Taking racist, offensive language to a new level.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: An upcoming film entitled ‘Bad Words’ – going by its trailer – has offensive and derogatory language against an Indian character, taking stereotypes to a new level.
The film, directed by Golden Globe-winning actor Jason Bateman (Juno, Horrible Bosses), has come under attack because its trailer shows the main character (also played by Bateman) being particularly rude to a young desi boy sitting in front of him on a plane. Bateman’s character tells the boy, played by newcomer Rohan Chand, to turn his “curry hole” around and stop bothering him. Later in the trailer, the Indian boy is referred to as “slumdog” by another character in the film.
It is unlikely that these two aforementioned instances — plus any other derogatory slurs used in the movie but not shown in the trailer — will be removed.
‘Bad Words’ is about a forty year-old man (Bateman) who never graduate eighth grade, and is therefore able to exploit a loophole that allows him to participate in middle school spelling bees around the nation. He does this because, as a youth, he was unable to win spelling bees, and now wants to recapture the title he lost out on as a child.
The film premiered last September at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it garnered largely positive reviews and was picked up by distributor Focus Features for a sum of $7 million. The screenplay, written by debutante Andrew Dodge, was featured on the 2011 “Black List,” an industry-compiled listing of the best unproduced screenplays published at the end of each year.
‘Bad Words’ is set to release in theaters across the US on March 8, and is rated R for “crude and sexual content, language and brief nudity.”
The red-band trailer, which is the cause of the controversy, can be viewed below (please be warned that it is not intended for viewers younger than 17 years old, and contains potentially offensive material):
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com