As frustrated daily commuters in the metropolis of Mumbai, my friends and I have a running gag: that no guy has screwed us over as badly as the typical autorickshaw guy. A few months ago, many in our circle excitedly passed around a video clip of a foreigner mimicking an autorickshaw driver who refuses passengers unless they agree to his asking price. “ Kaha jaana hai tereko? Do sau rupaya lagega ” (Where do you want to go? It’ll be ₹200), the white guy tells the Indian passenger, complete with a straight face and the Indian slang accent down pat, that too for a mere two-km distance, and then drives off with swagger. He was one half of 2 Foreigners in Bollywood, a Swedish duo who have acquired a sizeable fan following in India after amusing people with their sharply observed and hilarious videos on typical Indian quirks.

Johan Bartoli (25) and Hampus Berqvist (26) met while studying business at a university in Stockholm. While most of their friends dreamt of jobs in banks and financial corporations, the two “film freaks” were harbouring hopes of an entirely different kind of career. They were young, single, and wanted to move abroad, but to a place diametrically opposite to Sweden.

If the Great American Dream is to get a high-powered white-collar job and a picket-fenced house in the suburbs, the Great Indian Dream is to come to Mumbai and star in a Bollywood musical. “After college, we both wanted to do something crazy and challenging with our lives. We both had a passion for films and travelling, so in the last year of college, we worked through the summer, and bought a one-way ticket to Mumbai,” says Bartoli, devouring plate after plate of chicken bhuna roll at a suburban restaurant. The two friends had bonded over their love for one of Bollywod’s most epic romances, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge , which convinced them to try their luck in the Hindi film industry.

Having just completed their first year in the city, the duo has already displayed their acting chops in several movie cameos, television commercials, and even melodramatic daily soaps. Bartoli has acted alongside Esha Gupta in the blockbuster Rustom while Berqvist is in the Riteish Deshmukh-starrer Banjo . They are both also playing British officers in Vishal Bharadwaj’s next, Rangoon .

However, it’s their sketches on the perils, pitfalls and peculiarities of life in Mumbai that have become a hit with viewers in India. “We made our first few sketches on a whim, but after they went viral we saw the potential in these funny videos. Now we just sit and brainstorm jokes and ideas, and then go shoot it on the streets. We aren’t planning to become YouTubers, but we are making these videos because it’s fun for us and for our fans,” say Bartoli.

Their brand of cross-cultural, slapstick, self-deprecating humour has resonated with Indian viewers. Over 6,30,000 people follow their antics on the Facebook page ‘2 Foreigners in Bollywood’, with each sketch getting thousands of Likes and shares. They also have over 50,000 followers on Instagram.

Berqvist and Bartoli remain undeterred by the fact that rarely has a foreigner made an impact in the Indian film industry, which only has space for exotic dancers or token background roles in films trying to pass off as having been shot in foreign locales. “Yes, there are many exciting roles for foreigners here, that vary mostly between British officer and/or Russian hippie,” quips Bartoli wryly. “But there is actually a lot of work that goes into getting roles, a lot of meetings, a lot of making contacts, a lot of auditions.” Currently, they’re taking it one day at a time and have made up their minds to stay on, work on their acting and their Hindi, and make their mark in the industry. “Our overall experience so far in Mumbai has been amazing and far better than we expected,” says Berqvist.

With a Ganesh Chaturthi event blaring Marathi film music in the background, the duo tells me how it loves “the mayhem, but hate the traffic”.

The meal over, it’s time to wrap up over chai and cigarettes. The Swedes explain their love for the bustling yet laid-back metropolis vibe, and the simple but innately Indian activity of taking a breather in the middle of a hectic day, have chai and converse with friends and strangers alike — since “there’s no socialising on the streets of Sweden”. And I acquaint them with the culture of adda, and there is palpable excitement at having learnt another new word in their adopted home — “Oh, we do adda every day!”

Another popular video shows them both getting ripped off by a panwari and ending up buying a hand-rolled special Indian cigarette, better known as a beedi, for a thousand bucks.

Have they really been ripped off by the locals? “Surprisingly, not at all, except the one time the wildly fluctuating prices of tomatoes convinced me (wrongly) that I was being taken for a ride!” says Berqvist.

Well-versed with the daily price of tomatoes, Bartoli and Berqvist seem to have settled down quite well in the city.

“Well, right now we’re two foreigners in Bollywood, but give us a couple of years and we’re sure we’ll be legit Mumbaikars,” Bartoli says, signing off with a grin.

Ritika Bhatiais a freelance journalist and communications consultant based in Mumbai

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