Producer-Actor Surina Jindal opens up on Hot Mess Holiday, working with Lily Singh, Kal Penn

From 90210 to Hot Mess Holiday; how has your journey been in Hollywood? My first few years in Hollywood were amazing. I was part of a nationally ranked improv and sketch comedy troupe, I had a recurring character on Outsourced and 90210 as well and I worked on major national commercial campaigns including Intel, Microsoft, Dunk Donuts, Wendy’s and more. It was a great time and super fun. Then the journey continued and I grew as an actor and as a producer and became more grounded in who I am and what kinds of projects I wanted to focus my attention on. 13 long years in this business and there’s been a huge learning curve to get to this point. Apart from starring in the movie; you’re also the executive producer on Hot Mess Holiday. How does it feel being responsible to perform multiple roles for a film? I loved being an EP on this film. Mel and I had our hands in every aspect of the film from the development, to the music, to wardrobe, to our hair and makeup looks, to our snacks on set. It’s our baby. It was so nice to be able to creatively handle what we needed to in order for our vision to come to life. I have to say it was quite hectic as well. We were not able to focus all of our attention on simply acting and had to deal with everyday set issues and logistics and that became taxing. However, it was still a magical experience to be working with my best friend as an EP and co-star of my own movie. Insane. You’re also a public speaking coach and a comedian; tell us more about that. Also, how do you manage to juggle these multiple roles? I coach entrepreneurs and executives on how to become confident and bold public speakers by using acting techniques. I started my business back in 2017 so I could be an entrepreneur and use my skill set to support myself while I was running around auditioning. It’s been a great business and I love my clients and feel so lucky to have found something I can do on the side in between acting and producing projects to provide value. I dabbled in stand-up in NYC and even in Bombay when I lived there in 2019. It was super fun. I love stand up and really enjoyed getting to know the comedy scene in India. I’ll get back into it once things settle down a bit on the producing side. What are your fondest memories of India? Do you have relatives here & visit often? My fondest memory of India was when we would finally leave the chaos of the Delhi airport, get into the car with my uncle and drive over to Mansa where my parents were born and I could smell the fields along the drive. Growing up, that beautiful smell was always my first indication that I was truly in India and back to visit where my parents came from. There’s nothing else like it. I also enjoyed getting to know the comedians I met while working back in Mumbai in 2019 as a producer and doing some stand-up gigs there. The OML gang is great. The cast of Hot Mess Holiday is Asian dominant; does it help bring a familiarity on set? We love our cast so much and got so lucky to have such prominent actors in our field willing to take on these roles. We are fans of every actor in the film and it was so nice to get to work with them. It did help with the familiarity because we all knew we were making history with this film. Nothing like this has been done in the US and Diwali has never been shown in a studio film. It was really special for the cast to be able to be a part of this and for us to make fun of ourselves and being parts of two cultures. We could all relate so heavily to the script so it was super fun because it came from such an authentic place. How was it working with Lily Singh, Kal Penn & Melanie Chandra? Lily was super gracious with her time and so collaborative. She loved that this project starred two brown women and said she wanted to do whatever she could to support. I can’t believe someone as busy as her made time for us in the way she did! She’s super sweet and so talented. She nailed her scene. Kal Penn was a dream to work with. His industry knowledge and positive attitude kept us going through all the obstacles we had to overcome to get this film to the finish line. He grounded us and was also so fun to run ideas with during the development process and to act alongside. He’s a gem. Mel is my best friend, my partner in crime, and we were attached at the hip during this process. It’s difficult to put into words what she means to me without getting emotional because the two of us went through so much over the last 7 years as artists to see our vision come to life. One can really understand if a partnership can work when it’s put to such an intense test like this and we only grew closer as a result. I love Melanie and I can’t wait to make more creative babies with her. Hot Mess Holiday takes upon a journey of two best friends; have you and your best friend too had some crazy adventures? Do share some of them with us. This film is very much true to life. When Mel and I decide to go out and have a fun night we will go from 0-100 pretty quickly which will result in epic hangovers the next morning. Although, there was this one time we went out on St. Patrick’s day back in 2014 and got so wasted. The next day I felt like death was on my door and Mel got up at 8am got ready, looked really cute and met up with a friend across town for brunch, while I laid in bed for 14 hours trying to recover. I don’t understand her. Hot Mess Holiday releases on 8 March exclusively on Comedy Central India.