“We have a long way to go,” says Suraj Sharma while expressing his view about the western entertainment industry

Actors Suraj Sharma, Francia Raisa, Tom Ainsley, and Tien Tran have signed on to feature in ‘How I Met Your Father’. The upcoming series, which is a spin-off to the popular American sitcom ‘How I Met Your Mother’, will be headlined by Hilary Duff.

Suraj Sharma talks about Hollywood being an inclusive place but he surely has one or two observations to make. “We have a long way to go. I feel what’s missing is the authentic representation of color on screen in stories, and the general narrative of the world be it history books or wherever you look at it. That’s what is missing,” Sharma tells us.

“In terms of the industry (in the West), there are lots of actors that are exceptionally talented. That’s not the problem, the problem, or more like the solution is, in people of color being behind the screen decision-making making places, and places where stories are told. Because at the end of the day, an actor acts on what’s in the script. The script is controlled by someone who writes it or the producers. If people of color find themselves more in those circumstances and situations, the stories being told will become more true… And then that becomes the perspective of those certain social strata in the world. I feel that is missing right now.”

Sharma grabbed attention in Hollywood when he made his debut with Oscar-winning Life of Pi in 2012.