Bloke from Yorkshire with no acting training becomes first white Brit to lead Bollywood film – here’s how he did it
A “WHITE bloke” from Yorkshire has been given a starring role in a Bollywood blockbuster.
Richard Lovatt, 32, will fly to Mumbai next week to shoot with one of India’s biggest production companies.
He will be the first white British man to land a lead role in the country’s huge film industry — despite him having no formal acting training.
Richard said he wanted to study drama as a kid in Huddersfield but thought he would get bullied.
Instead, he turned to fitness work and became a personal trainer. His first insight into Bollywood came when he got a three-month contract in India to train movie stars.
Clients included Ranveer Singh, 37 — Bollywood’s equivalent to Tom Cruise — Arjun Kapoor, 37, and the late Sushant Singh Rajput.
READ MORE ON BOLLYWOOD
Richard got interested in their lives and films, and began getting a few smaller acting roles in TV and movies. Having never studied a foreign language, he decided to learn Hindi.
And it was when a casting agent saw him speaking it on YouTube that he got a call to audition. Richard, known on social media as Gora — “White Guy” in Hindi — said: “They offered me the part on the spot.
“It’s unheard of for a foreign, non-native Hindi speaker to get this type of role. I had to do loads of training on accent stuff and fighting. It was really hard — real Bruce Lee stuff.”
The title of the movie — to be released later this year — has yet to be revealed.
Most read in Film
Richard added: “As a white bloke from Huddersfield, I never thought I would be playing such a big role. I’m excited and more than ready.”