There’s never been a TV series like Deli Boys. From Onyx Collective and Hulu, Deli Boys is a dark comedy centered on a South Asian family whose father’s death results on a variety of expected, hilarious and even dangerous situations. Starring Asif Ali, Saagar Shaikh and Poorna Jagannathan, Deli Boys is a wild ride that’s hard to properly summarize.
Senior Writer Elijah Johnson recently spoke with the stars and creators of the highly anticipated new series, which is already receiving a ton of buzz, including:
Abdullah Saeed (creator, executive producer)
Michel Nader (showrunner, executive producer)
Jenni Konner (executive producer)
Asif Ali (“Mir”)
Saagar Shaikh (“Raj”)
Poorna Jagannathan (“Lucky”)
Alfie Fuller (“Prairie”)
Brian George (“Ahmad”)
Saeed, who created the show and serves as executive producer, sought to tell a human story with lots of heart and laughs. “When we started making this show, we didn’t know that all kinds of minorities would suddenly become hot button once again in America, right? So when people watch it, I want them to see the humanity in a lot of ways, and that it’s not just that they’re Pakistani or that there’s characters of differing backgrounds, right? But that it’s about love,” Saeed said. “In the end, it’s about making things work and there’s a lot of bickering and fighting, and there can even be violence, but at the end of the day the love is really what shines through. And I hope that we can get to that as a world, right? Because it doesn’t feel like that. But I just want people to laugh and get back in touch with those mushy parts of themselves – literally and figuratively.”
Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh, who play the two brothers Mir and Raj at the core of the story, were so excited about the potential of being part of such a unique series.
“I was just like so stunned, first of all, that they were even allowed to make this show. I was like, I cannot even imagine pitching this show and people being like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, all South Asian people, great, great, great.’ So this was like so exciting, and it just felt like a show where I was like, ‘Man, no matter what happens, I want to watch this show,” Ali said.
Shaikh praised the script and the opportunity for South Asian characters to actually be in the spotlight of such a big series.
“For me, it was it was like the best thing I had ever read, and usually when I’m looking through a script, I’m oftentimes looking for like a supporting character that I could play. But this one, I saw myself in the main characters, and that was so special to me because it’s so extremely rare to find something like that,” Shaikh said. “Especially because usually scripts where you could find someone like me as the lead, it’s really watered down. But this one was gritty. It had heart. It was funny and it just, it was the best combination of everything.”
Poorna Jagannathan plays Lucky, Mir and Raj’s aunt and their dead father’s sister. Only Lucky isn’t exactly the kind of aunt we’re used to seeing in these stories.
“I thought the comedy of the show is so of my alley. It’s dark, it’s absurd, it’s weird, it’s like unexpected. You take something, like you take a moment that’s sweet and intimate and grieving and all that, and just like put something very unexpected right next to it and it’s just that texture that I loved. And I’ve never, never read a South Asian, I’ve never read a female character, who is so powerful in my life,” Jagannathan said.
Jagannathan, like her co-stars had high praise for the script and the comedy of the series, and emphasized that audiences need to be prepared for the particular kind of humor this show offers.
“I just think it’s so rare to find a script that’s so funny. It is so hedonistically funny. It is so stupidly funny. Do you know? This isn’t like a story about identity and finding yourself? It’s not. It’s just a hard, cold comedy, and so I hope the viewers realize that and know that before they enter the ride that is Deli Boys,” Jagannathan said.
Watch the full interviews below and don’t miss Deli Boys streaming on Hulu!
Ron is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of POC Culture. Â He is a big believer in the power and impact of pop culture and the importance of representation in media.
