Cape Town - Actress Carishma Basday didn’t see many female role models who looked like her when she was younger, but her latest film transforms the perceptions around what roles can be played by women of colour.
Basday takes the lead role of Sunitha in the new South African film Deep Dive, which opened in cinemas across the country on Friday.
Sunitha is a young Indian woman living in Durban with a deep desire to learn how to surf. But surfing isn’t acceptable for a young Indian woman growing up in a traditional home, and goes against her father’s wishes.
She meets Cory, an American surfer (played by Greg Kriek), who shows her how to surf. The pair eventually fall in love but their interracial relationship and Sunitha’s forbidden passion for surfing comes into conflict with her father’s rigid beliefs.
“The most challenging aspect is the relationship she has with her father because he doesn’t see the potential she has in her life. Whereas my dad was the most supportive and my mother was the more cautious one,” said Basday.
She first found out about the role while performing her presenting duties on SABC lifestyle show Mela.
“I was interviewing Jailoshini Naidoo who was auditioning to play my mum in the movie and she was saying how they were struggling to find someone. I said it’s an amazing role and I love surfing, my husband's a good surfer and I’m fascinated by the ocean,” said Basday.
Originally from Port Shepstone in KZN, Basday first immersed herself in the showbiz world when she was four years old and enrolled for ballet classes.
In 2005 she travelled to Chicago as an exchange student where she worked as a journalist for a local paper and a news anchor, and followed her dreams of becoming a professional actress and dancer by landing a role in the play Les Miserables.
“I came back and decided to move to Cape Town where I got cast on my first audition for an advert and I thought I had made it. And then the phone didn’t ring for a while before I got cast in Riaad Moosa’s film Material,” said Basday.
She said the international film industry has realised the potential that South Africa has as a filming destination.
“The industry is flourishing and growing exponentially and people are realising the beauty of diversity,” said Basday.
Deep Dive is in cinemas countrywide.