The big news about NBC’s new comedy Outsourced is that it’s a mostly Indian cast, set in the world of a call center for American catalog companies. Is that a racist stereotype of Indians? Does that make it any less funny? Sacha Dhawan is a U.K. native so he’s even putting on a fake voice to play Manmeet. He addressed concerns of the Television Critics Association.
CraveOnline: They seem to really enunciate your character’s name in an interesting way. They’re basically just saying “man meat.”
Sacha Dhawan: Yeah, they are. Already I feel like I’m getting people come up to me, “Oh, it’s Man Meat.” So it’s going to become a thing.
CraveOnline: How do you feel about that?
Sacha Dhawan: I’m good. It’s going to be a challenge as well now because hopefully there’s going to be a lot more that the character’s going to reveal and they’re going to be attracted to other things as well as just his name. There’s going to be some other stuff that’s going to be brought to the table.
CraveOnline: How long do you think it will be before Manmeet gets the joke?
Sacha Dhawan: I think he’s got it pretty straight away but he’s waiting for the right moment to speak to Todd and say, “Hey” and constantly recorrect him all the time.
CraveOnline: Are the episodes so far all an ensemble or are some character getting their own episodes?
Sacha Dhawan: It’s very hard in a pilot because in that small a space of time you’ve got to get a quick taste of everybody. What they’re going to start doing is focusing on individual characters and getting the audience to really get to know them and find out more about them.
CraveOnline: That’s what makes TV more interesting than movies sometimes, that you can do a whole episode about a supporting character.
Sacha Dhawan: Yeah, what’s great is we can start doing episodes as well that are simple. They’re simple themes. Not overcomplicated, like it’s Halloween. We can just focus on a particular character and in that amount of time, you can get the audience to get to know them more and more.
CraveOnline: Has Manmeet gotten his own episode yet?
Sacha Dhawan: Well, I shouldn’t tell you this but I’m going to. Basically, there is a later thing. As I was saying, the thing about Manmeet is he’s a real romantic, genuinely wants to fall in love and get married. But he’s a good salesman, let’s not forget this. He’s good on the phones. So Todd goes, “All right, I want to look at his evaluation records.” His sales are really low. He’s like, “What the hell is going on?” So he listens into his calls and he finds out that Manmeet, rather than selling novelty gifts, has set up phone relationships with all different women all around America. So he’s like, “What the hell is going on here?” So that’s kind of an exciting little thing.
CraveOnline: Will we meet them or just hear their voices?
Sacha Dhawan: I think you’ll hear their voices, but I’m hoping, I don’t want to reveal too much, I’m hoping that maybe somewhere along the way they appear.
CraveOnline: How are you making America home?
Sacha Dhawan: So I’ve got a lovely nice apartment and I’ve brought loads and loads of things from the U.K. I’ve also got my sister here with me as well so it’s really nice. It feels really homey.
