Purva Bedi Cast as Lead in "When Kiran Met Karen"

After college,
despite her interest in acting, she did not immediately pursue her dream. “I
don't think I had the courage to say ‘I want to be an actor when I graduate,'”
Bedi admitted. Instead, she became a management consultant. “And then after
a year I was like, OK, life is too short. I need to follow my heart. And then
I started acting.”

One of her first
roles was a lead in the Indian-American film American Desi, in which
she played the perfect Indian-American college student. Subsequent lead roles
in other South Asian films, such as Green Card Fever (2003) and Cosmopolitan
(2003), directed by Nisha Ganatra (Chutney Popcorn), followed.
Bedi has also had roles on several prime time television shows, including guest-starring
stints on Strong Medicine and The Drew Carey Show.

Though she has
played roles ranging from medical student to potential terrorist, the role of
Rachna is the first time that Bedi will be portraying a woman grappling with
her sexual orientation. “I am at the beginning of a journey discovering who
Rachna is,” Bedi said. “Part of my research is just figuring out how, for the
character of Rachna, I can get into her shoes in the most personal way.”

She added with
a laugh, “Which doesn't mean that I'm necessarily gonna make out with lots of
women.” But Bedi freely recalled studying radical feminism in college and said,
“If you're a fairly open-minded person, in life one explores other things.”

Unlike
Zorabian, Bedi is not afraid to stir up the waters in the Indian community
with her role in When Kiran Met Karen. In fact, the actress seems to
almost relish the possibility that they will be forced to see a different side
of her. “The Indian community—a lot of people know me from American Desi,
which was a romantic comedy set at a college campus where I play the perfect
Indian girl,” Bedi said.

“And after the film, I remember my aunt called me up and was like, ‘You played the perfect
Indian daughter that everybody wants to bring home.' And so what I love
about this movie is that it's just gonna turn everything on its head.
… I remember thinking, ‘Well, I'm not the perfect Indian girl. Maybe you all
think that, but that's not me.' So this is just sort of like, I'm crossing to
the dark side according to Indian standards.”

Bedi laughed a
bit nervously and concluded, “I hope people still want to see my movies after
this.”