We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Aseem Tiwari a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Aseem thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
Hands down, the most important project I’ve worked on as a former actor and now a screenwriter is called Normal. My director buddy, Mragendra Singh, and I would meet to work on a script and our discussions about what we call “poverty porn” – movies like Slumdog Millionaire or Lion, that glamorize poverty in India. While both films are masterfully crafted, they irk folks like us who spent our formative years in India.
Our intermittent conversations when we should’ve been writing led us to this concept of being normal or normalizing the Indian-immigrant experience in America, without all the stereotypes attached. I told Mragendra that I wanted to make something normal where nothing happens and it’s just focused on a brown man’s daily life battles. Cut to 6 months later and he showed up with a script called Normal. I agreed to do the film immediately as the lead actor but also wanted input in the filmmaking process so I joined as one of the five Producers on the project. Making that film was a slog and pure joy at the same time.
Anyone who’s made an indie film knows it’s Murphy’s Law daily and you must find a way through. Luckily we had incredible producers and a resourceful team and got it done. Then came the pandemic so our film got stuck in the backlog of everything. That was followed by a massive pipeline of content waiting to hit streamers so we got delayed another year. One distribution company even tried to steal our film but we finally got lucky and found the right distribution partners at Buffalo-8, Nikki Steir Justice is one of my favorite humans now and anyone would be lucky to work with her on getting their film out. Indie filmmakers are welcome to reach out to me and I’ll do my best to help them get distribution.
We managed to do some festivals, got a Best Foreign Nomination at a massive festival in India, and even won Best Screenplay in Singapore but all of that wasn’t enough to get a proper deal because the market was so competitive at the moment. So, we ended up in the film graveyard – Amazon Rental. But Tubi came along and picked us up so folks could watch the film for free with commercials and that made me happy because my objective was to get this film and message out there and the best way to do that is to make it a free offering.
Time goes by and everything is quiet and suddenly… we learn that Amazon Prime Video picked up film! This literally just happened yesterday so I’m ecstatic to share the news!
Moral of the story: tell the story that’s important to you and while it may take years, your story will find its home.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I think I’m just another hard-working Indian immigrant who feels the need to achieve greater heights because I’ve been given this incredible opportunity called America. Indian-Americans are overachieving in all sorts of fields and while I’m not Mindy Kaling yet, I think what sets me apart is my focus on mental health for brown folks.
A quick background first, my formative years were in north India and while my family life with my dad leaving the family for a religious guru was tumultuous, that situation allowed us to move to America. Yep, I definitely need to make a documentary about my very Hindu father following his path. That’s something no one has ever seen yet. If anyone reading this wants to help make that doc, reach out.
Growing up in the Boston area, I was an athlete and troublemaker but managed to always escape the law or worse at the last second, always. Then, I cleaned up my act, studied Business and Economics at Northeastern University, and somehow made it into Investment Banking. Everyone told me making it on Wall Street wasn’t for kids like me, rather the Ivey Leaguers, but I didn’t listen to them and kept at it. I even snuck into the MIT career fair where a guy from Goldman Sachs told me he’d love to hire me but wouldn’t because I didn’t go to a prestigious enough name college. That pinched but I told him I’d see him on the street one day and somehow, some way, I made it to Wall Street.
After I fulfilled what I thought was my duty as an Indian son to a single mother by earning some cash, I was burned out, quit my high-paying job, and went to travel and climb mountains for a year. I learned a lot about the world and myself on that trip and almost died a couple of times. Highly encouraged.
My around-the-world ticket went unused because I never made it past India. I found myself on a film set through some family connections and completely fell in love it. That was it. I went all-in 18 hours a day and learned every aspect of filmmaking while I was an assistant on set. I learned everything from creation to writing, directing, editing, post, and releasing a film. One fine day as an AD, someone threw me in front of the lens, and BOOM, I was an actor. The rest is history.
Back to the mental health bit, I suffered a massive panic attack during an audition in 2016 and had to step away from everything for a few months. Being an Indian immigrant, I did not know about mental health, and learning about it was very interesting… turns out it’s a massive point of avoidance in most immigrant and PoC communities. So, I started talking about it publicly on FB and IG. I don’t think any other Indian folks were discussing it back then. I would get DMs by the 100s by brown and other folks saying thanks for discussing mental health because it’s such a stigma.
Eight years later, I’m still here writing and talking about it, publicly. I’ve been lucky enough to be approached by organizations to host talks about the issue. I’ve even been approached by large corporations to discuss it and that feels like my next move for 2025.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I’ve pivoted from the world of high finance to entertainment but that was a choice. The second pivot in life was switching from acting to writing and that move wasn’t much of an option. Once my panic attacks started in 2016, I took a few months away from the industry but it came calling back – I somehow managed to get an offer for a top of show Guest Star on a show called Bull on CBS without auditioning. Apparently, I had sent so much tape over to that casting office that they trusted me to play the part without having to audition. I’m sure time crunch circumstances existed but it was an incredibly lucky break when I had no American TV credits.
I managed to get through shoots for a couple of years but got to a point by 2018 into 2019 where I just couldn’t do it anymore. The anxiety of having to audition and stand under the bright lights with all that pressure on me was killing me from the inside. So, I stepped away and started learning how to write and over time, things worked out. I think pivoting is a wonderful thing and I encourage anyone reading this to put their mental health first.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
The greatest lesson I’ve had to unlearn in life is to “Be Strong”, as I call it. Pushing through difficult conditions, whether it’s physical or emotional trauma has been the way of life for a lot of immigrants and other folks but it’s not the answer. It’s required at times but for the most, there’s a better and healthier way to approach life and work. I’ve been saying this for years and my first pilot in 2018 was called Be Strong… there’s no need to Be Strong all the time. Especially for men reading this article. Be weak for once, it’s ok. Let yourself feel and process those difficult things that are parked inside you. Move through it and you’ll come out the other side a better human and creative.
I don’t like the term “coaching” but if anyone out there identifies with this concept of Be Strong, I’m here for you. I’m working on a book with that title and close to launching what I call a Mental Health Partnership to work with folks.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @totallytiwari
- Facebook: Aseem Tiwari
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aseem-tiwari-22407217?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3Bh16Ovwu8TnSaenTXLNmflw%3D%3D
- Youtube: Coming soon!
- Other: [email protected]
Image Credits
Srivatchava Marella
Please make sure you credit him. Thank you!