In his new web series, Made in India: A Titan Story, Jim Sarbh plays Titan founder Xerxes Desai, the man who challenged European watchmakers with India’s first luxury watch brand. A key component of the show is how Desai and JRD Tata (played by Naseeruddin Shah) were spurred to create Titan after being told by a Swiss watchmaker that Indians lack the technical expertise to do so. In a conversation with Hindustan Times, Jim addressed how this underestimation of Indians’ skills is not just a matter of a foreign mindset.
On Indians underestimating themselves
Jim said that while the show discussed how others underestimated Indians at what they do, Indians themselves have done the same. “For a while, there was this rumour floating around that when you send your films for film festivals or awards internationally, they wouldn’t even watch them. Indian films, three-hour-long with singing and dancing, who’s going to watch that? I think that’s sad,” said the actor.
Jim added that this stems from a notion that only one way is right, which, to many ‘cinephiles’, is the Western way of filmmaking. “It believes in a similar notion that only one way is right and that diversity should not be welcomed, recognised, and encouraged,” added Jim.
On Made in India: A Titan Story
Made in India has been praised for giving a non-glorified look at how Titan came into being. Jim added that he was always certain that the show would be objective in its storytelling. “Titan hadn’t commissioned it. It wasn’t their desire to tell this story or put it out into the world. It was Sunil Vohra reading the book and being blown away by it. And even before that, I’d heard a whole chapter is devoted in MBA classes in certain places to the development of Titan. It is such an interesting case study of a startup model before there were startups. All these reasons made me think that even if it is glorifying Titan, it might be for a good reason,” he added.
All about Made in India: A Titan Story
Made in India: A Titan Story also stars Naseeruddin Shah as JRD Tata, along with a large ensemble cast including Vaibhav Tatwawadi, Kaveri Seth, Namita Dubey, Lakshvir Saran, Joy Sengupta, Viraf Patel, and Ashwath Bhatt. It began streaming on Amazon MX Player from June 3 and has earned praise for its narrative and performances.
