Outsourced
Encyclopedia
Outsourced is a romantic comedy film
Romantic comedy film
Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is "a funny movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily"...

, directed by John Jeffcoat
John Jeffcoat
John Jeffcoat is an American film director. He is most famous for his film Outsourced starring Josh Hamilton and Ayesha Dharker. The film has been adapted as a television series, and was recently picked up by NBC for their fall schedule after The Office....

, released in 2006.

Plot

When Todd Anderson's (Josh Hamilton
Josh Hamilton (actor)
Josh C. Hamilton is an American actor.Hamilton was born in New York City, New York. His father is actor Dan Hamilton, and his stepmother is actress Stephanie Braxton...

) job and entire department are outsourced
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the process of contracting a business function to someone else.-Overview:The term outsourcing is used inconsistently but usually involves the contracting out of a business function - commonly one previously performed in-house - to an external provider...

, he reluctantly travels to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 to train his replacement. Arriving in India, he experiences culture shock
Culture shock
Culture shock is the anxiety, feelings of frustration, alienation and anger that may occur when a person is emplaced in a new culture.One of the most common causes of culture shock involves individuals in a foreign country. Culture shock can be described as consisting of one or more distinct phases...

: he is confused by everything from catching a train to hiring a taxi.

Through his team of quirky Indian call center workers—including his friendly and motivated replacement, Puro (Asif Basra
Asif Basra
Asif Basra is an Indian film, television and theater actor. He is best known for his role in the American comedy film Outsourced.-Career:He performed in Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday and Rahul Dholakia's Parzania, which received much critical appreciation. He also appeared in Micheal O...

), and the charming, outspoken Asha (Ayesha Dharker
Ayesha Dharker
Ayesha Dharker is a British-Indian actress. She is known for her performance in the Tamil Indian film, The Terrorist , for which she was awarded Best Artistic Contribution by an Actress at the Cairo International Film Festival and nominated for a Chlotrudis Award and National Film Award for Best...

)—Todd soon realizes that he too has a lot to learn, not only about India and America but also about himself. One day he calls his ex-girlfriend in the US only to find that she is with another man. Todd is depressed, but before long he discovers that being outsourced may be the best thing that ever happened to him.

Todd's objective is to reduce the time needed to complete the average call from 12 minutes to six. If his team doesn't achieve this, his boss won't let him go home. Another call center administrator tells him it's hopeless. The other administrator suggests that, instead of fighting, Todd should relax and go with the flow; his life in the process will become easy.

The next day Todd gets caught in Holi
Holi
Holi , is a religious spring festival celebrated by Hindus. Holi is also known as festival of Colours. It is primarily observed in India, Nepal, Pakistan, and countries with large Indic diaspora populations following Hinduism, such as Suriname, Malaysia, Guyana, South Africa, Trinidad, United...

, a celebration of colors. He initially tries to run away from the people throwing colored powders and water balloons at him, but he finally joins in the celebration and has fun. He then submerges himself in the village lake and then emerges, emphasizing his acceptance of the culture. He also starts to give away leftover food to the poor people working next to the place where he is staying.

One night, Todd congratulates his call center on their progress. He asks them what would make working in the call center a more positive experience. Workers ask to bring pictures and figurines from home, and to be allowed to dress as they please. Workers also ask to get the products they're selling. Todd makes a deal that the worker with the best Minutes Per Incident (MPI) will get to pick the product of his choice from the treasure box. He has the manufacturer send 100 products, much to his boss's disapproval. However, when the boss calls to complain, Todd explains that there are a billion potential buyers in India who would love to buy the products. The boss responds by shipping the products overnight.

The products are accidentally sent to another town and street with the same name. Todd and Asha go to retrieve the packages, by car and ferry. Todd asks the taxi statue of the goddess of destruction (Kali
Kali
' , also known as ' , is the Hindu goddess associated with power, shakti. The name Kali comes from kāla, which means black, time, death, lord of death, Shiva. Kali means "the black one". Since Shiva is called Kāla - the eternal time, Kālī, his consort, also means "Time" or "Death" . Hence, Kāli is...

) to destroy something while they wait. The ferry coincidentally burns up. Todd and Asha have to share a hotel room called the Kama Sutra
Kama Sutra
The Kama Sutra is an ancient Indian Hindu text widely considered to be the standard work on human sexual behavior in Sanskrit literature written by Vātsyāyana. A portion of the work consists of practical advice on sexual intercourse. It is largely in prose, with many inserted anustubh poetry verses...

 Suite. They are initially nervous, with Asha becoming furious thinking what would happen if anyone finds out that she is alone in a hotel room with a man who is not her husband. But later, they end up kissing and making love
Making Love
Making Love is a 1982 American film. It tells the story of a married man coming to terms with his homosexuality and the love triangle that develops around him, his wife and another man...

.

When they return to work, Asha explains that she has been engaged since age four
Arranged marriage
An arranged marriage is a practice in which someone other than the couple getting married makes the selection of the persons to be wed, meanwhile curtailing or avoiding the process of courtship. Such marriages had deep roots in royal and aristocratic families around the world...

 and asks him to maintain professional distance with her. Todd feels let down. Asha explains her friend's euphemism of a "holiday in Goa". She tells him she will learn to love her future husband like her mother and father did with each other. To this Todd replies that he does not understand how the strong-willed Asha would settle for an arranged marriage. Asha responds that she doesn't understand the US's 50% divorce rate
Divorce demography
The current marriage to current divorce ratio measures the divorce rate by comparing the number of marriages to the number of divorces in a given year. For example, if there are 500 divorces and 1,000 marriages in a given year in a given area, the ratio would be one divorce for every two...

 either. Asha confesses to Todd that all her life she had to struggle for everything, from education to work, and always listen to her parents complain "You can't go to college" or "You can't work in a call center". She was elated when Todd said "Asha can do anything" while explaining to Puro why he wishes to promote Asha to assistant manager.

After this, Todd's boss, David, suddenly arrives. When he comes to check on the progress, which was previously just over six minutes per call, they find the call center flooded due to a neighboring farm's irrigation system. Todd has the entire staff move to the roof. The aghast David thinks it is impossible but the enlightened Todd replies it may be impossible in the US, but not in India. They quickly achieve good numbers. Before Todd goes off to celebrate at the local bar, he is told by David that the company will be outsourcing to China for a much cheaper price. All the employees have lost their jobs and he expects Todd to, once again, travel to China and train his replacement.

The employees don't complain because they will get severance pay
Severance package
A severance package is pay and benefits an employee receives when they leave employment at a company. In addition to the employee's remaining regular pay, it may include some of the following:* An additional payment based on months of service...

, and are expecting jobs in other call centres in India. Puro, however, is disappointed because he won't get enough money to marry the woman of his dreams. Todd, remembering the story of the software programmer who outsourced his own job; outsources his lucrative job at the Chinese call center to Puro, who happily marries with enough money and a great future. Todd returns to Seattle, where he starts adopting some Indian traditions. In the closing scene, Todd's phone rings with Asha's special ringtone and he smiles as he reaches for it.

Production

Principal photography took place in Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

 from 5 February to 13 March 2006, followed by three days in Seattle from 7–9 April 2006.
The film is based on an original screenplay by George Wing and writing partner, John Jeffcoat
John Jeffcoat
John Jeffcoat is an American film director. He is most famous for his film Outsourced starring Josh Hamilton and Ayesha Dharker. The film has been adapted as a television series, and was recently picked up by NBC for their fall schedule after The Office....

.

Awards

  • Bend Film Festival Audience Award, Best Picture 2007
  • Bollywood and Beyond Film Festival Audience Award 2007
  • Cinequest Film Festival Audience Award, Best Feature Film 2007
    Cinequest Film Festival
    The Cinequest Film Festival is an annual independent film festival held in San Jose, California. The festival highlights the work of new film makers....

  • Dubai International Film Festival Official Selection 2006
    Dubai International Film Festival
    The Dubai International Film Festival is an international film festival based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Launched in 2004, it aims to foster the growth of filmmaking in the Arab world.-Overview:...

  • Goa International Film Festival Official Selection 2006
  • Hardacre Film Festival Audience Award, Best Picture 2007
    Hardacre film festival
    The Hardacre Film Festival is Iowa's longest-running film festival. Based in Tipton, Iowa, the festival is held annually in the city's historic Hardacre Theater...

  • Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles Audience Award 2007
  • Mumbai International Film Festival Official Selection 2007
    Mumbai International Film Festival
    Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films , is a festival organised in the city of Mumbai by the 'Film Division', Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India. It has been organised since 1990, and focuses on documentary, short and animation...

  • Palm Springs Film Festival Best of the Fest 2007
  • Palm Springs Film Festival John Schlesinger Award 2007
  • Red Bank International Film Festival Official Selection 2007
  • Seattle International Film Festival Golden Space Needle Award for Best Film 2007
    Seattle International Film Festival
    The Seattle International Film Festival , held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees...

  • South Asian Film Festival Official Selection 2007
  • South Asian Indiam Film Festival Official Selection 2007
  • Toronto Film Festival Official Selection 2006
  • Vancouver International Film Festival Official Selection 2007
    Vancouver International Film Festival
    The Vancouver International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for two weeks in late September and early October...


Television spinoff

In October 2007, Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

reported that Ken Kwapis
Ken Kwapis
Ken Kwapis is an American film and television director and screenwriter. He specialized in the single-camera sitcom in the 1990s and 2000s and has directed feature films such as Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and He's Just Not That Into...

, who worked on the U.S. adaptation of The Office, had been tapped by NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 to create a television pilot for a potential spinoff of Outsourced.

On May 16, 2010, NBC announced that the television adaptation would be a part of the network's fall 2010 lineup. Outsourced
Outsourced (TV series)
Outsourced is an American television sitcom set in an Indian workplace. It was based on the John Jeffcoat film of the same name and adapted by Ken Kwapis and Universal Media Studios for NBC. The series originally ran from September 23, 2010 to May 12, 2011...

premiered on September 23, 2010 and ran for one season.
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