The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh is out now and Dorkaholics was invited to speak with Arjun Sriram and Ashwin Sakthivel who play brothers on the new comedy series, available on Prime Video and Amazon Freevee. They shared their similarities to their characters, support they received in exploring their characters, as well as their favorite scenes from the series.
Neil Bui:  Hey, Arjun, hey Ashwin! My name is Neil. I’m with Dorkaholics where we believe that there’s a dork in everyone, and it’s our job to bring that dork out into the world.
Arjun Sriram: I’m here. I’m the dork!
Neil Bui: Ashwin, are you a dork?
Ashwin Sakthivel: Yeah!
Neil Bui: How similar to your characters would you guys say you are?
Arjun Sriram: I wouldn’t say I’m very similar to my character, which I’m happy for, but I think that’s what made it super fun for me as an actor. Cause you kind of want to do those sort of roles that you don’t really see yourself in, but you allow yourself to learn about the character more and I think through it have a better perspective on your character. I’ve always wanted to do more comedy as an actor and having this opportunity with a character that has a lot of opportunities to be seen and heard. And there’s so many funny things that happen in the show that involve my character. It’s super, super fun.
Ashwin Sakthivel: Yeah, I feel I can relate to Vinod because he’s an optimist and I’d like to say I think of things in an optimistic way. And my parents would agree with me on this one, I am the joker of the family. I’m always cracking jokes, that’s how I relate to Vinod and I feel like it made it much easier to portray Vinod.
Neil Bui: For Arjun, did you have anyone to kind of lean on in terms of exploring this very neurotic character with issues he’s addressing?
Arjun Sriram: For sure, I was always having a lot of conversations with Vijal about where he wanted to take this character. I wouldn’t say like a crazy, complex character, but there were certain things that we had to figure out piece by piece of who he was and the kind of arc that he’d have. In the beginning, what I wanted was for him to be super, super nervous and super anxious, like times 10, but then over time, you start to see him become a lot more confident in himself, although not like crazy confident where it’s like such an easy visual to see, but there are a lot of things where he does become a lot more confident within himself to try different things.
Anwar from Skins is who I want for Kamal to be in the future. And although Anwar, Dev Patel played that character super, super crazy weird, I feel like that’s the kind of path that Kamal would go down if, if he could be anyone. That’s what’s cool to him.
Neil Bui: Ashwin, I spoke to Vijal earlier and he was saying that out of the cast, your character was the one that he was most similar to growing up. Did you guys have conversations about the direction for your character?
Ashwin Sakthivel: Yeah, definitely, the show is loosely based off Vijal’s family, and we had many conversations. I would ask how I could make Vinod more like Vijal than Ashwin. But Vijal was amazing to work with because it was loosely based on his family, but he allowed us to give each character our own touch and give it our own character.
Neil Bui: What have been each of your favorite scenes to film?
Arjun Sriram: Ooh, there were so many good ones. For me, it was the stuff I got to do with Nicholas [Hamilton] in the little cabin, like the bunk beds. I feel like I already knew Nicholas. I was already a huge fan of his because of the It franchise and all that.
But getting to work with him as an actor, I learned so much from him, getting to bond with him. We went pretty, pretty late to film that. So yeah, it was super fun. But then I guess like on screen, the bus scene where I like, well, I don’t fall because it’s a stunt guy, but I couldn’t do it, but we fell backwards and I had to get up and I have to say some crazy wacky shit to Romy [Rosemont].
Neil Bui: And Ashwin, your favorite scene?
Ashwin Sakthivel: Yeah, I have many, but I’ll give you one. It was where me and Ethan Suplee had to do a sign spinning battle. This was fun because we were taught by a dance coach, I think she was. Um, and we did these crazy moves with the board, like going on it, riding it like a horse, spinning it, and all of that. I’d say that was pretty fun.
Neil Bui: Well, thank you so much for your time today, Arjun and Ashwin. Really looking forward to sharing The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh with Dorkaholics!
Ashwin Sakthivel: Be a Dork!
Arjun Sriram: Dorks for life!
Be sure to watch The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh on Prime Video and Amazon Freevee!
