Successful: Kunal Nayyar gets candid
Actor talks marriage, future projects and success of ‘The Big Bang Theory’
Kunal Nayyar plays Rajesh Koothrappali on The Big Bang Theory. PHOTO: FILE
LOS ANGELES:
To say Kunal Nayyar looks up to his wife - former Miss India Neha Kapur – would be an understatement. The Big Bang Theory star barely reaches her shoulders when she puts on stiletto heels for the red carpet. But Nayyar has no reason for ‘short-man syndrome.’ Towering astride the entertainment industry as one of the world’s best paid actors, the 35-year-old British-Indian has become one of the biggest celebrities in Hollywood.
“I feel like the tallest guy in the room,” he said in a recent interview, whilst promoting his next project Trolls, alongside Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick. “Maybe I’m the short guy who got the beautiful woman, I don’t know. I have no qualms about it. She’s not only beautiful but also an amazing human being.”
Nayyar has good reason for his easy self-confidence, having seen his salary bloom from $100,000 per episode to a reported $800,000 for his role as Rajesh Koothrappali on the show. He is earning around $22 million a year, according to Forbes, making him the world’s fourth highest paid television actor, a short distance behind three of his fellow cast members.
There has been much speculation over whether season 10 of The Big Bang Theory will be the last and while Nayyar says he’s “not ready to say goodbye yet,” he is already looking forward to starring in Bollywood. Outside of the show, he recently took up a part in Jesse Eisenberg’s acclaimed play, The Spoils and has a successful book in stores, called Yes, My Accent Is Real.
Born in London and brought up in New Delhi, Nayyar moved to the US at 18, initially to pursue a business degree at the University of Portland, Oregon. He was already on The Big Bang Theory when he met Kapur on a trip to India and married her there in 2011, in a lavish six-day ceremony involving white horses and 1,000 guests. The couple were dubbed ‘Beauty and the Geek,’ irritating Nayyar, who admits he gets frustrated by the media conflating him with Raj, his shy, nerdy character on the sitcom.
Trolls, inspired by the fuzzy-headed dolls popular in the early 1990s, is set for release in the US on November 4. Ostensibly for children, it follows Poppy and Branch on their mission to rescue their friends from the Bergens – giants who believe the only way to lift their melancholy is to eat the cute, colorful trolls. Nayyar plays one of the captives, an endearing little troll called Guy Diamond who refuses to wear clothes and farts glitter as a means of spreading joy.
When he talks about the film’s message that “humanity is about positivity and love,” Nayyar comes across like his character: disarmingly animated. “It’s a film for both kids and adults and the music is incredible. And the world looks beautiful…the hair on the trolls, the glitter on Guy Diamond, the quality,” he enthuses.
Trolls comes out four days before America gives serious consideration to electing Donald Trump, a populist presidential candidate who has polarised the public with his rhetoric on Muslims, Mexicans and immigration. “As an immigrant, I am beginning to seriously worry. If Trump gets elected, does that mean I could get deported and no more Raj?” he tweeted, a few days earlier.
But the actor is an optimist at heart and clarifies that he was just kidding. “I think the world is becoming a smaller place and I really do believe at the bottom of my heart that good always overcomes evil,” he said. “That’s why the universe, the world, is where it is today. A lot of bad things have happened in the past, in many different generations. Our parents survived world wars. I think we’re going to be okay.”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 30th, 2016.
To say Kunal Nayyar looks up to his wife - former Miss India Neha Kapur – would be an understatement. The Big Bang Theory star barely reaches her shoulders when she puts on stiletto heels for the red carpet. But Nayyar has no reason for ‘short-man syndrome.’ Towering astride the entertainment industry as one of the world’s best paid actors, the 35-year-old British-Indian has become one of the biggest celebrities in Hollywood.
“I feel like the tallest guy in the room,” he said in a recent interview, whilst promoting his next project Trolls, alongside Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick. “Maybe I’m the short guy who got the beautiful woman, I don’t know. I have no qualms about it. She’s not only beautiful but also an amazing human being.”
Nayyar has good reason for his easy self-confidence, having seen his salary bloom from $100,000 per episode to a reported $800,000 for his role as Rajesh Koothrappali on the show. He is earning around $22 million a year, according to Forbes, making him the world’s fourth highest paid television actor, a short distance behind three of his fellow cast members.
There has been much speculation over whether season 10 of The Big Bang Theory will be the last and while Nayyar says he’s “not ready to say goodbye yet,” he is already looking forward to starring in Bollywood. Outside of the show, he recently took up a part in Jesse Eisenberg’s acclaimed play, The Spoils and has a successful book in stores, called Yes, My Accent Is Real.
Born in London and brought up in New Delhi, Nayyar moved to the US at 18, initially to pursue a business degree at the University of Portland, Oregon. He was already on The Big Bang Theory when he met Kapur on a trip to India and married her there in 2011, in a lavish six-day ceremony involving white horses and 1,000 guests. The couple were dubbed ‘Beauty and the Geek,’ irritating Nayyar, who admits he gets frustrated by the media conflating him with Raj, his shy, nerdy character on the sitcom.
Trolls, inspired by the fuzzy-headed dolls popular in the early 1990s, is set for release in the US on November 4. Ostensibly for children, it follows Poppy and Branch on their mission to rescue their friends from the Bergens – giants who believe the only way to lift their melancholy is to eat the cute, colorful trolls. Nayyar plays one of the captives, an endearing little troll called Guy Diamond who refuses to wear clothes and farts glitter as a means of spreading joy.
When he talks about the film’s message that “humanity is about positivity and love,” Nayyar comes across like his character: disarmingly animated. “It’s a film for both kids and adults and the music is incredible. And the world looks beautiful…the hair on the trolls, the glitter on Guy Diamond, the quality,” he enthuses.
Trolls comes out four days before America gives serious consideration to electing Donald Trump, a populist presidential candidate who has polarised the public with his rhetoric on Muslims, Mexicans and immigration. “As an immigrant, I am beginning to seriously worry. If Trump gets elected, does that mean I could get deported and no more Raj?” he tweeted, a few days earlier.
But the actor is an optimist at heart and clarifies that he was just kidding. “I think the world is becoming a smaller place and I really do believe at the bottom of my heart that good always overcomes evil,” he said. “That’s why the universe, the world, is where it is today. A lot of bad things have happened in the past, in many different generations. Our parents survived world wars. I think we’re going to be okay.”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 30th, 2016.