraan Hashmi (Once Upon a Time in Mumbai) and Arjan Bajwa (Fashion). The film is based on the recent racist attacks against Indian Nationals in Australia.

This is Francis’s first leading role in a movie, after a series of walk on roles on local films such as Hein de Vos’ Orgie and Tamsin MacCarthy’s The Experimental Witch.

Francis describes his three weeks in Mumbai as chaotic. “Everyone was speaking Hindi around me and no one quieted down for the shots. It’s a very raw film, so lots of the filming was done with handheld cameras." "They do things very differently but I found that the filmmakers on this project make movies for the love of film. Obviously there’s a lot of money involved but at no point did I feel like I was churning something out for the sake of it.”

The film industry is big business in India. Francis says that a film makes most of its money on its opening weekend, as a week later a new batch of films get released. “Everyone goes to the cinema in India. There’s standing room in the front for the poor and boxes for the producers and stars. I’ve never experienced anything like it.”

Crook was a learning experience for the young actor. He worked closely with the stunt team for the action scenes and also with accent coach Adrian Galley to help him with his Australian accent.

Mohit, who turned 30 during filming, wanted to break away from the Bollywood formula, so there is a sex scene and interracial kissing, which is unheard of in most Bollywood films.

Crook is set to release in India in November 2010.
Sally Fink