Pride Month|Maulik Pancholy on writing children’s books with gay characters

Maulik Pancholy, whose acting credits include television shows like 30 Rock, Whitney, Phineas and Ferb, Sanjay and Craig, The Good Wife, and The Sopranos, is excited about his new avatar as an author of children’s books. His novel The Best at It, published by HarperCollins India in 2021, has been shortlisted for the Neev Book Awards 2022 in the Junior Readers Category. He joined us on a Zoom call from Long Island, New York.

In 2013, you participated in the Global Day of Rage against Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. In 2014, you got engaged at the Taj Mahal and married your partner, Ryan Corvaia. Now in 2022, your novel with a gay protagonist has been nominated for a children’s book award in India. How do you look back at this whole journey? 

It feels really exciting, and I appreciate you putting it all into context. Sometimes, we are so focused on an individual moment that we forget to acknowledge the history leading up to it. In fact, I would retrace my steps back to the time when I – like Rahul Kapoor in my book –grew up as an Indian American child not really knowing my place in the world. When we took trips to India, I was told, “Oh, you are an American!” In the United States itself, people told me, “Oh, you are an Indian!” It was confusing for me, and what made matters worse was that I didn’t know anyone who was gay, proud and out, either in the US or in India. I have come a long way since then. Because I have been involved in activism around gay rights in the US, participating in the Global Day of Rage seemed like a natural extension of that.

Let me tell you a little bit more about the Taj Mahal story. When we went to India in 2014, we had already been together for nine years. We wanted our engagement to be special, so we thought it would be great to do it at the Taj Mahal. It is, after all, a great symbol of love. I tweeted about our engagement from Agra. By the time, we reached Delhi, the news had spread widely. We received a lot of warmth and support but also some ugly comments. Our engagement wasn’t meant to be a statement but I’m glad if it got people talking about rights.

One of the reasons behind writing The Best at It was that I would get to speak about things openly and honestly even if the form that I chose was fiction. It took me a long journey to be able to express who I am. When I was 12, I did not have the language to stand up for myself. Through Rahul, I wanted to communicate how important it is to be yourself, without any fear or shame, and to be met with love and solidarity by your community just the way you are.

I am grateful to the Neev Book Awards 2022 for shortlisting my book in the Junior Readers category. A recognition of this kind matters to me because it brings the book to the attention of so many children, parents, grandparents and teachers who may not have heard of it before. Gay children get to see themselves in my book, and know they are not alone. That’s cool!

While growing up, I didn’t get to read any books with gay protagonists or Indian American protagonists. I could not see myself in them. As a kid, I needed a book like The Best at It.

There is a lot of you in Rahul Kapoor, in terms of biographical detail. He is a Mathlete; you were one. He has an amazing relationship with his grandfather, and so did you…

You are right. There is certainly a lot of me in Rahul but he is also his own person. Rahul auditions for a bank commercial at the age of 12; I didn’t. He tries out for the football team. I never did that. A lot of the emotional experiences are 100 per cent biographical. The anxiety that Rahul has around sports, and being in the locker room…those bits come from my life. Being told at an audition that I wasn’t suitable because I am not white…I share that with Rahul. It didn’t happen in the same way as it is described in the book. Rahul’s grandmother is the first woman from her town to be an engineering graduate. That bit is based on my mom.

One of my favourite characters in the novel is Nandita Auntie. I look forward to seeing her in the adaptation that you are writing for HBO Max. Who is being cast in that role?

We are in the middle of the development process right now, so we are figuring out a lot of things because television as a medium has its own requirements and possibilities. I love knowing that you liked Nandita Auntie so much. She will certainly be part of the show as one of Rahul’s mom’s closest friends. She is a bit more traditional than Rahul’s mom but everything that she says comes from a place of love. There’s a section in the novel where Nandita Auntie talks about Rahul’s mom being one of her first friends in the US. In the television show, we want to get deeper into the relationship between them, and explore what it means to be an immigrant, to form friendships and communities, to support each other. I loved writing Nandita Auntie. She’s fun, she’s spirited. She’d be a great character on screen.

I thought of Sarita Choudhary playing her when I visualized the character…

That’s amazing! I would be so honoured. I love her work. She is such an incredible actress.

What does it feel like to let go of the creative control you had while writing the novel? With a show, it’s not just about how you see it but so many people’s visions coming together, through direction, production, acting, costumes, etc. How do you deal with it?

At the moment, I am working with executives at HBO Max. I have a production company, and a co-writer. The process is very collaborative. We have to figure out the best way to get this story across to the people we want to show it to. In the US, we have hardly any shows featuring Asian protagonists who are also gay and Rahul’s age. I want people like Rahul to be able to see themselves in the story when it plays out on screen. At the same, I want to build a broader viewership. The book speaks to people of all ages, whether they are gay or not, because Rahul as a character is so lovable. I want the same to happen with the TV show.

It would have been easy to end the book with Rahul and Justin dating but Rahul tells Justin that he just wants to be friends. It was nice to see that he is not settling for the first cute guy that he has a crush on. Rahul wants to get to know himself better…

Yes! In the audition scene where Rahul runs into Justin and his dad, and the Holi scene where everyone is playing with colours, Rahul gets to see a dorky side to Justin. He wonders how he ended up having a crush on Justin. I wrote it like this because of my own experience, and what I have heard from other gay men. Sometimes, we find an idealized version of who we’d like to be and what we want to look like. We are not sure if we want to be with that person or we simply want to be like them in the hope that it would make all our problems disappear.

Were you thinking of the gay dating scene in the US, where Indian Americans encounter racism and feel undesirable when they are rejected in favour of white men?

I am off the dating scene because I have had a husband for many years now but I agree that the reverence for a certain beauty ideal and body type has been detrimental not only to Indian Americans but to all people of colour. It is important for the LGBTQ community to address racism alongside homophobia and transphobia. Pride events need to reflect greater diversity.

Let’s talk about Rahul’s dear friend Chelsea. Race is never an issue in their friendship. Rahul doesn’t have to teach her how to be an ally or how to respect his Indian heritage. How did you manage to address these cultural and political issues without preaching?

Chelsea is based on my best friend from middle school – Nicole Vanderbilt. While writing the character, I considered making her a bit over-the-top…you know, the kind of ally who is extra good and is so caught up in their own self-image that they forget the person they are standing up for and their needs. As the book evolved, I wanted Chelsea to be somewhat different. I wanted her to be the best friend that any gay kid could have. She stands up for Rahul in situations where he is unable to stand up for himself. At the same time, I wanted the book to trace the arc of how Rahul has his own journey and finds strength within himself.

I was moved by what you do with Brent’s character at the end of the book. Someone who is shown as a bully until then is suddenly viewed through empathetic eyes. Rahul wonders if the homophobe is a closeted gay boy like himself. How did this happen?

I made this choice for a couple of reasons. In 2014, when President Barack Obama was in the White House, I served on the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. As a Commissioner, I co-founded an anti-bullying campaign called Act to Change that became a non-profit organization. We do not believe in labelling children. We believe that it is possible to teach children to think and act differently. The bullying comes from somewhere, and we like to address those deeper reasons that make a child hurt others.

I brought this awareness to Brent’s character to show how harsh his dad can be on him, and the fact that he might have struggles that people don’t really know of because he puts up this aggressive front. Whether Brent is gay or not is a question that children often ask me when I visit schools for book readings and discussions. I don’t know. Only Brent knows. I wanted this to be a question for Rahul so that he can have a moment of empathy, and think about the common ground that he might have with Brent. At the same time, I didn’t want to give Brent a free pass, so I had Rahul wonder if he was being too nice to Brent. I had to balance that.

Since your book released in India during the COVID-19 pandemic, you didn’t get to visit schools in India. Do you have family in India? How often do you visit?

Yes, I would have loved to visit schools in India but that hasn’t happened. I’m glad that the Neev Literature Festival, which gives out the awards, organized a virtual interaction. I have extended family in India, mostly in Ahmedabad. I speak Gujarati now in the US but I was better at it when my grandparents were around, and I could practise with them. As a kid, I used to visit India frequently because we had a lot more family there. But, in the last decade, I have visited only thrice. The last time that I visited was in 2018. I want to come back.

Your next novel will be out in a few months from now. Please tell us about it.

It’s called Nikhil Out Loud. It’s about a 13-year-old Indian American boy who is gay, and is the starring voice on a popular cartoon show. His family moves to the Midwest because his grandfather is sick. He has to find his own voice and stand up to a group of conservative parents who are annoyed that an openly gay star has joined the school. Nikhil is sweet and charming. The story has a lot of joy and humour in it. The release date is October 21, which is National Coming Out Day in the US. It also happens to be my grandmother’s birthday. She is no longer here but I find it a very auspicious day to bring my new book into the world.

Chintan Girish Modi is a Mumbai-based journalist and book reviewer.

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