7/08/2020

Dear Brandon and Cindy,

I understand you commissioned the show Indian Matchmaking, well done on bringing something so relevant to the diaspora onto Netflix. I think some of the social issues have been covered widely but I want to address something else. I don’t normally watch television or any live streaming service, though I paid a subscription for one month just to watch this since all my friends kept talking about it and I had nothing to say to them.

I read that there was only one South Asian woman, the series Director Smriti Mundhra in the entire team of creatives and producers who worked on this. She did a great job but, this makes me a little disappointed that a business mainly owned by White American folks could profit off a certain aspect of Indian culture (albeit sexist, anti-black and in need of change) without having an Indian creative crew on board. I think representation is more important than ever right now, and if you make shows about another culture you should take the responsibility seriously to ensure that there’s consultation with people from that ethnicity, have them on the team and pay them adequately for their contribution. Should you struggle to find a team of creatives of colour, I’d be happy to help.

For instance should I ever had the opportunity and audacity (or ignorance?) I would not make a reality TV series about Jewish matchmaking as a non-Jewish person, with a whole team of Indian folks and only one Jewish Director (I mean knowing my Jewish friends, he would probably convince me to bring on all his other talented Jewish friends onto the creative team).

I agree with Dr. Mythri Jegathesan, who has a PhD in cultural anthropology from Columbia and said “First and foremost, the most important thing is to have more people in the room that are from diverse backgrounds in South Asia, around economic status, experience, ethnicity, caste, religion and so forth. I think that simply wasn’t the case.”
So should there be a future season, I recommend having a full South Asian crew and also worth consulting Netflix India – I read an article which suggested you did not consult them .

Last but not least, I’m based in Australia and my Punjabi mother is concerned about my not being married because I’m 26 and god forbid I don’t give her a grandson before my ovaries shrivel up. So please pass my name onto Organized Chaos who I understand does your selection via IPC, I’d be happy to be in the next season on the condition that you have an all South Asian creative crew and consult Netflix India.

Regards,

Daizy Maan