Vikram Gandhi is an American of Indian descent. He grew up in New Jersey.
As an experiment, the young filmmaker wanted to see if he could credibly transform himself into a guru. He grew his hair and beard to conform to the expected guru look, tried as best he could to embody a spiritually enlightened mystic, practiced a thick Indian accent, and then “came to America.”
In no time at all, he had acquired an ardent following. Luckily for us, Gandhi had a camera crew in his wake the whole time. Watch what transpired.
The movie Kumaré: The True Story of a False Prophet is now available for streaming on Vudu, Amazon Instant Video, and iTunes (it’s currently just 99 cents on iTunes, for the high-def version no less). You can see the official trailer here.