B is for Being Brown

I am Sikh, Punjabi Indian, born and raised in Canada. The area that I grew up in was heavily populated with South Asians, so being “brown” wasn’t exactly unique or different… at least I didn’t think it was at the time.

I grew up eating home cooked curry, mataar paneer, dal and chicken vindaloo almost every day, so much that I found myself constantly yelling at my mum to open a window because the smell of curry spice seeped into my clothing (yup, I was THAT kid in middle school). The songs and dance moves from Bollywood hits like “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai,” ‘Dil Se” and “Kal Ho Naa Ho” are forever seared into my brain…

Growing up I rebelled against being brown. I‘m not religious, I don’t speak fluent Punjabi, good luck trying to get me to enter a temple and on top of that I wanted to be a screenwriter in Hollywood. Try telling THAT to your brown parents, screenwriter? WTF does that even mean!?? (Spoiler – I’m pretty sure they are still asking that question – which is fair).

Fast forward to many years later, I now live in Los Angeles as a writer and I have found myself with an absolutely different perspective of what it means to be South Asian. In fact, I’ve never been prouder to represent my culture and where I come from. It took me a minute to find other South Asian artists in Los Angeles, but when I did, it opened the floodgates of possibilities.

I wrote a series called THE B WORD which is about five South Asian women dealing with all the things we brown women have been taught to sweep under the rug (depression, addiction, divorce, therapy etc) and when I found my community of female actors, writers, producers I realized that, they too, were dealing with the same things I have struggled with and am actively trying to change through my writing.

The consensus from MOST brown talent was “we never see ourselves portrayed on screen unless we are a doctor or a motel owner with the last name “Patel” or someone that has a degree in XYZ”
Lately it has felt like being brown in Hollywood has become the “cool” factor – we now see the beautiful Diwali parties up in the Hollywood Hills via social media, the celebrations in movies (usually revolving around a wedding), but there is still a bit of hesitation on making brown people the leads. I know this because for my projects I have been told by the powers that be “you can’t have two or more brown leads” and “I don’t believe that five brown women would be friends.” For the most part, representation of South Asians in mainstream media is usually not reflective of the complexities of who we are. We are more than just reductive, stale tropes. We are more than just checking off a box on the casting breakdowns.

SO while we are seeing steps being taken in a the right direction with shows like “Never Have I Ever”, “Expats”, “Deli Boys” and kick ass movies like “Polite Society’” and “Monkey Man,” I think we still have a bit way to go.

Regardless of the uphill marathon, I am still proud to say…

Being brown in Hollywood is a super power.

Being brown has taught me respect of my upbringing – it’s magical, complex, fun and loud.