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Rick Ferguson, the Houston Film Commission's executive director, calls Yaar the "opening salvo" of a developing filmmaking presence in Houston's Indian community.

"It's sort of a natural marriage of a fairly prolific industry and the availability of resources here," he says. Having a large thriving Indian community in general helps, too.

While Yaar is the only completed project locally, Ferguson says he's aware of a handful of other Indian movies in development in Houston -- what he calls "fusion" projects -- which blend some Bollywood aesthetics with traditional Western fare. One project is an old-fashioned horror movie, with Indian and American actors.

Houston is also the U.S. headquarters for Cinemawalla, a company that produces and markets Indian- and Bengali-language films in India. Producer Sutapa Ghosh says she's working on her first local English-language movie. She doesn't want to disclose details until filming starts later this year.

Richard Pena, program director for the Lincoln Center Film Society, says the upswing in such activity reflects the "unheard voices" that are "one of the most fertile areas of the American independent cinema." Whether the theme is based on race or language or sexual orientation, these outside groups have provided some of the most compelling films within independent cinema in the last ten or 15 years, he says.

"For many other Americans, it happened a generation or two ago. For these Americans, it's happening now," he says of the Indian-American cinematic boom. "Indian-Americans have reached a certain level of both assimilation and self-awareness within American culture that they're now wanting to reflect on the particularities of their own experience here in our country."

Thakkar's experience in this country was particularly strange. Growing up in India, he was a loner with a horrible stutter. When he moved to Houston, he had to struggle with extreme FOBness, a battle he says he really never won.

Even though the goofy kid with the speech impediment found himself hosting the hottest desi radio show in Houston, Thakkar still considers himself a FOB. He pokes fun at himself in Yaar, playing the lovably clueless FOB Shyam Sunder Balabhadrapatramukhi. Shyam and his FOB roommates occupy an apartment dominated by hideous leopard-print coverings. He travels the UH campus in the requisite white sneakers, makes pathetic attempts to adopt American slang and, in primping for a big desi party, finds it necessary to shave his ears.

Maybe it's penance for Thakkar's real life as the guy who had to turn away so many FOBs -- his brothers -- from his events. The movie even uses the name of his company, Music Masala, and portrays its owner as an insensitive, FOB-hating prick.

Thakkar didn't mind being the butt of many of the movie's jokes. Although he's a shrewd businessman, he sounds sincere when he says he just wants to make people laugh.

"This really wasn't a business thing for me," he says of Yaar. Thakkar has too much enthusiasm for mere words. He's a bundle of energy, shifting in his seat, using his hands to illustrate this point, busting out the 7-Eleven clerk's accent for that one. He's a huge freakin' ham.

"I think, at the end of the day, if it puts a smile on people's faces when they're watching it, that's it. Objective met. Money made? Fine. This movie we made from the heart; it wasn't something we contrived."

Heart, or at least gut, had a lot to do with casting choices. Sunil Malhotra was picked to play Hari at the last minute, when the original actor wasn't available because of visa problems. The producers auditioned more than 700 candidates for the two leading female roles before choosing two Houston-born UH students.

Serena Varghese, who plays Mohan's love interest, had never acted before. On a lark, the then-19-year-old marketing major answered a casting call in the campus paper. Originally scheduled for a smaller part, Varghese asked for the role of strong-minded, studious Janvi, because, she says, "I wish I had a little bit of her in me."

Tina Cherian, then a 21-year-old finance major, won the role of Priya "All this math makes me dizzy" Varghese. She drew on her high school debate and storytelling team experiences to transform into the spaced-out party girl who routinely walks into the wrong classrooms.

Malhotra colors the character of Hari with a certain tender dignity. For all of Hari's often predictable pratfalls, it's Malhotra's subtler intonations that humanize the character.

Malhotra worked with Penn in American Desi, and the two returned to Texas six months after Yaar to shoot The Arrangement, an Indian-American comedy set in Austin.

Malhotra was born in India, and his family moved to Skokie, Illinois, when he was six months old. Although he was a band geek, he never felt like a FOB -- in reading the script for Yaar, he identified more with Mohan than with Hari.

Malhotra moved from New York City to Los Angeles earlier this year to find more work, as opportunities are gradually expanding for Indian-American actors.

"The idea of Indians and South Asians actually existing in the world, in the U.S…that is slowly starting to seep in" in Hollywood, he says with a laugh. Pointing to last year's Hollywood-meets-Bollywood satire The Guru, Malhotra can't help but feel optimistic. Though not a commercial smash like Bend It Like Beckham, the movie paired Indian actors with American stars Heather Graham and Marisa Tomei, and was released by Universal.

"I think things are starting to open," he says. "It's not a watershed, it's a trickle. But it's a good trickle."

After Sunil Thakkar's mother had a heart attack, he and Sandhya moved the production office into their Sugar Land home to be closer to her. However, to keep Sandhya from attacking her husband, the two worked -- and still work -- in different rooms. They meet in the kitchen for lunch (which could more accurately be described as breakfast for the late-waking Thakkar) and then retreat to their separate corners.

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