The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh offers a unique take on the family sitcom with Rashomon-style serialized storytelling and a delightful disregard for the "rules" of traditional sitcoms. The series follows the Pradeep family, Indian immigrants seeking a new life in America. However, when their neighbors' house is mysteriously burned to the ground, a pair of federal agents show up and interrogate everyone involved in an effort to discover the truth, no matter how hilarious that truth may be.
While Lost star Naveen Andrews plays Mahesh, the patriarch of the Pradeep family, the true power, as usual, rests in the wife's hands. To this end, Sindhu Vee plays Sudha Pradeep; a brain surgeon in India, she's frustrated that she can't get her medical license in America, which puts stress on her marriage to Mahesh. Meanwhile, Sahana Srinivasan plays Bhanu, the eldest of the three Pradeep children. Bhanu, a boy-crazy teen eager to grow up faster than her parents would prefer.
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While brown-skinned characters from India and its neighbors have been featured in English films for a long time, they often fall prey to stereotypes.
Screen Rant interviewed Sindhu Vee and Sahana Srinivasan about their work on The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh. They spoke about shooting in the cold weather of Toronto, and how the unfriendly temperature led to the actors spending more time together than they otherwise would. They also praised creator Vijal Patel, and how The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh is relatable to a wide demographic beyond Indian-American immigrants, despite being specifically about an Indian family moving to America.
Sindhu Vee & Sahana Srinivasan Explain The Family Dynamic Of The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh
"We really get along as a family" on and off set.
Screen Rant: I love this show. It's warm and cozy, but not afraid to get a little bit nasty.
Sindhu Vee: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
I get the sense that Naveen Andrews is a really generous scene partner, but your characters have such a shorthand where there are jokes in the show about how he can communicate complex thoughts just by saying your name. Does it take a lot of work to make that shorthand work, or is it just a natural thing that comes with being scene partners?
Sindhu Vee: You know, I have to hand it to the writers. They put it in there and made it so clear. And then, when you're in the scene and you both know your characters and can act, it just works like that. So yeah, it was fantastic writing that they put that in. And they have it throughout the show. So by the next time it rolls around, you're like, okay, I get it. So you can just click right into that.
Sahana, do you have opportunities to kind of get together and hang out to do pretend mother and child stuff and family bonding, or are you just like, "I'll be in my trailer. Call me when it's time for my closeup."
Sahana Srinivasan: No way! I mean, it's like summer camp, especially because we're all in Toronto filming... And it was so cold. We weren't really motivated to go places, so we would just hang out at the hotel together. We'd have pizza night and just hang out and gab. And there's this one photo, it's an overhead photo that a castmate took of me and Sindhu and Arjun and Ashwin, where it really does look like a family hanging out. Ashwin's playing video games or something and I'm laughing and Arjun's also in the back. It's so cute. We really get along as a family.
I think I saw that on your Instagram.
Sahana Srinivasan: Yeah, it was very natural to get along with them.
That's fantastic. And the first time I've heard Toronto described as summer camp.
Sahana Srinivasan: Well, winter camp.
Are you ever like, "Hey, what if next season the Pradeeps go to Hawaii?" I mean, Naveen got to do six seasons of Lost down there, why not you guys?
Sahana Srinivasan: That would be awesome. The Pradeeps in Hawaii, that would sell really well, I think!
"You have the freedom to watch this show from your point of view."
Tell me a little bit about working with Vij. I got to talk to him this morning and he just seems like such a jolly, affable dude. Tell me about the level of trust that you have to have in each other to tell his story that he's been waiting so long to tell?
Sahana Srinivasan: It is based on his story, but then there's this whole crazy mystery element as well. Initially, I was like, oh my gosh, okay, this is his baby, this is his story. But then, the absurdity of it relieved some of the pressure. And especially because it's a comedy, it felt very collaborative. And if we wanted to experiment with a different line, I felt like we felt comfortable doing that. And especially because me and Sindhu do stand up and have experience writing, we were able to make suggestions, like, "let's maybe try this." And then a lot of that stuff made it to the show and feels very, like, "us." It feels very real.
Sindhu Vee: Yeah. I mean, exactly what she said. No, no, exactly what she said. I couldn't add anything more to that!
I love how authentic it feels without having 1980s sitcom moments, where everyone sits around and the piano music starts playing for a very important issue. It's subtextual enough that nobody stands on a soapbox and explains the true meaning of Christmas, so to speak.
Sindhu Vee: I feel like as a viewer, you have the freedom to watch this show from your point of view. You want to watch a mystery? It's there. You want to watch a comedy? It's there. You want to think about immigrants and how it is for them? It's there. It just so happens that everyone is brown. If you don't want to 'deep' it, don't deep it because the story is really funny. And that, to me, was very valuable.
I think it's artificial as a South Asian to have a TV show that's like, "Look at me, look at me. I'm South Asian!" Because one of the things we do is we integrate, we move on in our real lives, and that's how it should be portrayed. Yeah, so Sahana's character is Indian and she doesn't appreciate a lot of things, but she's still going to get on with it and become part of that world, but with her own edge.
It feels relatable in a way, like I'm mixed race myself, but I'm Latino. My Latina mama is gonna love this show, I think she's really going to relate to it and really enjoy it, even though she's not South Asian at all. But that immigrant experience is so universal among anyone who's come over and taken a chance like that.
Sindhu Vee: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's the beauty of it. And even if you're not an immigrant, if you have a teen, you're going to watch that show and be like, "teens are hard." You know what I mean?
Your mom is the demographic of this show. She's going to love it at every level.
You talked a little bit about the mystery of the show. We won't spoil anything about how the season shakes out, but there is more storytelling yet to come. This is not a miniseries. This is not a one-and-done. When it comes to your characters and their place in this mystery, do you know where your arcs are going to go in future seasons? Or do you ask Vij ,and he's like, "I don't know, I haven't decided yet."
Sindhu Vee: I feel like Vij knows everything and we know nothing.
Sahana Srinivasan: Yeah, so it'll be probably one of those like Game of Thrones things. Like, at the table read, being like "Wait, this, what?" Yeah.
And if you want to give a quick shout-out, for people like me who are going to have to wait a whole year, where else can we see you? What are some projects you'd like to shout out and be like, oh, "If you love me in this, then watch that."
Sindhu Vee: Oh, well, if you love me in this, I'm going to be streaming my comedy special very soon. That's coming up. And there's a film next year, it should be out, called Picture This. And I think that's on Amazon as well. That'll be out next year. And if you're in London, come watch me do a stand up, anytime!
Sahana Srinivasan: Yeah. I run a show called The Gay Gay Game Show with my friend Danny, and we put it up in LA at the Elysian. It's in Frogtown. So if you're in LA, please come to that. It's every few months. And it's super fun. It's a game show, it's a stand up show. It's everything. And you can also follow me on Instagram because I like posting on my Story.
I've seen it! My only request is more cat pictures.
Sahana Srinivasan: Yes! Oh, my God. She's sleeping on my on the cat tower right now. She's my pride and joy.
More About The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh Season 1
The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh follows the Pradeep family and the events of their life in America after moving from India. As told through hilarious (and often conflicting) flashbacks from an interrogation room, the Pradeeps quickly find themselves embroiled—romantically, personally, and professionally—with a polar-opposite neighborhood family, leading to a predicament with many surprising twists.
Check out our other The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh interviews here:
- Showrunner Vijal Patel
The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh season 1 begins streaming on October 17 on Prime Video.
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The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh (2024)
TV-14
Comedy
Drama
The Pradeep family recounts their move from India to America in an attempt to prove their innocence to the government. Through different viewpoints, they share a narrative of humor, hardship, and their challenging pursuit of personal versions of the American Dream.
- Cast
- Arjun Sriram , Sahana Srinivasan , Sindhu Vee , Ashwin Sakthivel
- Character(s)
- Kamal Pradeep , Bhanu Pradeep , Sudha Pradeep , Vinod Pradeep
- Release Date
- October 17, 2024
- Main Genre
- Comedy
