Hugh Grant Reveals Indian Roots, Recalls Kolkata Memories At Leadership Summit

British actor Hugh Grant, famed for romantic classics like Notting Hill and Love Actually, revealed at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit that he might be “half Indian,” sharing that his father was born in the Indian subcontinent.

“My father was a soldier. In fact, he was born in India. I had to find his birth certificate, and it was really tough. It was some obscure town in the north of India. It may well be Pakistan now,” Grant said. “He was born in either India or Pakistan. I guess that makes me half Indian, really,” he added.

Grant, 65, also reminisced about his first visit to India in 1988 to shoot the French film La Nuit Bengali in Kolkata. “I shot a very arty film in 1988, French, La Nuit Bengali in Kolkata and it never really had much of the release... but I thoroughly enjoyed being in Kolkata,” he said, recalling the cultural shock and how he eventually loved the city.

He shared a humorous anecdote about his young driver, “When I arrived, he introduced himself as Bishu and he looked like a 12-year-old. I think he might have been 13, and I said, ‘You sure you can drive?’ and he said ‘yes’. And within three weeks, he crashed quite badly. And he was fired. Months later, I bumped into him and he said, ‘It’s all good sir, I got a new job. I am now driving a school bus.’ He was great.”

Grant described being swept into Kolkata’s high society during the shoot, attending cocktail parties and polo at Tollygunge Club, and meeting personalities like Moon Moon Sen. The film, adapted from Mircea Eliade’s novel, starred Supriya Pathak alongside Grant, with Shabana Azmi and Soumitra Chatterjee in key roles.

On Indian cinema, Grant admitted: “I have seen a bit of Satyajit Ray’s films, we were using his studio and he is quite a genius. But I can’t pretend I have seen a lot of Bollywood.”

He also fondly recalled working with Merchant Ivory on Maurice in 1987, calling Ismail Merchant and James Ivory “a unique and wonderful pair” who made “beautiful, brave films” despite financial struggles.

(With inputs from PTI)