Rizwan Manji, popular for his role as Rajiv, the scheming manager in NBC’s Outsourced , teams up with Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese in the just released The Wolf of Wall Street . It’s his biggest break, but Rizwan prefers to keep expectations low by saying “It’s an important but fairly minor role and more than that, it’s a dream-come-true for me — working with Martin Scorsese.”
The Indo-Canadian Rizwan plays stockbroker Khalil in a film that also stars some big Hollywood names, including Academy Award nominees Leonardo DiCaprio ( Titanic ) and Jonah Hill ( Moneyball ), Academy Award-winner Jean Dujardin ( The Artist ), and well-known actors Matthew McConaughey ( The Lincoln Lawyer ) and Kyle Chandler ( Zero Dark Thirty ). The biographical black comedy is based on Jordan Belfort’s memoir of the same name. Jordan was a young stockbroker who came to Wall Street in the 1990s and set up a brokerage scheme that sold penny stocks to thousands of investors. The fraud made him a multi-millionaire, and his story has earlier inspired the 2000 film Boiler Room .
“I shot for six weeks for my role and was on the sets all the time. There are six of us brokers, so I would act a little and finish my job, but since I was required to be there all the time, it turned out to be a great learning experience,” says Rizwan. On working with the award-winning director, he says, “Every director has a distinct style. Scorsese’s mainstay is his enthusiasm. I remember him narrating my shot to me at 4 a.m. and he seemed all pepped up.” Rizwan admits that though he is getting interesting offers from the film fraternity, his heart is set on television. “As mean as he was, I loved playing Rajiv ( Outsourced ). I can’t deny I thoroughly enjoyed doing The Wolf of Wall Street and Dr Cabbie (Salman Khan’s first international production) that will release next year, but television is special and will remain so. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to Bollywood,” he says. Rizwan’s first acting break was in the 2001 film American Desi .
