Actor, producer, writer, who initially shot to fame as a social media personality, Lilly Singh is currently in Mumbai, where she has been catching up with the who’s who of Indian cinema for her podcast tited Shameless.
While Lilly has visited the city before, she admits she’s learning its ways slowly and steadily. She says, “I’m still learning. People told me it’s hard to confirm things. ‘Tension mat lo, things will happen.’ As a control freak that’s something I had to learn. What comes around with that flexibility is ‘jugaad’. I even tell my team in Los Angeles to do ‘jugaad’ pretend you are in Mumbai and make it happen.”
During one of her previous trips, Shah Rukh Khan had hosted her at his home Mannat. As a fan who grew up “manifesting SRK energy” she admits it was one of the most memorable days of her life. “It was one of the greatest days of my life, being hosted at Mannat. Which is why when I landed I wore an SRK shirt. What’s funny is everytime I’m in Mumbai in an auto, the rickshaw driver will say ‘Madam that’s Shah Rukh Khan’s house’ and I say ‘Oh really.’ Of course I don’t tell them I’ve been in his house. I met his family, had lunch there. He gave me one of his blazers that I have till date.”
Moving on, to work back in Hollywood and about South Asian representation there she says, “We were taking steps forward but right now we are taking steps backwards. The one silver lining is when I moved to LA years ago. It was difficult for me to pick up the phone and invite others desis in Hollywood. There were just one- two. Now I throw an annual Diwali party and its full of desis from Hollywood. Unfortunately that does not make it easier for things to get made. There’s still not enough roles for us. My last film was an independently financed feature. That’s how to get things made, be the producer, the decision maker. When you don’t have a big studio backing you you have to put in your own money. Budgets dont always result in the best vision. I’m working to get into a place where I have a big budget.”
She admits its hard to do the three acting, writing and producing, all together. “I like acting and writing, not a fan of producing. The difference between working in LA and I imagine in India is I assume everyone understands that culture and landscape. In LA majority of the crew does not look like me. The person making the props and editing does not understand the culture. The result is the producer has to do a lot more work. There’s a lot more education and it puts the burden on the diverse person. When I hosted a late night show I had producers emailing me ‘Can you translate this Hindi word for us’ We dont know what it means.’ The word was Madhuri Dixit! I had to explain its not a word, its someone’s name who I have referenced many times. A simple Google search would show you that theres so much educating to do, it takes away time and energy from other things. ”