Life is a Lark
By Lavina Melwani
These ivy leaguers substitute fun for work and have a whale of a time.

Isn’t life supposed to be about worries, work and what-ifs? Don’t Indian-Americans go to topnotch universities to become brain surgeons, economists or corporate lawyers, at the very least? Don’t they have to go through lots of pain to get some gain?

Well, here are three who spell work as f-u-n. Anand Chulani, a graduate of Georgetown University, spends his days and nights watching sitcoms on TV, scribbling inanities on paper and cracking jokes that could have got him into serious trouble in school. Prita Uppal, an MBA from Harvard, and Sunaina Anand, who has a Masters Degree in Public Archeology from the Institute of Archaeology, University of London, both spend their days and nights immersed in Bollywood, discussing favorite songs, stars and dance scenes, turning it all into a fine science.
 

 

 

And surprise, surprise! These are their full-time jobs, their work. Chulani is a writer on the Hollywood team for Paramount Studios that has produced the hot new sitcom for Fox TV, Life on a Stick. The show opened in late March with the strongest numbers in six years. Uppal and Anand are co-founders of Filmigame, a trivia game on DVD that is being marketed internationally.

Uppal was born in Minneapolis, Minn., in the heart of the Midwest where her parents, were doing their graduate studies. Like children of immigrants, Prita Uppal followed an established path. She graduated from Stanford University in 1999 with a masters in mechanical engineering and worked for Eaton Corporation, a large global manufacturing company. After that she pursued an MBA at Harvard, and says, “I very much went to Harvard with the goal and drive to start my own venture!”

During her last year at Harvard, she was working on an idea of creating a technology to make DVDs interactive — that is, make something that is a passive medium into something that is interactive. She recalls: “All of last year I was just trying to find the right application for this technology and that is when I met my partner Sunaina, who was very interested in Bollywood and the idea came about.”

Indeed, Anand had the inside info on Bollywood since earlier she had been an international editor at two of India’s most widely read publications – The Asian Age and CineBlitz., after which she was also founding editor of Maya, an international lifestyle magazine based out of London.

Anand, who also has a Bachelors degree in art and archeology from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, brought a lot of the know-how and detailing into the project.

“Bollywood has such an incredible connection to all South Asians worldwide, such strong and vibrant imagery,” says Uppal. “ And from a business standpoint the South Asian market is ripe for new products and yearning for new forms of entertainment, so it really seemed to be the perfect application for the perfect market.”


   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 

 

 

Filmigame is the first product being launched by UNA Media, a Massachusetts- based company the two co-founders have launched to market culturally sensitive entertainment products. While at Harvard Business School, Uppal had co-chaired the annual Entrepreneurship Conference and led her team to first place (Specialty track) at the prestigious Harvard Business School — Business Plan competition.

She’s confident that Bollywood is an extremely sound business proposition. As she points out, “There are over 22 million South Asians living outside of India. The only form of entertainment they have is Bollywood movies; in the US alone if you combined the net worth of all the Indians living here we would be the 25th largest global economy! That is extremely powerful and creates a very enticing market to go after.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 

 

 

“And moreover, our business proposition is much more than just Filmigame. We are looking to use this technology in creating other forms of entertainment as well, so this is just the beginning.”

Filmigame is a fun experience for Bollywood lovers, allowing them to indulge their sweet tooth for addictives like Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham and Kal Ho Na Ho, feasting on favorite dialogues, songs and dance scenes. There are over 1200 trivia questions and the goal is to be the first player/team to traverse the world of Bollywood movies and complete the Box Office speed round to win. The Filmigame uses ACQtive™ Technology to ensure that no two games are ever the same, so one can play the game multiple times.

The project was funded by angel investors amongst friends and family and the games have been manufactured in China, while the DVDs were made in the United States. Says Uppal: “China is really fantastic in terms of quality and what they can do, very difficult because of the time difference and language, but we found some amazing people.” Filmigame is being marketed in the UK, U.S. and Canada currently.

Uppal and Anand, who themselves have played the game at least 50 times to fine-tune it, are now working on the next editions of Filmigame, looking at a classic movies edition, an Amitabh edition (but of course) and also at sports like cricket, TV trivia and more.

As Anand says: “We are developing cultural connections between people in a fun, entertaining and unique way. Our goal is to help people understand and enjoy Indian culture and traditions.” And what spicier way to do that than through the universe of Bollywood, through the magic of Aishwarya Rai, Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan?

While Uppal and Anand watch lots of Hindi movies and meditate and ruminate on the nooks and crannies of the Land of Bollywood, Chulani is out in Los Angeles, also watching loads of TV shows, meditating, and ruminating on the equally zany world of the American sitcom. And he gets paid to do that!

 

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 

 

 

Chulani hails from a big Sindhi business family based in London, Lagos, Mumbai and Hong Kong, and as he says, “My mother’s side of the family has a huge shipping business in Asia and my dad’s side has a highly successful plastics business in Nigeria. I am the weak link.”

He came to the United States for his education and graduated from Georgetown University. So was being funny something he planned or did it just happen? He says, “I wanted to be a divorce lawyer. I wanted to change divorce by keeping families together. I would have been broke, but damn it, I would have been happy!”

Chulani, who studied the craft of comedy at ImprovOlympic in Chicago and American Comedy Institute in New York has done stand up comedy and had roles in These Old Broads, ER and also in American Chai. He’s been the youngest comic at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles and has opened for Arsenio Hall, Pauley Shore and Tom Jones.

His writing credits include stints on BBC sitcoms, a pilot for Carlton TV and the Warner Brothers Writing Fellowship. Now he’s been hired as a writer for Fox’s new comedy – Life on a Stick, which runs after the hugely popular ‘The American Idol’. As the youngest writer on a team of nine writers headed by Victor Fresco who is also the executive producer, it’s been a learning opportunity for Chulani. He says, “With Victor at the head, everything is collaborative. We break stories together, structure the stories together, write the scripts, re-write the scripts (as many as five times) and polish the scripts together.

“Then, in front of the live audience at a taping, we punch up jokes that don’t work. On the spot in front of 150 people, four cameras rolling, a DJ, actors and executives from Paramount and FOX. That’s a lot pressure, but I love it!”

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 

 

 

What are the special challenges in writing a sitcom about 20-somethings? Says Chulani, “I knew nothing about malls and mall culture when I got the job, so I spent weeks interviewing people and visiting malls all around LA to make sure I was mall-savvy.” He says he’s constantly turned on in terms of creativity, “I have writing pads in my car, bed, laundry room, kitchen and yes, one in the bathroom.”

The team has written and produced 13 episodes of Life on a Stick and the initial ratings have been strong. Is the pay anything to write home about? Says Chulani coyly: “I am very blessed. All I will say is that I just climbed to the top of the eligible Indian bachelors list.”

Has his family reconciled to the fact that he prefers to tell jokes and won’t be joining the family business any time soon? He says with a laugh, “Yes, they are out of therapy. I think most of my aunts and uncles believe that I am gay. Most families are in denial about their kids being gay. My family is in denial about me being straight.”

Chulani, who lives in Westwood in near the University of California, Los Angeles, has a swinging bachelor pad with a small office from where he writes when he is not at Paramount Studios. He says, “It’s weird to say what do you do when you are not working because typically when people are off work, they watch a movie or check out a show on TV. That’s my work. So, I have to make a big effort to get away from work when I’m off.”

So what does he do for relaxation, after a “hard day” at work? Says Chulani, “Then, after work, we have a weekend to pay our bills, try and find a potential wife, buy toilet paper (in that order) before coming back the next week for the same process It’s mentally extremely brutal, but it’s also so rewarding when six months later 10 million people are laughing at a show you helped write.”

 

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
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