DIDIHOOD ~ Issue 43

Happy September, Didis!

We're super excited about our next event DIDI TALKS: Authentic Storytelling. Representation in media has never been more important and over the last few years, South Asians have truly made an impact, but what's next? Join our next DIDI TALKS virtual panel on September 14th, where we'll be chatting with four Canadian South Asian creatives about authentic storytelling for a North American audience. Get your FREE TICKET HERE.

Meet the Didi:

This month we chatted with, Bilal Baig - Executive Producer, Writer, Lead Performer, and Co-Creator of the upcoming CBC show, Sort Of.

What led you to becoming a writer/playwright?  

I loved telling stories with my siblings and creating fantasy worlds when I was a kid. It wasn’t until the end of high school that I learnt I could pursue writing as a career, which was something I became so curious about because I found the act of writing human voices trying to communicate with each other really powerful.

Tell us about your new CBC and HBO Max original series, Sort Of. What's the process like for getting a show on air? 

Sort Of follows Sabi, a South Asian non-binary twenty-something, whose life majorly changes after the family they nanny for is faced with a life-changing event. Along this journey, Sabi discovers truths about their family, friends and themself which ultimately transforms Sabi in ways they were least expecting. We were greenlit in January 2020, though Fab Filippo and myself were working together on and off for a year prior to that. I think how something gets on air is so unique to the individual project, and is actually so intrinsically linked to the zeitgeist. For us, we created and shot a four-minute teaser reel and a supporting document that fleshed out the world and tone of the show and that’s what we were greenlit off of. 

You also work as a showrunner and EP and so much of the conversation about representation has now been shifting to representation behind the scenes. Why is this important to you and for the show?

It’s so important because only with job titles like that are you able to enact some serious influence. And it’s about a specific point of view that needs to be heard at the decision-making level so the show can feel grounded in truth. And when it works, it proves that we are capable of holding power behind the scenes. And it does work. So we need more of it.

How do you tell the stories in Sort Of in an authentic way?

I think it’s about advocating for not only the really big things (like casting or specific locations) but also the details we may consider small, like what bedsheets a character owns, or the kind of yogurt container a South Asian mother will bring food in to her child. In the simplest way, it always comes back to asking yourself, what is the most honest choice?

Do you feel pressure as a South Asian creative that you need to represent South Asian or even queer communities?

Sure, I think there is pressure but I understand where that pressure is coming from. If you’ve been deprived from seeing yourself in art in ways that feel really good to you for so long, and then a show comes along and has the potential to speak to you, and it missteps or fails, I can totally get how disappointing and frustrating that is. By that same token, I also totally get that I am a single human being with one brain and one heart. And so I’m setting myself up for doom and misery if I try to please everyone all the time. So, there absolutely is pressure but I want to approach it in a healthy and compassionate way.

Do you have any advice for young didis/queer/trans South Asians interested in telling their stories in either TV or film?

Perhaps a first step could be identifying what you want to say to the world, what ideas or questions do you want us as an audience to never stop thinking about. And then following steps could be spending time to get really specific with your ideas, really investigating and asking yourself tough honest questions about your own work. I’m finding these creative industries — television and theatre too — all respond enthusiastically to specificity and truth.  

Check out this trailer for Sort Of, which premieres on October 5th! 

What we're reading: 

Diet Paratha Is Giving South Asian Artists the Platform They Deserve 

National broadcast host reclaims her formerly anglicized South Asian name

Ancestral Futures is a project that is collecting pre-colonial South Asian ideologies, culture and histories in hopes to share knowledge and offer different ways of being. They're raising money to create a poetry book and visual art pieces. Check out their Kickstarter here.

— Roohi Sahajpal

Issue 43
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