Chicago native Ajay Naidu gets serious with life, acting
By JON SINGER
Ajay Naidu was hilarious as Samir Nag, Naga, Nagheenanajar! in "Office Space." First, he faked his Indian accent – he was born and raised in Evanston, Ill., a Chicago suburb. Second, he played the stereotypical Indian businessman to perfection: clean cut, choppy English, and being a trusty sidekick.
"It was super fun," he says of making "Office Space." "I just remember Mike [Judge, director] telling me to break dance and how it was really important that I do that."
"[Judge] was kind of cool because he was taking risks on everybody and when I got that part I realized that and those kids, David Herman and Ron Livingston, are really hardcore and really wonderful guys, awesome," Naidu says. "With Mike – there is a genius, you know? He's an inventor, surfer, beyond the fact that he's super-magnetic, brilliant and funny, you just trust him."
Throughout the filming of "Office Space," the actors and creators fought some artistic battles trying to accurately complete Judge’s vision.
"[Judge's] vision was being thwarted greatly by the studio. He was under a lot of stress. His vision of it was quite different than what they were letting him do," Naidu confesses. "He thought of super-apocalyptic and rough and totally industrial and, whoa, they weren't letting him go down that road. He was about the dehumanization of those people at the workplace. He wanted the function of a revolutionary Peter. So I think that it has been in its own way.".
OTHER ROLES
Naidu has also starred in "K-PAX," "Requiem for a Dream" "Pi," and "The Guru."
"I just came out with 'Scary Movie 3' and then I think I'm still in 'Bad Santa,' with Billy Bob Thornton. I think I'm still in it - I did a cameo. Sometimes people get cut out of shit. I was supposed to be in 'The Cat in the Hat' but I'm not anymore. But that's OK."
Naidu rarely escapes the Middle Eastern stereotype. His character names include Hindustani Troublemaker ("Bad Santa"), Mohammed ("Justice"), Paul Patel, Asif, Armand, Raji, Apu, Paquito and, my favorite, Dale. Ah, finally a nice American name. But, heck, it's great that Naidu can play the role well. It's obvious he's well-versed, intelligent and knowledgeable of acting. Why not find roles in big-name flicks?
BEGINNINGS
In real life, the 32-year-old Naidu has undergone hard times and takes his art very seriously. Naidu didn't learn his Indian accent from scratch. His parents came to the United States from India in 1964.
He had a great start to his career. "When I was 11 years old, my teacher in school saw an ad in the paper for an open call for a movie being shot in Chicago starring Michael Keaton and Maria Conchita Alonso," he says. "After school, I went and my mom met me down there for the open call. There were about a thousand kids."
The movie, of course, was the 1986 hockey romance "Touch and Go." Naidu played the Hispanic son of Alonso. I guess his brown skin was sufficient enough!
After the movie, Naidu did several more movies until he was 14, when he went back to school in Evanston and studied theater for 10 years. Naidu has always taken his acting seriously, even as a young student.
"I did as much theatre as possible and studied acting as much as possible," Naidu said. "When I got out of high school, I didn't go to college right away. I went to Conservatory for a year and a half after I went a year and a half to Columbia College. I worked around Chicago in the theater, like the Goodman and other companies like that.
"There was a lot going on in my family, so I really needed to be there in Chicago at that time. I wasn't really able to leave and go to college properly at that time
"Then I auditioned for the American Repertory Theatre for Harvard and I got in there. I had to get my parents off my back. I grew up in Chicago hardcore, partied a lot. I grew up break-dancing and doing all kinds of crazy stuff like that. It was a really beautiful time while I was there. But I really had to leave to come back to do anything."
THE FUTURE
"Since '95, '96 I kept acting and writing this movie that I want to go home and direct in Chicago," Naidu says.
Naidu will write, direct and produce the upcoming 2004 release, "Ashes." The film is in its final re-write stage, and will find an independent release.
"I have a lot of different drafts and versions of it, but the people that I'm working with now are quite serious," Naidu says. "It's in a much more realistic place than it's ever been. It's too much of a familial movie to not make. It's a social drama. It's tackling ethnocentric manic depression.
"[It will feature] different variations on health issues and Indian communities versus a lot of other communities. In one sort of particular world in Chicago. Near Devon – a very small neighborhood in the city.
"It's very much autobiographical, but at the same time very much imagined, predictable. My sister killed herself when I was 18 and she was 27. So it is based on our relationship and how she was my best friend. It's kind of like an ode to my family."
"I'm working seriously on my movie and just wanting to go home and make that at all costs, no matter what happens," Naidu says. "I'm just waiting for signs of spring on my own project."
