"Give My People A Chance": South Asian Actors Are Sharing How Hollywood Has Drastically Shifted

We sat down with the cast of new Disney+ show Deli Boys — Poorna Jagannathan, Asif Ali, Tan France, Saagar Shaikh and Brian George — to pull back the curtain on their experiences as South Asian actors in Hollywood.

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When you bring together powerhouse actors and comedians, magic is bound to happen. Such is the case for Disney+/Hulu's new show, Deli Boys — starring Asif Ali (Don't Worry Darling), Saagar Shaikh (Ms. Marvel), Poorna Jagannathan (Never Have I Ever), Tan France (Queer Eye) and Brian George (Seinfeld). 

Check out the trailer for a taste of the vibes: 

View this video on YouTube Disney+/Hulu / Via youtube.com

The story follows Raj (Saagar Shaikh) and Mir Dar (Asif Ali), two goofy Pakistani-American brothers, taking over their father's convenience store empire following his sudden death. But daddy's left them a wonderful surprise — their entire rich-boy lifestyles have been funded by drugs and crime. Now, it's up to the Dar brothers to get their hands dirty and maintain their cushy lives.

Although Deli Boys is a story about an immigrant father's unorthodox pursuit of the American dream, its lessons and comedy feel familiar. It's a lighthearted love letter to the secrets our parents never dared to share with us. But more importantly, it's a view beyond South Asian stereotypes that represents the diaspora with a fresh lens. 

But don't take it from me, hear/read it from the horse's mouth. 

BuzzFeed Australia sat down with the cast ahead of the show's premiere on Disney+ to chat about being South Asian in Hollywood and Deli Boys' power to change perceptions. 

Here's what Poorna Jagannathan, Tan France, Brian George, Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh had to say:

Brian: You don't think of yourself as, "Oh, I look like this. I am this." 

I'm just who I am. I'm who I've always been. Right? So it's very strange to go back in time and think, oh, I guess I was treated an actor-of-colour without realising it. Because I never think of myself as an actor-of-colour. I'm just an actor, and this is where I was born, and these are my parents, and this is where I grew up, and this is my voice. I don't think of anything other than that. 

Brian: It takes other people to define you. And so I think what's changed is — which is really nice to see — when I came up, it was like, you had to do the accent. I was raising a family, so I did the accent. I mean, I did it the first time. It was written that way and it happened to be Seinfeld and it was hilarious. 

And then it became like, "Oh, this is how I'm seen now". I think now, these newer generations, younger generations, they're getting to be full human beings. They happen to be South Asians, but they're American, or they're British, or they're Australian — or they're whatever they are. 

They just happen to be of a different ethnicity.

View this video on YouTube NBC / Via youtube.com

Poorna: I couldn't ever have imagined when I started that I could end up playing a role like [Lucky in] Deli Boys. I couldn't have comprehended it. 

It is an exquisite privilege to be able to map my career according to how roles for South Asian women have grown and changed. And I started my career off as playing two lines, as a doctor or a nurse and had no backstory. It was one dimensional like an Apu character is...to Lucky, which is such a powerful woman.

It's so rare to see such a powerful woman be represented on TV. Let alone a South Asian woman — let alone an Asian woman. So it is an absolute privilege, and the characters I've played have always been very strong, and wilful, and determined and mentally strong. Lucky will physically take anyone out. And I love that about her. 

Tan: It has not. I would love to say, "Oh my gosh, it's moved forward in so many ways". [But], it's been eight years. I'm still one of the very few South Asians on television, on a global platform. I'm still one of the very few, if not only South Asian queer men, the only South Asian queer Muslim. So, I've got real issues with the fact that I'm still very much tokenised. 

Tan: I think it starts by the networks seeing our value. I think one of the reasons why the shows I've done have done so well is because of me. 

I offer a window into a world we don't typically see. 

And I know that sounds incredibly arrogant, but I'm showing people that there's so much more to be entertained by than what we typically see on television. And so when I see that there's still no people like me on TV, I think I've done enough to show you that we are just as entertaining as everybody else. Give my people a chance. 

Tan: It's one of the main reasons I wanted to be a part of the show. When I first got the outline of the show, I just absolutely loved it, and I loved what it represented. And for me, it represented a version of South Asians I'd never seen before on Western television, or on an English speaking show. They were fully formed characters — multifaceted. 

And even though, interestingly enough, my people are often seen as violent in the press or in the news, this is a version that we don't typically see. They're funny. Yes, they are violent. And I kind of think, yeah, lean into the narrative of they're mob bosses, but do it in the most comical way, and be part of the joke.

Asif: To be seen as three dimensional characters with flaws and human experiences instead of just sort of auxiliary characters that are in the background. I think that's really important. 

Saagar: I hope that other creators find inspiration in it, and they find this new empowerment and emboldenedness to make the weird story that they once thought of, and write the whole thing down. 

And don't be afraid to pitch it and don't be afraid to do a little Kickstarter and self-fund it. I think we need to encourage that. Definitely encourage it. We need a hundred more stories like this. 

Asif: And the crazier the better. We need the whole thing. When you only have one thing that you're putting way too much pressure on — this one piece of entertainment to represent every facet of a billion plus people — [it's] insane. 

Brian: Oh Lord. I hope they just enjoy them as characters, and as human beings. And don't think of them as South Asian or anything. They're just human beings experiencing a traumatic, weird story. And that's all. 

Just forget. What does it matter? They've got slightly brown skin. Forget about it. To me, it's an American story. It's totally an American story. It's a crime story.

Or as Asif said, "Please force [everyone] to watch it, we need this."

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