Why Naveen Andrews????

It was laughable that they even had him play an Iraqi on LOST. Have you seen what a typical Iraqi looks like? Naveen looks so obviously Indian (a dark skinned one at that, although there is nothing wrong with being dark) I am still baffled about why he was cast in that role. Honestly, if they got a mixed race black guy to play the role, it would have been more convincing. That said, he is still a good actor.

http://www.1971-reviewae.com

He doesn't play every South Aisian or Arab character out there. At one time there was chatter that he was on Heroes. As most of us know that was Sendhil Ramamurthy. A tweet I saw credited him with the 1998 movie City of Angels. That was Shishur Kirup. Naveen Andrews has also been confused with Kal Penn. Clearly none of these gentlemen look alike. My point is that in every (British) movie Asian characters are played by actors that may be similar in appearence,(if you squint and look really, really fast).

You have a point, but there are many answers to your question. He is very talented and has the recent fame and glory from his role in Lost series, which was seen by 10 to 20 million viewers per episode. "Everybody" knows him. He also had a few other good roles, one in the English Patient if I am not mistaken.

By the way, I liked his work in this movie.

"If you can't beat them, join them, and strike them hard from within."

Diana was not England's but Hasnat Khan's, that's what I got from this genuinely moving story, Naomi Watts' accent was cut-glass perfect & her voice really was like Diana's. Naveen Andrews was probably chosen because of his fame in 'Lost', although he didn't quite look like Hasnat Khan, the acting of falling in love with each other was excellent. The humour & playfulness shown by both actors was very believable as they fell in love & showed the coldness of the Royal's to the warmth of Hasnat & his family... Diana was a wonderful person & all she ever wanted was to be in love & happy but outside influences saw to it that it would not happen. I still believe in the theory that she was murdered along with Dodi Al-Fayed by the English establishment... Great film, do not go by the people denigrating this film because of their own prejudiced agenda, it's wonderful, see it...

Sayid was an excellent choice for the role

because he's a very good actor.

Liberate tu temet ex inferis.
pro ego sum diabolus, pro ego sum nex.

He's a fantastic actor. There's also a very few Indian actors that star in English speaking movies.

It's true...there aren't a whole lot of good British Asian actors that can be cast in a leading role for a Hollywood movie...if anyone disagrees, feel free to suggest a few names.