Beware of a movie star playing a movie star. Particularly when he wants us to feel sorry for him because he’s not a big enough movie star.

That’s the central story, and essential problem with “Bollywood Hero” (9 p.m., IFC), a three-part musical miniseries starring Chris Kattan. The “Saturday Night Live” veteran plays an actor/comedian named Chris Kattan, star of several poorly received comedies named “Corky Romano” and “A Night at the Roxbury.”

As “Bollywood” begins, we’re supposed to pity Chris because he’s been cast, and handsomely paid, to appear in a cable sci-fi series. Then Keanu Reeves (in a funny cameo) appears as a pompous version of himself and snubs Chris at a charity auction.

This drives Chris to desperate measures, and he jumps at a chance to appear in an Indian-made musical. Challenges ensue, since he’s a bad dancer, a so-so singer, and hardly blessed with a leading man’s looks. A game cast of American and Indian actors including Maya Rudolph, Jennifer Coolidge, Julian Sands and Neha Dhupia portray movie professionals who suffer Kattan’s fool with varying degrees of exasperation.

“Hero” takes a curious leap when it becomes a Bollywood musical in its own right. Suddenly and without warning, Kattan sings his way out of trouble in a dark back alley. The transition is less than fluid, particularly since the “real” Kattan is not much better of a singer/dancer/leading man than the “fake” Kattan he is portraying.

For all of its faults, “Bollywood” has an audacious and ambitious premise and unfolds in an exotic locale. And in this era of witless reality fare, we should be somewhat grateful for that.

But at its heart, “Bollywood” borrows from reality television. It doesn’t trust its audience to watch a celebrity who isn’t portraying himself. It’s hard to root for a “Hero” when he’s obsessed with his life on the D-list.

• A whole new gaggle of teens joins the cast of “Skins” (8 p.m., BBC America). Now entering its third season, the envelope-pushing series appears to have had a brain transplant as well. While last year’s season handled teen sexuality, drug abuse, peer pressure and conformity with a youthful audacity, this installment kicks off college life with sophomoric jokes about faculty flatulence and risque tattoos. Very disappointing.

• TCM devotes 24 hours to the films of Judy Garland, culminating with the 1963 independent drama “A Child Is Waiting” (3 a.m., TCM). Garland portrays a fragile teacher at a school for disturbed children. Directed (but disowned) by John Cassavetes, written by Abby Mann and produced by Stanley Kramer, “Child” co-stars Burt Lancaster and Gena Rowlands.

Tonight’s other highlights

• On two episodes of “30 Rock” (NBC), Carrie Fisher guest stars (7 p.m.), budget cuts and milestones (8:30 p.m.).

• A winner emerges on the two-hour finale of “So You Think You Can Dance” (7 p.m., Fox).

• Michael feels eclipsed on “The Office” (8 p.m., NBC).

• Murder in a Mexican wrestling milieu on “CSI” (8 p.m., CBS).

• Fiona becomes a target on “Burn Notice” (8 p.m., USA)

• Two decades on, “COPS” still breeds imitators, namely “Police Women of Broward County” (8 p.m., TLC).