Absolutely wild seeing doyenne Shabana Azmi, who started out as a sloe-eyed naïf in Bolly romances, playing a ball-busting general in Spielberg’s Halo.

It’s the Shohreh Aghdashloo in The Expanse arc.

Indian female leader / general is a sci-fi trope: an evolved society does not discard the talented based on gender and skin; a small globe has a diverse world govt.

Shabana’s shrewd side-eye here is the same side-eye she gives as a tawaif / courtesan queen in Umrao Jaan. Her exasperated look, anger, coquettishness—all the same. Major flashbacks, just now in game-derived sci-fi. 

Ali Khan 🇬🇧 as a haggling merchant selling salvaged mil gear, in a bad desi accent:

Nila Aalia

Starring Pablo Schreiber, Natascha McElhone

Spielberg also cast Naomi Scott, Shelley Conn 🇮🇳🇬🇧 in the short-lives Terra Nova sci-fi series (’11).