'I Want My Daughter To Identify As Indian', Mindy Kaling On Embracing Her Faith & Culture
As someone who has always balanced two cultures, Kaling said the coming-of-age story helped her further explore her roots and religion.
Actor-creator Mindy Kaling has all the reasons to happy. Her latest show Never Have I Ever is number one on Netflix.
Mindy Kaling/Agencies
The show gave her a chance to reflect on her own Indian-ness while putting fellow nerds from minority communities, the typical side characters in American shows, in front and center.
netflix
The Netflix show revolves around an academically competitive but hot-headed teenager Devi, played by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, trying to catch the eye of the school heartthrob while secretly grieving the sudden death of her father.
netflix
As someone who has always balanced two cultures, Kaling said the coming-of-age story helped her further explore her roots and religion.
Never Have I ever
¡°My coming to terms with my Indian-ness is a big part of the show. I was born in the US, raised in a pretty white area, without speaking any Indian languages, so culturally I always felt I straddled the lines of two cultures,¡± Kaling told PTI in an email interview.
Never Have I Ever
The writer, who co-created the show with Lang Fisher, said a lot of Devi¡¯s conflict and insecurities about her Indian roots are inspired by her growing up experience as a first-generation Indian-American.
netflix
"So much of Devi's relationship with her faith is inspired by my relationship with Hinduism. I consider myself Hindu, but I also feel insecure about my understanding of my own religion," she said, adding that the birth of her daughter made her "look at my faith and culture in a new way". "... because I really want her to identify as Indian, and that's kind of up to me,¡± Kaling said about showing the cultural and generational conflict in the show through a gentle gaze.
Some of the best scenes in the show, that people are loving as well are the ones between Devi and her dermatologist mother Nalini, (Poorna Jagannathan) a strong-headed, no-nonsense woman who struggles to connect with her teenage daughter.
Netflix
Kaling, 40 confessed that she had the most fun writing the mother-daughter scenes.
