The Pittsburgh Star Pradeeps talk teacher crushes and sibling pranks

The Pradeeps of PittsburghCreated by Vijal Patel, offers a fresh take on the family sitcom. Thanks to its unique, Rashomon-style storytelling and the creative freedom provided by Amazon Studios, the series feels fresh and edgy while remaining (more or less) family-friendly. The show follows an Indian family who move to America in search of a better life, but when their neighbor’s house burns down under mysterious circumstances, a pair of federal agents (Romy Rosemont and Pete Holmes) conduct a series of interrogations with The family. In an effort to discover the truth.

The Pradeep family consists of two parents (Lost stars Naveen Andrews and Sindhu Vee), one daughter (Sahana Srinivasan), and two sons, Kamal and Vinod, played by Arjun Sriram and Ashwin Sakthivel, respectively. Kamal is the socially awkward teen with an almost debilitating crush on his English teacher (we’ve all been there, right?) and Vinod is the irrepressibly adorable precocious youngest kid who loves absolutely everything about America, even his bullies. Vinod is the character most directly based on series creator Vijal Patel.

Screen Rant Interviewed Arjun Sriram and Ashwin Sakthivel about their work on The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh Prior to its debut on Amazon Freevee and Prime Video. They talked about their characters and their relationship with showrunner Vijal Patel, the brotherly bond they formed as besties, and the associated shenanigans they got up to in the name of harmless mischief.

Pittsburgh’s Pradeeps, Ashwin Sakthivel & Arjun Sriram reveal their character quirks

“I should have been more like Vinod in those moments.”

Screen Rant: You don’t need me to tell you, you’re both so funny. Ashwin, when you do a scene, the director is like, “Be more cute?” Or, “Bo, that’s too cute, be less cute?” What is the process for finding the right level of cuteness for each scene?

Ashwin Saktivel: Yeah, I feel like there were a few moments of that, and it was usually, “Be more cute,” because after a long day, the last scene, I would just be like blank, right? So, I had to be more like Vinod in those moments. So, yeah, I’d say there were a lot of those moments.

Arjun, if I had a nickel for every teacher, I’d be busy in middle school and high school… I would go to a better college. Did you have any teachers or anyone you drew with while filming the love scenes?

Arjun Sriram: Not really. I mean, Megan Hilty, she’s a very confident and incredible woman, but also such a talented actress. I have seen her in many things in the past. Yes, she is a really great actress, and I learned so much from her and got so much advice from her, career-wise. And yes, I mean, it’s a given that she’s a very, very beautiful woman. But she was really mature about it. And I’d like to think that I’ve grown too. And it was a lot of fun to play with that, for sure.

The brotherly injury carried over to the behind-the-scenes of the prodeps of Pittsburgh

“We have a lot of crazy shenanigans, like prank calls to hotel rooms.”

Okay, so you play brothers. Did you get time to hang out and do stuff and be brothers on set? Or is it like, no, we have to get our scenes and then go home!

Ashwin Saktiven: Of course not. I feel like there is definitely an instant brotherly bond between Arjun and me. I don’t have an older brother. And I feel like it was good to have that figure, that brotherly figure who was not just my TV brother, but a brother in real life, which is what Arjun has become.

Arjun Sriram: Yes, sure. I remember the first time I met Ashwin, we did a lot of crazy pranks, like sticks calling hotel rooms and… I remember we went to the lounge room or something in the hotel. We’re just walking and having a laugh, and Ashwin’s like, hey, what if I knock on the door and then we both just run away? And I’m like, come on, we have to go to set tomorrow, we have an early wake-up time, let’s just go. And he’s like, okay, fine…

Ashwin Sakthivel: And what did I do?

Arjun Sriram: He knocks on the door, and then we both just dash in opposite directions. And then we were trying to find each other again. We had so many moments. And, through the shenanigans and fun times we had together, we definitely had that brotherly bond that’s still going strong to this day.

That’s fantastic. I love to hear that. So, no one is a diva. Or is someone a diva and you can’t tell us?

Arjun Sriram: No, everyone is super, super cool on the set. Everyone’s amazing. Everyone’s incredible. I’m so grateful to get to work with such talented people, for sure.

You said you were in a hotel. Is this house, the Pradeep house, a functional house or is it a trend?

Arjun Sriram: It was a trend. It was like a small sound studio. So, yeah, typical, you know, TV magic, know what I mean?

Ashwin Sakthivel: The house they show outside was a real house, you know, when we were like entering the house and it was a real house.

Arjin Sriram: It is also great, great!

Well, tell me a little about working with Vijal, the creator. Did you have a chance to pick his brain and be like, “Tell me about the real version of this and how we can be more than reality,” if that was part of the process?

Arjun Sriram: Yes, well, Vijal was always super confident with us, in what we would come to set and we know our characters. He has this trust in us. I mean, that’s the reason we have the job. But he’s also super allowing us to give our own ideas. And he wouldn’t just be like, “Okay, that’s good advice… Now go out, let’s read the script.” Instead, he was like, “Hmm, that sounds like a good idea, let me write that down and maybe we can figure something out.” He was always open to new ideas.

Ashwin Sakthivel: And just to add to that, he has stated in several other interviews that the show is loosely based on his family. And I feel like more than me playing Vij, it was great because he was very allowing us to add our own touches to the characters. The root of it was Vij’s family. But then we became our own characters.

More on The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh Season 1

The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh follows the Pradeep family and the events of their lives in America after moving from India. Told through hilarious (and often conflicting) flashbacks of an interrogation room, the Pradeeps quickly find themselves embroiled — romantically, personally and professionally — with a polar-opposite neighborhood family, leading to a predicament with many surprising twists.

Check out our others The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh Interview here: