As part of the REELway X SACFF Canada–India Co-Production Lab Series, Shwayta Sharma speaks with filmmaker and writer Rahul Chaturvedi about the opportunities and challenges of telling South Asian stories for Canadian and global audiences. Drawing on his experience working across Canadian television and South Asian narratives, Chaturvedi reflects on the complexity and diversity of the South Asian experience, the need to move beyond familiar cultural archetypes, and what Canada and India can learn from each other’s creative industries. He also discusses his lab project ‘TAPAATAP’, a contemporary Mumbai-set table tennis drama, and the potential for stronger creative and production partnerships between the two countries.
You’ve built a career working across Canadian television and South Asian stories. What do you think Canadian audiences are still missing when it comes to South Asian storytelling?
We are still in the early stages of introducing South Asian culture to the West. I don’t think most Canadian folks realize the incredible vastness and complexity of South Asia – every two or three hundred kilometres you travel, you find new language, food, music, and stories. For far too long we have flattened South Asian characters into easy archetypes, but if we are willing to scratch a little further, there’s a whole universe of stories waiting to be explored.
Having worked across different sides of the industry, what do you think Canada and India can learn from each other when it comes to developing and producing stories?
Canada can learn to take more risks, in format and in what gets supported. India has daily soaps, music and dance shows, talk shows, game shows built entirely around web creators, arthouse films next to big mainstream hits, fantasy, sports dramas, crime dramas, musicals. The range is enormous.
India, meanwhile, has room to build more structure, and that’s where Canada can lead. Development processes backed by institutions, union protections, established pathways for service productions to shoot here. That infrastructure isn’t easy to find in India yet.
Behind-the-Scenes Image from ’18-35′.
As South Asian stories become more visible in Canada, do you think the industry is becoming more interested in our stories, or simply more interested in reaching our audiences?
There was a real moment of interest in our audiences a couple of years ago, but now the pendulum is swinging away, and inclusion seems to be taking a back seat again. I think the answer is for us to stop waiting to be discovered and start building from within the community instead, telling and hearing stories in different avenues (theatre, social media, web series), then finding ways to bring them together for a diaspora audience worldwide. Growing organically feels more lasting than waiting for film agencies and TV networks to notice us.
What makes a South Asian story feel authentic to you, particularly when it is being developed for audiences outside South Asia?
I can tell when a creator has actually done the work to understand both cultures they’re writing about. Diasporic stories often fall short because the creator has no real relationships with people from the mainland, so their sense of South Asia comes from their parents’ stories from thirty years ago, and it shows. My advice to anyone writing an immigrant story: make at least one immigrant friend in real life first, so you have something to write from.
The reverse happens just as often, where life in the West gets misrepresented in South Asian media. There’s an Indian show called Kanneda, set in Canada but shot in the UK with almost no Canadian creative or cast involved. Same problem, opposite direction – watching it as a Canadian, it feels really strange since I can’t identify with any of the storylines.
Behind-the-Scenes Image from ’18-35′
Tell us about the project that you will be developing through the lab? What kind of producer are you looking for in a potential co-production?
Through the co-production lab, I’m developing ‘TAPAATAP’, a contemporary Mumbai-set table tennis sports drama, eight episodes at thirty minutes. It lives in India, but I want to tell it with the pacing and character work I’ve learned writing Canadian television. The finance plan draws on Canadian TV funding, and needs an Indian co-producer bringing equity and ideally a streamer relationship for a pre-sale.
I’m actually at the market with two projects this year. Alongside the lab, I’m pitching ‘18 to 35’, my Canadian Screen Award and Writers Guild of Canada Award-winning web series, as a half-hour show at TIFF Pitch. So whether you’re looking at an India co-pro or a proven Canadian sitcom, it’s a good time to talk.
As a producer, I want someone who’s genuinely excited about sports drama as a genre, and is interested in finding ways to bring together Canadian development rigour with Indian production scale.
Canada has a strong multicultural audience, while India has one of the world’s largest film and television markets. Why do you think there are still so few meaningful creative collaborations between the two?
India already has audiences, capital and infrastructure, so Indian producers haven’t historically needed much from Canada, and Canadian co-pro rules can feel rigid from the other side. There’s also a timing piece. South Asian Canadians who immigrated in the 90s and 2000s are only now settled enough to build careers in film and TV, which is part of why we’re now seeing this surge of South Asian creatives wanting to tell their own stories. And more people are moving here from media hubs like Mumbai, Delhi, and Kerala, bringing their sensibilities with them as well. I think that’s exactly what will start to close the gap and kick off some exciting collaborations between the countries.
Behind-the-Scenes Image from ’18-35′.
Quick Takes:
Q. What projects are you currently pitching or developing?
An immigrant holiday film, a table tennis sports drama, and 18 to 35, a Canadian Screen Award and Writers Guild of Canada Award-winning series.
Q. What stage are these projects in (writing, pre-production, post-production)?
‘Namaste Santa’ is in financing for the screen version, with the graphic novel publishing this October. ‘TAPAATAP’ is in development, building its finance plan around the co-production lab, and 18 to 35 is in development as a half-hour sitcom.
Q. What kind of collaborators are you looking for right now? (writers, actors, producers, crew, etc.)
An Indian co-producer for ‘TAPAATAP’, someone bringing equity and ideally a streamer relationship. Brand partnerships for ’18 to 35′ from the travel industry, and child actors for ‘Namaste Santa’.
Q. How can people get in touch if they want to collaborate or learn more?
The Contact form on my website https://rahulchaturvedifilm.com/ reaches me directly. Always excited to chat with smart, kind, and creative people.
Q. Are you looking for submissions, funding, or other opportunities?
Funding and producer partnerships, specifically for ‘TAPAATAP’ and ‘Namaste Santa’.
Q. Any upcoming events, screenings, or launches readers should know about?
‘Namaste Santa’ launches as a graphic novel with KidsCanPress this October. Also, I recently co-created and directed a vertical comedy series, Lost In Transit, which will be launching in September. Follow it here: https://www.instagram.com/lostintransitseries/.
