HYDERABAD: With fans across the world addicted to the fourth season of the television adaptation of George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series, we scan through the same for actors who share an ethnic link with us. Playing significant roles on the show, they truly bring the popularity home.
Amrita Acharia: Irri
Amrita Acharia portrays a young Dothraki woman, Irri, who is given to Daenerys Targaryen as a handmaiden. She is fiercely loyal and teaches Daenerys the Dothraki language and customs. Part Ukrainian and part Nepalese, Acharia grew up in Kathmandu, and later moved to London where she lived for a brief while before moving with her family to Norway, at the age of 13. At 19, Acharia moved back to London to pursue acting. She has also been associated with British drama series Casualty and the biographical film, The Devil’s Double.
Indira Varma: Ellaria Sand
Playing the part of the dangerous Dornish prince Oberyn Martell’s partner, Indira Varma is introduced in the fourth season of the series as the sensuous and caustic Ellaria Sand. The half-Indian, half-Swiss Varma, who was born and raised in England, has played significant roles in television series like The Canterbury Tales, Rome, Luther and Human Target as well as the lead role in Mira Nair’s controversial film, Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love. This is, however, the meatiest avatar of the actress, whose character goes on to be the mother of Oberyn’s bastard children, also known as the Sand Snakes. She appears multiple times in the season and is a character featured in the books that follow. “I was really keen to be a part of such a hugely creative and diverse project. It has dragons, for goodness sake!” said the 40-year-old mother of one in an interview.
Ramon Tikaram: Prendahl na Ghezn
Of Indo-Fijian and Malaysian descent, Ramon Tikaram plays Prendahl na Ghezn, a warrior of Ghiscari origin. Alongside Mero, he’s one of the captains of the Second Sons, an army of mercenaries. Tikaram was born in Singapore to a Fijian-Indian father, Pramod Tikaram, and a Sarawakian mother, Fatima Rohani. As a child, he travelled all over the world thanks to his dad’s job and attended primary schools in the UK and Germany before being sent to the Duke of York’s Royal Military School in Dover, in 1978. Although Tikaram’s character only briefly appeared on the show, he made his mark when he tried to fight the Mother of Dragons, before being beheaded by one of his ‘brothers’, Daario.