SOUTH ASIANS IN FILM & TV IN 2022

A recap of South Asian Representation in Film and TV in 2022

Here is a full guide for all South Asian Diaspora Led Projects in 2022 !

2022 was a monumental year for South Asian Representation in Hollywood. Specifically after Mindy Kaling’s Never Have I Ever dropped in 2020, South Asian representation in Hollywood has increased quickly over the last few years. I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the representation we saw last year and how foundational and successful while also looking for improvements in the future.

Growing up, there was a mixture of South Asian, more specifically Indian characters, I saw and a few that stuck with me. For some background, I was born and lived in India from 2002 to 2009, until I moved to the USA. I first remember seeing Baljeet (Phineas and Ferb ) and Ravi (Jesse) in American media and I celebrated their presence because they were Indian, like me! Of course now that I have grown up, Baljeet and Ravi aren’t the best representation I deserved growing up, but as a kid, I was happy to see two brown kids. In 7th grade, I remember watching Bend it like Beckham  and Jessie was the South Asian female character on screen whom I could relate to. There was also Life of Pi which was the first South Asian led film in Hollywood that I saw in theaters where I was mesmerized by the story and elated in realizing that the lead is Indian. As for Slumdog Millionaire, I never watched the film but did a dance of Jai Ho for a cultural day in 2nd grade (shoutout to my dad for choreographing it!). I saw Appu in Simpsons and Kelly in the Office in highschool but by that time I could see they were heavily stereotyped characters and just uncomfartbale to watch. There were always Bollywood movies which made up most of the media I consumed that always reminded me of back home, but wasn’t something I could connect with growing up in America. In conclusion, growing up there were characters I could see myself in but it was a very rare and often stereotypical representation. However, 2022 was the breath of fresh air I needed when it came to South Asia led stories.

2022 was beautifully stacked with South Asian led projects in western media, specifically female led. There was Bridgerton with Kate and Mary Sharma, the first south asian led superhero project Ms Marvel (Kamala Khan), Never Have I ever S3 with our favorite “antihero” Devi, high school Australian drama Heartbreak High with Amerie Wadia in lead, Sex Lives of College Girls Season 2 another Mindy project with Bella, cute romcoms like Wedding Season with Asha and Ravi and 7 days with Ravi and Rita, animated shows like Dead End Paranormal Park with Norma Khan and Deepa and Anoop, real life stories like Chippendales, and on the big screen with Mr Malcolms List with Freida Pinto as Selina Dalton and Four Samosas a South Asian Wes Anderson inspired heist film. Another gem of a show that went under radar was Sort Of Season 2 which follows Sabi a genderfluid millennial who straddles various identities between a nanny, bartender, friend, and a struggling relationship with their mom. Sort Of is an important series for South Asian queer representation which we often don’t see off so I was surprised it's not as big. This stacked list does not include the countless roles I have seen with South Asians as supporting characters such as Priya (Turning Red), Haja and Tala (Obiwan Kenobi), Janet Singh (Senior Year) etc. Cinema from the South Asian region always won big and captured hearts. The first is RRR (Rise, Roar, Revolt) ,a Tollywood film directed by S.S. Rajmouli that took off and was celebrated around theaters. RRR became the first Indian film to win a Golden Globe for Best Original Song for Naatu Naatu and could win an Oscar. RRR’s success is important as it  shined a light on South Indian cinema which often gets overlooked for Bollywood being equated to solely representing Indian cinema. Another film is Joyland, a Paksitani film, which is a moving story about gender, sexuality, and patriarchal family dynamics  that is shortlisted for International Best Feature at Oscars and is the first Pakistani film to do so. Another Gujrati film the Last Film Show has also been shortlisted. Overall it has been a strong year for South Asian projects and to say I am proud is an understatement. 

One of the most beautiful things about these projects is how they are diverse in their stories. There is diversity in the medium such as animation or live action, film or television, genres from superhero to comedy to drama (period drama) to romance, audiences of these stories, and its global with stories spanning from UK, Australia and the USA. The characters are also diverse especially in their stories when it comes to their relationship with their culture. Some of these characters (Kamala Khan, Deepa, Asha, Ravi  or Devi) their culture is an important piece of their character’s story ,and for other characters (Amerie Wadia , Sharma sisters and Norma Khan) it is more casual representation : the characters just exist on screen but are visibly South Asian. Growing up I had the expectation that for every South Asian character that was shown on screen they had to show the character’s relationship with their culture, however that does not have to be the case. It is important to have characters whose relationship with their culture or their culture is integral to their story but also characters that simply exist, because South Asians do simply exist. I believe the Sharma sisters represent a somewhat medium between the two as their culture is intertwined with the characters through traditions and fashions but not to the development of the characters. One of the most beautiful things about most of the projects is that they were South Asian led projects created by South Asians whether that be in the director, writer or even producer. Creating authentic stories is important through both onscreen and offscreen representation 

These stories are important because it shows that brown people deserve to be at the center for stories and have our stories told. We can exist in all different spaces  and in roles that don’t need to be stereotypical such as the funny one, the nerdy one, the tech support or the undesirable one. An improvement made this year alone with these stories is that South Asian went beyond just India and fair skinned leads. You had three Pakistani lead characters with Norma Khan, Sabi,  and Kamala Khan and dark-skinned female leads in the spotlight being celebrated. I loved seeing Tiktok people celebrating the beauty of representation we got from the Sharma sisters, Priya, Devi and Kamala Khan. I loved sharing about my own culture  and how these different projects spoke to me and connecting with other brown people over it. It truly makes me feel whole.

With the celebration of representation, there is always room for improvement. Not all of these projects are perfect. For example, we deserve more queer south asian led stories, more South Asian led stories beyond India, casting actors to play characters that match their ethnicity, and South Asian stories beyond  the exaggerated cliches of gossiping aunties, strict parents, broken families etc and branching into different genres such as fantasy, horror, action or thriller. Many of our stories being told are from personal experience but it is also nice to see South Asian characters in lead that have a strong relationship with their family,  a strong connection to their culture and their trauma isn’t used as the backbone of the character. There have certainly been misses this year such as Indian Matchmaking which relies on problematic ideals of colorism and classism to keep the show “spicy” and problematic. Another miss was Shantaram a AppleTV+ original series that was essentially another white savior story set in 1980s Bombay India. Shantaram as described by Aarnav a writer for Streamr News in his review was accurate in its setting but the story was weak, the Hindi spoken was like it was mocked, the dialogue was bad, soundtrack wasn’t strong and more. You can check out his review here. Sex Lives of College Girls S2 was also a heavily criticized project for how it chose to write its characters.  While there were some misses and improvements to be made,  with upcoming years there have been new projects announced with South Asians in the lead which is beautiful to see and I cannot wait for the future!

Here's to stronger and more South Asian representation in the future in film and tv!