'Acting Sucks and the Stories Are Always Basically the Same' in Bollywood — Says Russell Peters

The Canadian-born, Anglo-Indian stand-up star Russell Peters has never been shy about his opinions — and in a 2011 interview, Bollywood got both barrels: he said he couldn't relate to the Hindi film industry, that "the acting sucks and the stories are always basically the same."

Peters, then one of the world's biggest touring comedians, was in the middle of proving that cross-cultural honesty travels. His routines — Indians haggling, his dad telling a waiter to forget the remaining $1.50 of a $4.50 bar tab — got laughs in every country because, as he put it, his humor was "observational and personal. It's how I see the world. It's important for me to be honest."

The Bollywood jab worked on the same principle. It was blunt, it was personal, and whether or not Indian cinema fans agreed with the assessment, nobody could say he was being diplomatic. That refusal to flatter was exactly what his fans told him they came for.

Reporting: The Times of India.