Exclusive: Poorna Jagannathan on evolving South Asian representation in Hollywood

Poorna Jagannathan said Deli Boys reflects a new phase of South Asian representation in Hollywood. In an exclusive conversation with India Today, she said identities are now embedded in stories rather than being treated as the entire plot.

In Short

• Jagannathan said South Asian characters are moving beyond tokenistic identity-driven roles
• She noted change is visible both onscreen and among writers
• Jagannathan said she often pushed scripts towards more authentic Indian specificity

For years, South Asian representation in Hollywood was diversity tokenism at best. Characters were often expected to explain themselves, their culture, their accents, their families, or their immigrant experiences. Their identities frequently became the story itself. Actors like Poorna Jagannathan spent much of their careers pushing against those limitations.

Now, with shows like Deli Boys, Jagannathan believes the conversation is entering a new phase. In an exclusive conversation with India Today, the actor reflected on what she calls “representation 2.0”- a moment when South Asian characters are no longer defined by their ethnicity alone but are allowed to exist as messy, ambitious, flawed and often hilarious individuals.

The shift is significant coming from Jagannathan, whose career has consistently challenged conventional depictions of South Asian women on screen. From The Night Of to Never Have I Ever and now Deli Boys, she has built a body of work around characters who feel lived-in.

Speaking about the growing visibility of South Asians and Asians in Western entertainment, Jagannathan said the change is happening not only in front of the camera but behind it as well.

“You know, I’ve always made choices as close to possible as who I am. So, if I got a role that was written for another ethnicity, say a white, I’d always try and encourage them to change it to a more Indian name or Indian. Whatever I can bring of who I am to the role actually makes it easier for me to inhabit," she said.

For Jagannathan, authenticity has never been about making a statement. It has been about making characters feel real enough to inhabit without compromise. What excites her now is seeing writers create culturally specific characters from the outset rather than retrofitting diversity onto existing templates.

“I see not only people inhabiting it, but I see on the flip side people writing for it. Characters are becoming much more specific culturally," she explained.

That evolution is perhaps most visible in Deli Boys, the comedy-crime series that follows two South Asian-American brothers who unexpectedly inherit their family’s criminal empire. The show’s cultural identity is unmistakable, yet it rarely pauses to explain itself to audiences. For Jagannathan, that distinction matters. “With something like Deli Boys, we’re entering a territory that is not identity-focused narratives anymore,” she said. “Our identities are just given. They’re baked into the storyline," she said.

The actor pointed to shows such as Beef as examples of a new storytelling model emerging across Hollywood. “Deli Boys and shows like Beef just are, for me, representation 2.0. It’s next level, where we come from, who we are is implicit. It’s not part of the storyline. It’s a secondary subplot to everything.”

Meanwhile, Deli Boys itself demonstrates freedom. Jagannathan’s character is ambitious, dangerous and unapologetically manipulative: a far cry from the nurturing, self-sacrificing stereotypes that South Asian women have often been confined to on screen.

Moreover, she also spoke about sharing scenes with comedian and actor Fred Armisen. Armisen joked that their real-life unfamiliarity naturally translated to their characters’ dynamic. Jagannathan recalled how even a scene involving intimacy was shaped by their initial awkwardness, with a consent conversation during rehearsals eventually finding its way into the script.

All six episodes of Deli Boys Season 2 are now available on JioHotstar.

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