‘Deli Boys’ is a new South Asian comedy depicting two spoiled brothers unfit for crime life

The new series “Deli Boys,” rife with humor and drama, introduces two pampered Pakistani American brothers who find themselves facing tax evasion, cocaine smuggling and absurd family dynamics. 

“Deli Boys,” which premieres Thursday on Hulu, offers a depiction of South Asian American life told through a rare uproarious lens. The crime comedy follows a pair of coddled Pakistani American brothers — highly educated, type-A Mir (Asif Ali) and hippie Raj Dar (Saagar Shaikh) — who are stunned to learn that their late father’s Philadelphia convenience store is actually a front for an international cocaine smuggling operation. 

“We’ve never seen this type of person on TV before, and while we know they exist, it’s rare to see it on such a big scale,” Shaikh told NBC News, noting that past depictions of South Asians have largely been limited to high-paying occupations — doctors, lawyers, engineers — or lower-paying service jobs. 

Now, with the help of their dad’s right-hand woman Lucky (Poorna Jagannathan), the helpless brothers must assume the position as co-heads of his drug cartel. (Think “The Sopranos,” but this time with South Asians who have no idea what they are doing.)

Like many children of South Asian immigrant families, creator Abdullah Saeed grew up working for his parents’ franchise businesses. He watched as his mother did thankless work for a better life. But to create his first scripted series, the Pakistani American writer imagined a world in which an immigrant parent who, in pursuit of the American dream, had spun an intricate web of lies for their children to unwittingly unravel after their death.

While Saeed is quick to point out that the Dar brothers are forced to make extreme moral compromises and resort to violence to ensure their and their loved ones’ safety, he believes their reactions to those choices are “very human.”

Part of that realism lies in the creative team’s approach to cultural specificity. Rather than feeling the need to explain the nuances of Pakistani and Indian culture, the show presents them as matters of fact. Hindi and Urdu slang is thrown around casually. Characters take their shoes off at the front door and eat traditional dishes like Achar with their hands. Some even engage in what is known colloquially as the “Asian squat.”

But, at its core, “Deli Boys” tells a universal story about “these two boys dealing with the loss of their father and their own identity, and discovering their place in this world,” Ali said. “I think that putting us in a situation where our dad was a mob boss stealing cocaine — that just heightens everything as far as the stakes, and it just makes the comedy and the action better.”

“Deli Boys” also marks the scripted acting debut of “Queer Eye” star Tan France, who plays Zubair, a British Pakistani South London gang leader who has a personal history with Lucky.

Feraz Ozel and Tan France in "Deli Boys."James Washington / Disney

Although he has been offered numerous cameos in the last eight years, France said he has often declined them out of a desire to not play a version of himself in other people’s projects. But after Jagannathan reached out to him about a “meaty” guest-starring role, France jumped at an opportunity that would be a dramatic departure from his public persona. He had to audition four times and, despite not having any formal training in the craft, then immersed himself in the acting process.

France watched a lot of the British soap opera “EastEnders,” which he used to find Zubair’s accent, and drew inspiration from Guy Ritchie’s high-octane gangster films to find his character’s physicality. And while he quipped that he “wouldn’t be seen dead” in Zubair’s outfits, the gay fashion entrepreneur felt they suited Zubair’s identity as a straight man.

“It’s so hard going from unscripted where people know my deepest darkest secrets, my inner thoughts. If you’ve ever seen me on TV, you know who I am, because I tell you all who I am,” France said. “So I needed to really do something that was so different from me so that people are like, ‘Yo, Tan France did that?’”

The fact that “Deli Boys” was made at all, let alone with a predominantly South Asian cast and writers’ room, is a clear sign of progress at a time when diversity efforts have been under attack in Hollywood, the show’s stars said.

Throughout his career, Shaikh said he has intentionally declined auditions that required him to play accented or terrorist characters, reasoning that he “never” wants to “take a role that sets my people back.” Similarly, Ali recalled once auditioning for a role that required him to speak with an Indian accent — only for the white casting director to tell him, “This is not Indian accent-y enough.”

“I was like, ‘But this is legitimately how my parents talk. This is real,” said Ali, who quickly realized the producers wanted the “cartoon” version of a South Asian man. “I don’t want to be in a situation where someone who’s not South Asian is telling me that I’m not South Asian enough.”

When he went out to pitch “Deli Boys” a few years ago, Saeed noticed that he would hear a common refrain from studios and networks that they “were already doing a show with South Asians” and therefore chose to pass on his idea. The series eventually landed at Disney’s Onyx Collective, a new studio dedicated to telling stories by creators of color and underrepresented voices.

“I hope that [this show’s] success shows the people that passed on it who will also hear more pitches from Asians of all kinds … to be like, ‘No, it’s not all the same. You were wrong by lumping this show in with any other show about South Asians,’” Saeed said, adding that he hopes “Deli Boys” will make more executives decide to take a chance on writers “who might not be proven, who might be from a background we haven’t seen represented, but might be really good.”