India Sweets & Spices: Sophia Ali, Rish Shah, writer/director Geeta Malik (Tribeca 2021)
44One of the many films to world premiere at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival was writer-director Geeta Malik’s India Sweets and Spices. The film takes the coming-of-age story we’ve all seen before and puts a great new spin on the material by having the story focus on an Indian American family. The film focuses on a UCLA college student (Sophia Ali) who returns to her posh suburban New Jersey home after a year away at school and has to navigate the drama, gossip, and romance of her family and neighbors. The film does a great job at pulling back the curtain on a community of people that don’t often get movies made about them while also addressing class privilege and what’s really important in life. India Sweets and Spices also stars Rish Shah, Manisha Koirala, Adil Hussain, Deepti Gupta, and Ved Sapru.
Shortly after seeing the film I spoke with Sophia Ali, Rish Shah, and Geeta Malik. During the very fun interview, they shared behind-the-scenes stories about making the movie, what it’s about, getting to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, the editing process, how the film pulls back the curtain on a group of Indian American families, what it was like filming the big group scenes, and more. In addition, Shah teased what fans can look forward to on The Wilds Season 2 and Shah talked about getting to be part of the upcoming Disney+ series Ms. Marvel.
Check out what they had to say in the player above and below is exactly what we talked about.
Sophia Ali, Rish Shah, and Geeta Malik:
What TV series would the actors like to guest star on and what would Malik like to guest direct?
What movie or movies have they seen the most?
Do they own any movie or TV show props?
What got them interested in acting/directing?
What India Sweets & Spices is about?
Why did Sophia Ali and Rish Shah want to be part of the film?
How the film pulls back the curtain on a group of Indian American families.
The challenges of making this film on a limited budget.
How it was Shah’s first time on a movie set.
Malik talks about editing the movie and if she was nervous when they started.
Can Ali and Shah watch themselves on screen?
What was it like filming the big group scenes and who ruined the most takes?
Was the title always going to be India Sweets & Spices?
What it means to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Ali talks about The Wilds Season 2 and what fans can look forward to.
Shah on getting to be part of Ms. Marvel and what fans can look forward to.
Malik on how having her cast in these other bigger projects helps shine a light on an indie film like this.
Malik on what she is working on now.
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