Mindy Kaling had done her fair share in breaking stereotypes about the Indian identity in Hollywood. Starting off with her annoying but iconic character Kelly Kapoor on The Office, the writer-actor-director has made strides by portraying Indians as normal human beings with hopes, dreams, quirks and flaws.
And if you think Mindy was going to stop anytime soon…then you’re wrong. She is all set to smash more stereotypes through her new Netflix show Never Have I Ever. The show revolves around first-generation Indian American teen Devi, an overachieving high school girl with a short temper that gets her into difficult situations. Mindy has spoken about how it was extremely important for her to cast an actor close to the role and decided to go with Canadian newcomer, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan.
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Mindy said that Netflix vice president of local language originals, Bela Bajaria, played a pivotal role in getting the series made. “We see a certain kind of Indian actor all the time in auditions… Our show is about a Tamil Indian girl, and typically they’re South Indians and they’re dark-skinned. I felt lucky to be able to do a show about an Indian nerd who’s also badly behaved, to show that because I’m deeply familiar with it. Bela was also interested in seeing Indian characters who are not all like Princess Jasmine,” she said.
But stereotypes about ‘typical Indians’ aren’t the only ones Mindy is interested in smashing. With the show, she wants to tell the world that nerds are not just “stuttering kids on the spectrum”. “Nerds are not only the wallflowers and the quiet ones. We’re ambitious, we have obnoxious personalities sometimes, we want to have sex and we have dreams like all the other kids,” she added.
Well, as an Indian woman, I’m super excited for more representation on the international screens. Never Have I Ever is slated to hit our Netflix screens sometime later this year. The show also features Heroes actor Sendhil Ramamurthy.
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Mindy is known for creating shows like The Mindy Project, Champions and Four Weddings And A Funeral. She’s also currently working on a project with actor Priyanka Chopra. How excited are you for her new show to hit Netflix?
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