4408 people reached on Lassi with Lavina FB page – 339 post clicks – 18 Likes
Ashini J. Desai, Omrita Sethi and Shagun Mehandru Like it on Lassi with Lavina FB page
739 Views on LinkedIn – 8 Likes

Melanie Chandra on Being a South Asian Actress in Hollywood

Surina and Mel:

“Indian-American Girls Need to See Themselves Reflected on the Screen!”

Melanie Chandra is a South Asian actress who has been seen in several Hollywood movies and TV shows including ‘Code Black’. She currently is producing and acting in ‘Surina and Mel’.
So what is ‘Surina and Me’l about? As Melanie Chandra describes it, it is loosely based on the real-life friendship of Surina (brash, non-committal) and Melanie (poised, type A) the show follows this odd-couple duo as they unsuccessfully navigate their lives as grown-ups, one micro-aggression at a time.
I was able to catch up with Melanie and talk a little bit about the ups and downs of being an actor of South Asian descent and making it in Hollywood.

Q and A with Melanie Chandra 

Describe your characters for me in ‘Surina and Mel’. Why do you think will the audience relate to then and fall in love with them?

Surina and Mel have bit of an odd-couple friendship. Mel’s character is super sweet, composed, loves being efficient and is just a little Type A. She’s the type of girl who has shell-shaped soap in her bathroom only for display. But when she turns thirty she realizes that the perfect life she imagined for herself, isn’t the life she’s living, and she has to figure out how to make this one count.

Her best friend Surina, who’s brash, loud, and non-committal is her partner in crime and confidant as Mel sorts through her existential crisis. Surina is really the only one that can get Mel out of her comfort zone. Ultimately, this show is about friendship, and there is nothing more universal than that. I think girlfriends can see aspects of their relationship in Surina & Mel.

Being of Indian descent or a top Bollywood actress and trying to make it in Hollywood is not easy (but nothing worth having ever is). For the actor (of any descent), it is either Feast or Famine. Many actors are concerned and often worry about their next Famine. How do you handle the fear of the unknown and what do you do to keep things in perspective?

Great question… I guess I would say I handle the inevitability of work famine with creating. Instead of waiting for opportunity to knock on my door, I’ve learned to do the knocking. As an artist, that means staying creative, staying resourceful, sharing your ideas, and seeing what you can make that’s meaningful to you and others.

Everything in life is ebbs and flows and you need to make sure that at the end of the day, you have other things happening in your life that fulfill you and ground you. So it’s really not the end of the world if you experience a lull in work coming your way.

What made you pursue acting as a career?

It was a childhood dream that never went away. Every time I would watch a movie I would get this sensation in my core, as if I were meant to be doing that. I didn’t end up taking acting courses back then for several reasons – maybe as a child of immigrants I felt out of place with the other all-American theater kids. Or my culture had conditioned me to just focus on my academics. Or maybe it was just all in my head? Anyway, after college, I finally got out of my head and took an acting class. And the rest is history.

Coming from a family that stressed the importance of academia, How did your family react when you told them you wanted to be an actor?

I think they were confused, not in a bad way, but just…confused. I worked so hard to get my engineering degree. I worked so hard to get a great job out of college. So why leave it all? Why start living from paycheck to paycheck. And oh boy, what are you going to do about health insurance? All those questions were coming from a place of love, though. And now that I am a mom, I get it 100%.

Do you have any special talents you would like to share?

You know, ever since I was a kid I had this thing where I would play the piano, and as my fingers would strike different chords, I saw colors. Still happens today. I didn’t learn until two years ago that that’s not the norm – it’s actually a form of synesthesia called chromesthesia. Mind blowing! Separately, I also trained in karate for over twelve years and have a 2nd degree black belt!

When getting into the business, did you have a specific plan? A timeline on how long you should pursue acting before trying other things?

You know, I never gave myself a timeline. I did try to set metrics for myself, like “by end of this year, I will have booked ‘X’ many roles”. That was silly. It doesn’t work way, ha ha! But it’s still very good to think big and write down goals for things WITHIN your control – whether that’s developing your craft, getting a new reel cut together, or writing that one screenplay – so you can have focus and direction in your day to day.

I did consider how priorities might shift with age and with life events (ahem, marriage, pregnancy, motherhood…). I knew I always wanted to produce. And when I got pregnant, the time seemed right, since I wasn’t getting many opportunities in front of the camera.

When going on an audition, who is your typical competitor and do you often see the same people at different auditions?

Hard to say. I audition for so many types of projects these days – comedy, drama, TV, film – and every format and genre has its shortlist. Also I’m going to clarify here since people always assume this, but I don’t only go out for roles written for Indian characters – those parts probably make up less than 5% of roles I consider. But when I DO audition for those roles, yes there are handful of familiar faces. I’m lucky though, most of those faces are now some of my closest friends!

As an actor, you have to have to be internally strong and have an eternal belief in yourself; you have to be healthy on the inside as there is a lot of judgment. How do you know when to shake it off or use the criticism to help you grow and build your craft?

I ask myself – have I given my best? Did I perform my best? If the honest answer is no, I always welcome feedback – from sources I trust and respect. If the honest answer is yes, I still seek out how I can improve. The thing is, EVERYONE has an opinion. You can’t please everyone, and if you try to do that, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

What is your dream role?

I’ve always said I would love to do an epic adventure saga like the ‘Hunger Games’ or ‘Game of Thrones’, I’m mean who on this planet wouldn’t, right? I’ll still say that, but I’ll also say I love the idea of being in a role that I get to shape from the ground up, like with this Surina & Mel project we are doing. And it’s not just the role itself that is exciting, but the idea of being involved in all aspects of the production and working with my friends!

Now that you have been in the acting business for quite some time, would you want your daughter involved in the entertainment field?

If that’s what she’s into, why not? I believe if she’s really gifted in one area, whether that’s in entertainment – perhaps as a writer, actor, or producer – and has a genuine passion for it and willing to work hard toward her goals, by all means. I just would never want her to follow a path out of obligation.

South Asians that made it big in Hollywood brought a unique perspective to the South Asian experience. Mindy Kaling showed what it was like to navigate the world as the only South Asian in her life. She often felt invisible; however she did a very good job of portraying what it is like to fit into another actor’s world.

Priyanka Chopra on the other hand, maintained her ethnic identity and played an Indian (from India) in a show that brought diversity to the forefront. She brought an exotic appeal to America.

What flavor and identification can you offer America or your particular fanbase that diversifies your perspective when compared to other leading ladies of South Asian descent in the entertainment industry?

I suppose I sit at an interesting intersection, where I’m not really quite here nor there (hence the identity crisis throughout my entire life)! I think that intersection is relatable to so many first generation friends out there. My skin is brown, but yet I’m also the Midwest girl next door (I’m from Chicago ‘burbs). I have my posse of ‘brown’ girlfriends I hang out with, but there are not my ONLY friends.

I won’t be defined in one way, and I think a lot of girls out there can identify with that. There aren’t many parts written authentically for people like us, which is part of the motivation for getting Surina & Mel off the ground.
Indian American girls need to see themselves reflected on screen.

Some background on Surina and Mel

Surina & Mel. is penned by former Modern Family staff writer, Sameer Gardezi, and inspired by the real life odd-couple dynamic of its titular characters. Together they conceptualized a world they wanted to see on television that hadn’t yet existed – authentically brown and a little absurd – through the lens of the modern day South Asian woman. Script in hand, the team flew out to LA in hopes of aligning with a production company to bring their story to life. With a lot of excitement but little follow through from Hollywood execs, they knew this was something they just had to do themselves, with their vision and in their voice. They decided to produce the script themselves. Within a month, they rallied a team together of predominantly women and people of color who were also behind their mission, and a few weeks later, while Melanie was 7.5 months pregnant, they completed production in three days. Through this piece, they hope to demonstrate that a show starring two brown women can be both specific and inclusive at the same time.

(Monica Marwah is a school psychologist who works in the Philadelphia area. For fun she enjoys dancing, Pilates, yoga, reading and traveling.)

Related Articles:

Melanie Kannokada: Bicycle Bride Takes a Ride

Film Review: ‘For Here or to Go?’- The Story of Indian Lives in America