Poorna Jagannathan is set to star in Disney’s Onyx Collective comedy pilot “Deli Boys” from 20th Television. Jagannathan will star lead opposite Asif Ali, Saagar Shaikh and Alfie Fuller.
The logline for the show is as follows: When their convenience-store magnate father suddenly dies, a pair of pampered Pakistani-American brothers lose everything and are forced to reckon with their Baba’s secret life of crime as they attempt to take up his mantle in the underworld.
According to Deadline, Jagannathan will play Lucky, Baba’s right-hand woman. She can be very caring or a badass business boss lady, depending on what’s needed.
The cast also includes Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh in the lead roles, with Alfie Fuller also starring. Ali will play Mir Dar, described as “hardworking, enthusiastic to a fault, and eager to impress his father, Baba, a scrappy immigrant who arrived in the U.S. broke and built an empire from scratch.” Shaikh will play Raj Dar, said to be “a real character, the antithesis of his younger brother Mir. Whereas Mir is a straight-shooter, Raj is a pot-smoking, entitled playboy, an outrageous hipster who wraps his joints in gold paper and lives the high life on his father Baba’s millions. Spoiled from birth, he has never had to lift a finger and thinks Mir is a sucker for taking life so seriously.” Fuller will play Prairie, Raj’s shaman who’s also a drugged-out “Afro-futurist” hipster who lives with him and various other hangers-on in stoner heaven luxury.
The pilot was written by Abdullah Saeed and will be directed and executive produced by Nisha Ganatra. Besides Saeed, other EPs are Jenni Konner, Vali Chandrasekaran and Nora Silver.
If the pilot receives a series order, we expect the show to stream on Hulu in the US and Disney+ internationally.
Jagannathan recently wrapped a lead role in the HBO Max film Turtles All The Way Down. Other credits include the upcoming Netflix/Happy Madison comedy The Out-Laws, coming in 2023, and will be seen in a recurring in the upcoming fourth and final season of Mindy Kaling’s Never Have I Ever.
Source: Deadline