Many Indians dream of going to an Ivy League college and eventually achieving US citizenship.
American-born actor and activist Chetan Kumar Ahimsa did the opposite, moving to the South Indian state of Karnataka in 2005 after graduating from Yale University with a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to research class, caste and gender in traditional South Indian folk theatre.
But now, he may end up being deported from his parents' homeland, where he's spent most of his adult life.
As he toured across rural Karnataka for his research, Kumar Ahimsa became more interested in social issues related to indigenous tribal people, Dalits, farmers, the poor and other oppressed communities.
He eventually became a teacher in a village school, before joining a local theatre group.
In 2007, he starred in his debut film Aa Dinagalu (Those Days), a cult crime biopic about a former gangster turned writer. Since then, he's starred in 10 features.
But he always knew he wouldn't just be an actor. As he told India Now!: "Ever since I was a kid, I always felt very emotionally, culturally, linguistically connected to India. I felt I could contribute more in India, coming from a position of privilege."
His activism has drawn both praise and anger.
Where many in the Indian film industry have refrained from criticising the Modi government or made films that some critics have labelled propaganda, Kumar Ahimsa has been unafraid to take vocal stands on a range of social issues.
In 2014, he worked with local activists and communities to ban the practice of ajjal paddhathi, where Indigenous tribal women were forced to consume the hair and nails of pregnant upper-caste women, forcing the Karnataka government to officially ban the practice in 2017.
He's also campaigned for compensation and health care for rural victims poisoned by banned endosulfan pesticides, for the recognition of and compensation for Indigenous communities displaced by development, for clean drinking water and health care in remote and impoverished communities and against the over-representation of Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis (tribals) in prisons.
His 2020 wedding to fellow social activist Megha was in an orphanage and officiated by a transgender rights activist.
But his outspokenness has also resulted in threats and attacks by Hindu nationalists, with posters for his films torn down and cinemas showing his films threatened, and a number of charges against him by right-wing organisations for insulting Hinduism, especially upper-caste Brahmins.
In 2021, the right-wing BJP-affiliated Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) reported him to police for comments critical of Brahminism and the caste system, and in 2022 he was arrested and jailed for tweets referring to misogynistic victim-shaming comments a Karnataka High Court judge had made in a 2020 rape case.
As he discovered, "US judges are viewed as public servants and open to criticism, like any politician or public servant. But in India, you can't criticise a judge in the same way. I wasn't charged with contempt of court, but for 'promoting enmity between communities'.
"I was imprisoned for seven days for asking about the ideological clarity of a judge who had ruled in a very anti-women way in the past."
Then on March 20, 2023, he tweeted that Hindutva — the Hindu nationalist philosophy that says India is a strictly Hindu nation — was built on lies, citing what he believed were falsehoods.
These included assertions by the "father of Hindutva" Veer Savarker that India was founded when Hindu deity Rama defeated the Lankan demon Ravana in the epic Ramayana, which many devout Hindus believe is historical fact, and: that Ayodhya's Babri Masjid mosque, which was demolished in 1992 by Hindutva mobs, was Rama's birthplace.
As a result, he was arrested and then notified by the central government that his visa — an Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) visa, which children and grandchildren of Indian citizens are eligible for — had been cancelled for "anti-national" activities.
He's currently fighting the OCI cancellation and his possible deportation, although the conditions of the court-ordered stay include him deleting the tweets that were critical of the judge.
Nonetheless, as he told Indian media: "The Centre is using the immigration department as a tool to silence me."
Human rights groups are growing concerned at India's "democratic backsliding" over the past few years.
Greater government censorship, including the most internet shutdowns in the world, monitoring of online news, the controversial banning of a BBC documentary critical of Modi, blocking critical social media accounts, or arresting anyone deemed to have "defamed" the prime minister — including leading opposition figure Rahul Gandhi — has left many in India and the diaspora concerned.
But Ahimsa believes that "the more that the freedom of speech is being clamped down, the more we have to actually speak out. It requires those of us in positions of privilege to speak out and to question this erosion of democratic rights".
As he points out, it's nothing new: Similar authoritarian restrictions imposed during former Indian National Congress then-prime minister Indira Gandhi's 1975-77 Emergency, which severely curtailed civil liberties, cracked down on press freedom and the jailed political opponents.
"Today, there's a banning culture [with] attempts to ban books, to ban groups, to ban films — even stand-up comedians!" Kumar Ahimsa says.
"This banning culture is undemocratic and authoritarian. And it's not just the BJP doing it — Congress is also.
"We need to allow people to choose what is truly in their best interests, instead of just silencing critical voices."
And despite Modi's world-leading positive approval rating of 78 per cent, Kumar Ahimsa notes: "If you look at the so-called 'Modi Wave' in 2014 [when Modi was first elected in a landslide], only 31 per cent of the nation voted for Modi and 19 per cent voted for Congress, which means 50 per cent voted for neither of the two major political parties."
According to him, "that shows that India has a very vibrant, diverse, pluralistic, ideological premise that we must uphold and even enhance, rather than in any way erode".
He says he does not regret his outspokenness at all.
"[Although being deported is] something that might break my heart, it doesn't break my spirit because if you fight inequality, you'll be targeted, you'll be attacked by the system and you'll be forced to keep silent," he says.
"But I'm fortunate to have support of my family and I know that what we're saying is true, is based on fact. It's not in any way for personal benefit. It's in the best interests of society.
"So I'll continue to speak what I believe is truth to power."
