After playing at about 25 film festivals across the country, Miss India America will soon be available on video on demand, reports the Los Angeles Times.
The comedy which features virtually an all South Asian American cast and crew centers around Lily Prasad (Tiya Sircar), an overachieving high school valedictorian. Seemingly Harvard bound and in control of her life, all goes well for Lily until her boyfriend dumps her for a beauty pageant winner.
Not one to be outdone, Lily seeks to win back her boyfriend. Her battle plan is to enter a pageant and win a crown so shiny, her ex can’t help but come back to her.
Co-writer Meera Simhan, who in real life is a former Miss India California, plays Lily’s mother. She tries to convince her daughter to live a more balanced life.
“In my extended family, everyone was driven, going to medical school and law school, very successful, highly academic, becoming surgeons and entrepreneurs and engineers,” she said.
Hannah Simone, who plays Cece Parekh on the Fox sitcom New Girl, signed on as executive producer of Miss India America. Simone also appears as Lily’s biggest rival.
“It was so refreshing and different,” Simone said about Miss India America. “These are the kinds of stories that need to be told.”
The movie is being distributed by Marvista Entertainment and will be available beginning April 5.
The film’s director, Ravi Kapoor, said having a predominantly South Asian American cast made the film hard to sell to studios who thought the audience would be too limited.
“There’s lots of great talent, the South Asian talent is off the charts,” he said to Variety. “The other point is, we do feel the film is not just made for South Asians, but for general audiences, one everyone can relate. It’s not even about boyfriend, but her relationship with winning, it’s not everything. And there’s some more growth for her.”
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