The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh, created by Vijal Patel, offers a fresh take on the family sitcom. Thanks to its unique,Rashomon-style storytellingand the creative freedom provided by Amazon Studios, the series feels fresh and edgy while remaining (more or less) family-friendly. The show follows an Indian family who move to America in search of a better life, but when their neighbors' house gets burned down under mysterious circumstances, a pair of federal agents (Romy Rosemont and Pete Holmes) conduct a series of interrogations with the family in an effort to discover the truth.
The Pradeep family consists of two parents (Loststar Naveen Andrewsand Sindhu Vee), one daughter (Sahana Srinivasan), and two sons, Kamal and Vinod, played by Arjun Sriram and Ashwin Sakthivel, respectively. Kamal is the socially-awkward teen with a nigh-debilitating crush on his English teacher (we’ve all been there, right?) and Vinod is the irrepressibly adorable precocious youngest child who loves aboslutely everything about America, even his bullies. Vinod is the character most directly based on series creator Vijal Patel.
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Screen Rantinterviewed Arjun Sriram and Ashwin Sakthivel about their work onThe Pradeeps of Pittsburghprior to its debut onAmazon Freevee and Prime Video. They spoke about their characters and their relationship with showrunner Vijal Patel, the brotherly bond they formed as castmates, and the associated shenanigans they got up to in the name of harmless mischief.
The Pradeeps Of Pittsburgh’s Ashwin Sakthivel & Arjun Sriram Reveal Their Character Quirks
Screen Rant: You don’t need me to tell you, you are both so funny. Ashwin, when you’re doing a scene, is the director like, “Be more cute?” or, “Bo, that’s too cute, be less cute?” What’s the process of finding the right level of cuteness for each scene?
Ashwin Sakthivel: Yeah, I feel like there were some moments of that, and it was usually, “be more cute,” because after a long day, that last scene, I would just kind of be like, blank, right? So, I had to be more like Vinod in those moments. So, yeah, I’d say there was a lot of those moments.
Arjun, if I had a nickel for every teacher I had a crush on in middle school and high school…I would have gone to a better college. Did you have any teachers or anyone you drew on while filming those lovelorn scenes?
Arjun Sriram: Not really. I mean, Megan Hilty, she’s a very confident and incredible woman, but also such a talented actress. I’ve seen her in many things in the past. Yeah, she’s a really great actress, and I learned so much from her and got so much advice from her, career-wise. And yeah, I mean, it’s a given that she’s a very, very pretty woman. But she was really mature about it. And I’d like to think I was mature about it, as well. And it was a lot of fun to play around with that, for sure.
The Brotherly Mischief Carried Over To The Behind-the-Scenes Of The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh
“We did a lot of like crazy shenanigans, like prank calling hotel rooms.”
Okay, so you play brothers. Did you get time to hang out and do stuff and be brothers on set? Or was it like, no, we’ve got to get our scenes done and then go home!
Ashwin Sakthiven: Definitely not. I feel like there was definitely an instant brotherly bond between Arjun and me. I don’t have an older brother. And I feel like it was good to have this figure, this brotherly figure that was not just only my TV brother, but a brother in real life, which was what Arjun became.
Arjun Sriram: Yeah, for sure. I remember the first time I met Ashwin, we did a lot of like crazy shenanigans, like prank calling hotel rooms and… I remember, we were walking down this lounge room or something in the hotel. We were just walking and having a laugh, and Ashwin’s like, hey, what if I knock on this door and then we both just run away? And I’m like, come on, we have to go to set tomorrow, we have an early wake up time, let’s just go. And he’s like, okay, fine…
Ashwin Sakthivel: And then what did I do?
Arjun Sriram: He knocks on the door, and then we both just dash in opposite directions. And then we’re trying to find each other again. We had so many moments like that. And, through those shenanigans and fun moments we had together, we definitely had that that brotherly bond that’s still strong to this day.
That’s fantastic. I love to hear it. So, no one’s a diva. Or is someone a diva and you’re able to’t tell us?
Arjun Sriram: No, everybody’s super, super cool on the set. Everybody’s amazing. Everybody’s incredible. I’m so thankful to get to work with such talented people, for sure.
You said that you were in a hotel. Was the house, the Pradeep house, a functional house or was that a set?
Arjun Sriram: It was a set. It was like a little sound studio. So, yeah, typical, you know, TV magic, know what I mean?
Ashwin Sakthivel: The house they show outside, was an actual house, you know, when we’re like walking into the house and stuff, that was an actual house.
Arjin Sriram: It’s huge, too, big!
Well, tell me a little bit about working with Vijal, the creator. Did you have opportunities to pick his brain and be like, “tell me about the real version of this and how we can be more like reality,” if that was part of the process?
Arjun Sriram: Yeah, well, Vijal was always super confident with us, in that we would come onto set and we’d know our characters. He had that trust in us. I mean, that’s the reason we got the job. But he was also super allowing of us to give ideas of our own. And he wouldn’t just be like, “Okay, that’s good advice… Now get out. Let’s read the script.” Instead, he was like, “Hmm, this seems like a good idea. Let me let me write this down and maybe we can figure something out.” He was always super open to new ideas.
Ashwin Sakthivel: And just to add on to that, he explains in a few other interviews that this show is loosely based on his family. And I feel like more than more than me playing Vij, it was great because he was very allowing of us to add our own touches to the characters. The root of it was Vij’s family. But then we became our own characters.
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 otherThe Pradeeps of Pittsburghinterviews here:
The Pradeeps of Pittsburghseason 1 begins streaming onOctober 17 on Prime Video.
The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh
Cast
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.
