Well its 2018, and we finally went into production for a project that kept stalling since 2010. Thanks to TELUS STORYHIVE, the first episode of our show was funded for $10,000. TO put that in perspective, our feature film “Jewel Fools” had the budget for $2000…except that film was done guerilla style with no form of real paperwork. Good times. This show is called Lux-Me. A show about an augmented dating app in the hands of some young adults. Oh yeah, it takes place in 2042. Everything from costume, music, sets, make up, had to be done with detail. We wanted to try our best with creating a future from scratch.
Lux-Me is more than just a sci fi rom com though, it is somewhat of a statement. Even back in 2009, I didn’t know if people would be ready for a South Asian lead show, that people still wanted straight-to-the point content. Things like YouTube skits, short content, nothing that really requires much brain power. I made a web series that started in 2009 called “Biswajit”, a show I KNEW would gain traction, and like I predicted, it did. It was easy. Throw in some every day “desi” jokes, something that is #relatable , and boom. But slowly, I hated doing it. It felt like a chore and it isn’t the reason I want to create. I wanted to push that boundary. I wanted to make a show, where race had nothing to do with the narrative. I don’t know, kind of like having an Indian James Bond, but he still does James Bond-like things (that won’t happen any time soon, lets be real). That was the idea. A global show, with people who look like me, doing cool shit. Or not forcing a love interest that pretty much shits on the entire South Asian female population (Seriously, how many times are we going to see the same “Indian born girl comes from India that the male lead doesn’t want to marry.”) I just wanted to create stories that I have always imagined in MY head. When I was 10, I always imagined a movie with Salman Khan and Tom Cruise. It seriously seemed normal in my head cuz, hey, don't some brown people, like me, hang out with other non brown people too? Not gonna lie, when Priyanka Chopra. Irfaan Khan, Deepika Padukone broke into Hollywood, I had goosebumps. When Slumdog Millionaire won Best Picture, I cried. So...it WAS possible??
Now here comes the tricky part, something I knew may be inevitable. I would make this show, and it wouldn’t reach the right people, right away. You can talk to so many South Asians, and they will say the same thing. “We need more brown people on screen.”. There ain’t that many of us, lets be real, especially in the west. 5.4% in Canada, to be exact. Putting more than 1 South Asian in a show, and suddenly the show is put into this category of “Indian show”. It was obvious it wasn’t going to “viral”. There are no big names attached to it, but the show is filled BIG talent. The idea to create this show, and keep making more content like this, so it slowly becomes “normalized”. It no longer becomes a “south Asian show”, instead it becomes a “sci fi rom com”. I know the audience is there, and it just has to reach them. It will be slow, but there IS an audience. There are people who want diverse, real content. Stories that don’t JUST cater to one group, but have humanistic themes that can transcend.
We are on the first episode right now, but we have 4 more we want to create. It all depends on how well this Pilot does, for us to get funding. No matter the result, we WILL find a way to make this show. We want to keep making this type of content, no matter what the medium is. Film, series, music, whatever.
So Godspeed, Lux-Me. Godspeed. This show is in your hands.
WATCH here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc_8unL00Pw
