A romance novel with a Bollywood twist. Anu Malik composing songs in English. Ashanti. "Bride & Prejudice" has all of this and more. The iconic 2004 film starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and directed by Gurinder Chadha is this month's entry for in our BONUS segment "Now Re-Playing." And our special guest is a GOOD one. Actress / Comedian Punam Patel joins our dissection of the "Pride and Prejudice" 2004 remake as we call out those cringe-tastic moments and appreciate the surprisingly good...

We're back with an extra special Business with Bae episode featuring prolific writer and all around top-notch human being, Alisha Rai! Alisha is an expert of the contemporary romance novel. One of most recent books, The Right Swipe, was named one of the best books of 2019 by the New York Public Library, the Washington Post and Oprah Magazine, just to name a few. We were so excited to get a deep dive into the literary world, her writing process and her experiences as a South Asian female...

Creating your own film/TV content is just about one of the hardest, bravest things a filmmaker can do. And this week's guests on the pod are sure to sure to agree. Sujata Day & Ritesh Rajan, join us to talk about their new film, "Definition Please," which Sujata directed, produced, wrote and stars in opposite Ritesh. They share career ups and downs and ways the South Asian arts community can better stick together, while Sujata inspires us with the badass journey of how she made her...

Don't deny it. You've binge-watched Netflix's new docu-series, "Indian Matchmaking." We definitely have and this week we had the chance to speak with the show's creator and non-fiction filmmaker extraordinaire, Smriti Mundhra! Smriti talks working in the non-fiction space, her process of creating unforgettable content like St. Louis Superman, Indian Matchmaking and more, and how she feels about the criticism her Netflix series has received. We're beyond impressed by how she appreciates...

Our new Business with Bae (+ Bhaiya) installment features two great friends of the pod, Sarah Khan and Karan Sunil, both of whom have important jobs in a TV writers' room: as part of the writers' support staff. The writers’ support staff is comprised of assistants and PAs who are usually aspiring writers themselves. These jobs are typically the quickest way to become a staff writer and jumpstart a TV writing career. Sarah Khan is currently a writers' PA for the Apple TV animated series,...

Weeee're back! This week's new bonus episode of "Now Re-Playing" is all about the 1991 Mira Nair film, "Mississippi Masala." The film follows a young Indian woman (Sarita Choudhury), whose family has immigrated from Uganda, as she falls in love with an African American man (Denzel Washington) in the small town of Greenwood, Mississippi. "Mississippi Masala" was one of the first mainstream films that really explored an interracial relationship between two people of color, and the ideas...

We are so excited to have Fawzia Mirza and Neel Patel as guests for our Pride episode. Not do these two create amazing content that showcases their authentic voices, they are extremely vocal in the quest for LGBTQIA and BIPOC representation in the arts/entertainment industry and beyond. This episode is dedicated to all of the black trans lives that have fought for civil & equal rights for all minorities and people of color — without them and countless more black lives, we would not be...

This week's guest is Sanjay Shah, who is currently the co-showrunner on the new AppleTV+ animated musical series, "Central Park" (Premiering May 29th). Sanjay has had an incredibly diverse and fascinating career – we're pretty sure there's no one who better defines the term "Jack of All Trades" more than him. And if you've ever had the desire to become a TV writer, listening to his advice and experiences is Master Class-adjacent.

We're so excited to introduce film & TV editor, Varun Viswanath, as our second guest on "Business with Bae"! Not only is Varun a talented editor (a VITAL job in film/TV), he's also one of the nicest people in the entertainment industry. Varun basically became our brother while recording this episode. So for this week, we're renaming our segment "Business with Bhaiya." Still has a nice ring to it, don't ya think?

Hello again, friends! Since our previous episodes have been ALL about the business of entertainment and how our guests have made their names in the industry, we thought it was time for just some good, old-fashioned fun. Introducing our new BONUS segment: Now Re-Playing! We'll watch memorable South Asian films and shows, many of which were large parts of our childhoods, and analyze the crap out of them with our 2020 NRI mindset. Our first episode is about the 1999 major hit film, "Hum...

Introducing a new segment for "The Chaat Room": Business with Bae! In this segment, we ask South Asians in the arts specific, introductory questions about their careers. We want to provide you all with the information you need to decide for yourself what career path you would like to take. And we want to help you explain to your parents what the heck it is you want to do! First up is working in film and television casting with our co-host, Keertana Sastry!

We couldn't be more thrilled to speak with actress Poorna Jagannathan, who currently stars in Mindy Kaling & Lang Fisher's new Netflix series "Never Have I Ever." She tells us about her path from advertising to acting, her short but iconic time in Bollywood, and what it's like to be on a series with so much South Asian representation in front of and behind the scenes. We also touch on her empowering work as an outspoken advocate against gender discrimination and sexual...

We're continuing with a double dose of "Mira, Royal Detective" — Jimy Shah & Vidhya Iyer are writers for Season 2 of the new Disney Junior animated series. While Shah and Iyer had vastly different journeys to get where they are today, they both had to maneuver their families’ less-than-ideal reactions to their chosen careers. It was refreshing to hear how, years later, they have matured to rationalize those reactions. We hope their stories will provide comfort and hope for aspiring...

Our first interview of the season is with actors Sonal Shah and Parvesh Cheena, who both currently voice multiple roles on Disney Junior’s animated series, “Mira, Royal Detective.” Both Shah and Cheena have been working in the industry for more than a decade in film and television. We discussed how they made the choice to become actors, how the industry’s standards on inclusivity are changing and what being on a show with a full South Asian cast means to them. We love them and hope you do,...

We are so excited to be kicking off our series with a quick ice-breaker. Before we interview some of your favorite South Asian talents on and offscreen, we wanted to introduce ourselves and why the hell we've decided to tackle this endeavor. TV and Film are so much more integrated in our lives than we realize. The ideas we develop about the world and people, even the way we develop...so much of it comes from what is portrayed on the screen. So why are careers in these industries so frowned...