HulusDeli Boysset to premiere on March 6 from Disneys Onyx Collective, isnt just another laugh-out-loud hilarious series.
Its a bold, vibrant dive into South Asian family dynamicsthrough culture and comedy like weve never seen before.
To me, thats the meat of it.
Custom image by Jefferson Chacon
COLLIDER: Abdullah, thank you so much for this show.
I cannot even thank you enough.
It’s such a great series, so well done.
Image via Hulu
I watched the entire thing
ABDULLAH SAEED: Oh, that’s so nice.
What was going through your mind when you wanted to create this story?
Because theyre so authentic, theyre so multifaceted.
Image via Hulu
A lot of South Asian representation in comedy is still growing.
We see so much of ourselves in drama and generational trauma stories, but this was so different.
I thought that was such an important thing for us.
Image via Hulu
My manager, Anthony, was like, You should write something thats just you.
Thats just your voice.
I was speaking to those relationships.
Image via Hulu
Honestly, I wasnt trying too hard with the representation stuff and I think thats what really helped.
Its truly just entertainment.
When they identified the same thing that you did, which was: Oh, it feels real.
It feels like theyre not forcing this.
Everybody was able to add to that.The writers, we had a very, very diverse room.
Everybody took ownership of different characters, different aspects of different characters.Then our actors also.
For example: Im sure you noticed theres quite a bit of Urdu just thrown in, right?
Theres almost no Urdu in the scripts.
A lot of that is just them ad-libbing along with the stuff thats written in English.
I love that because, at the core, its a story of two brothers and their Aunt Lucky.
We get to see everything more well-rounded.
We could have seen it become likeMonkey ManorSlumdog Millionaire.
What made comedy the right lens for telling this story?
Because it felt so real and again, going back to the word authentic.
That is something that I love so much.
Its not just everyone.
Which is that they live in a world of secrets, right?
Its this thing of like, when I asked my mom, What was your childhood like?
Shes like, Nothing.
We went to school, did our homework, and went to bed.
Im like, that cant be the whole story.
There must be so much more to it.
The reason they keep that stuff from us in their mind is for our own good.
But we long to understand them more and they dont realize thats what we want.
They think whats better for us is just to move forward, live the American lifestyle.
I feel that is at the heart of the disconnect between the two generations.
Really, that was the heart of the whole Baba story.
Theres all these different holes in stories, Im like, I dont understand, so what happened?
SAEED: Right?!
[Laughs]
Yeah, its very weird.
It sounds like the comedic stereotype that Western audiences would have about us.
In our show, some characters have accents, some characters dont.
We take a stab at mix it up as much as possible.
Im not ashamed of it.
All our families grinded and did all those things, right?
Thats part of our identity.
Im not trying to hide from that.
Im not trying to hide from the fact that our food smells pretty unique.
We have a lot of jokes about that too, because Im not ashamed of how our food smells.
You know what I mean?
They might do it in other peoples shows, but not in this one.
The story is about stepping into unexpected roles and responsibilities.
Just in the process of writing something, pitching it, and doing allthat, right?
Theyre navigating it and every episode they learn something new.
Theyre like, Oh my God, thats what this, thats how that works.
For me, as a first-time creator of a scripted show, it really was that process.
I was looking to my fellow EPs to really educate me and guide me.
It was an incredible learning experience for me.
For me, it was like, Okay, heres who I think I am.
Not to give too much away.
Kudos for creating such an amazing show.
I know that sounds weird because we just met like five minutes ago.
My sister even loves the show so much.
I just have to get my mom on board right now, but she was busy watching her dramas.
SAEED: Does she not like gore?
Whats it about the show that your mom would potentially not be into?
No, she just wanted to watchKumkum Bhagya!
[Laughs]
SAEED: [Laughs] Fair enough.
Like: I have a whole bunch of episodes, I need to just finish binging that.
Ill watch this later.
Im like, Okay, great, but youll love it!
I do want to ask you one final question, more for the audience post-Sundance.
Obviously, that happens in the pilot.
I think it essentially happens in every episode where theres a real big surprise.
To me, thats what I love in scripted comedy, thats the meat of it.
Its just regular glass.
My wife, who plays Agent Mercer [AlexandraRuddy], really nailed that.
Im so happy about this show.
I love this show so much.
SAEED: Thank you.
These two orange guys were the best.
Abdullah, thank you so much for your time and congrats on the show again!
