Director’s Statement

Imagine a Caucasian producer, an East Indian writer, and a Chinese director sitting around a table arguing about whose family needs the most therapy.  Sound like a Woody Allen movie from the Obama era gone awry?  Well, it isn’t.  Strangely enough, it’s where “Second Best” started.  And after all the blood, sweat, meager life savings, and tandoori dinners we’ve poured into our film, I’m happy to say that the final product is proof to me—and I hope it is proof to you—that good stories about human experience can transcend cultural boundaries.

I spent four months during pre-production on this film traveling to every Indian cultural event that I could Google in Southern California for “research”—i.e. eating, stick dancing, making friends, handing out neon “BE IN AN INDIAN MOVIE!!!” flyers, and trying to convince (trick?) people that being an extra on a film set would be a wonderful event for the whole family.  My presence was usually a novelty that sometimes devolved into a nuisance, but for the most part, I was blessed to encounter some incredibly warm, gracious, and exuberant communities.  I’ve tried to imbue our film with some of that same joy, but the most valuable thing I absorbed from all my partying and chicanery was the same thing I figured out while working on the script with Rupa.  And that is this:  family is family, and across the color chart, pretty much all the same rules apply.

I know.  It sounds clichéd.  But it’s true.

Our story is intimate in scope, but I hope that its themes of family, self-worth and forgiveness are authentically explored and that you recognize yourself, or your family (or at least somebody else’s family) through it.  If you are able to do that, and if you are entertained while watching, I think we will all consider the film a success.

Jason