Dr. Gaurav J. Pathania is credited with many scholarly writings as well as activism poetry, and he can now add a Hollywood movie to that list. In November of 2022, Pathania was approached by one of his good friends from Los Angeles who encouraged him to audition for the role of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in Ava DuVerney’s 2024 film, “Origin”. The film is based on Isabel Wilkerson’s book, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents”, which looks deeply into how the Indian caste system is the foundational framework for American racism as well as Nazi Germany. Similarly to DuVernay’s previous films, the director made a commitment to the community by holding an open call for various characters instead of using known actors. Specifically looking for non-acting community members to audition is what allowed Pathania to earn his debut role on the big screen.
“When I heard about it I laughed because I had never acted before,” Pathania recalls, chuckling at the thought. Despite thinking of the idea as humorous, he decided to do the audition due to the trust his friend had shown him, and boy did the process pay off. According to Pathania, the whole audition process took place over the course of only a couple of days on Zoom, at the end of which he was very relieved. After making it to the final call-back for the role, an improvisation audition, Pathania somewhat panicked because the concept was all new to him. However, after showing the casting directors that he was the person they were looking for, Pathania received an exhilarating phone call from DuVernay herself to explain why he was chosen out of the fifty that auditioned.
“[DuVernay] told me… the goal here is not to match the facial resemblance, but also the scholarly resemblance because you have been studying Ambedkar for your lifetime,” Pathania recollects. Ambedkar was the most educated person of his time with three separate PhDs, and he has been called the Martin Luther King Jr. of India for his work on dismantling the caste system there. Pathania reminisces on his childhood and how he never followed any of the Hindu gods, but he did think of Ambedkar as a messiah of sorts for validating the whole lowest caste level as human beings. Had Ambedkar not fought for the rights of the Dalit, Pathania likely would not have accomplished everything he has done throughout his life, which is why he is seen as such a hero.
“See, my goal is very clear. I am not an actor, and I have always been against the film industry business. I did this film because of Dr. Ambedkar, because my society, what is happening to the lower levels… is so brutal it is hard to even imagine people in the twenty first century behaving like that,” Pathania makes clear. For this reason he did not attend the red carpet event this past September, due to its superficialness. Going against film industry norms resonates especially with “Origin” as a whole, as it is the first Hollywood movie to be released unattached to any major studio. Made in just thirty seven days across three continents and produced by two independent Black producers, the film originally was going to be made in conjunction with Netflix, but the media giant wanted to delay the release until 2025, whereas DuVernay wanted it out before the 2024 presidential election.
“I am the kind of filmmaker that believes that art has the capacity to change the world,” DuVernay told CNN in an interview. For this reason, the director set up the website seat16.com, allowing people to donate $16 to cover the cost of a ticket to see the film in hopes of sharing it with 10,000 young people. DuVernay believes that this generation has the power to change the systemic problems within the United States and across the world, and her movie may be the catalyst necessary to get a movement going.
