Objectives:

-Explain to audience the importance of writing Indian characters well

-Introduce major pitfalls people fall into when writing characters
-Help audience learn how to identify these pitfalls in writing and introduce some possible
alternatives

Summary of Tasks:
1. Warm-up: ask people to write a description for a character (prompt: picture). Ask
for: description of appearance, occupation, job, personality, age, etc. Set it aside for later
a. Reflection? Ask people to share? (time)
2. Introduction: explain my background, why its important, etc and disclaimer
3. Icebreaker: ask for examples of Indian characters (way to gauge how much
people know)
4. Break down well-known characters
a. Apu (The Simpsons): accent, placement in convenience store
(common), number of children
b. Raj (Big Bang Theory): nerd, desexualized, accent
c. Mola Ram (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom): portrayal of
Hinduism, villain
d. Kala (Sense8): marriage trope (female character specific tropes),
modern values, treatment of Hinduism/religion, Bollywood dance scene
5. Tokenism: idea of being a solo
6. Reflection: look back at thing you wrote. Do you find anything problematic? What
would you change now?
7. Questions

Take Home tasks: None; think about what was learned, think about representation of other
characters, look for things which could be improved, consider how this could be applied to other
groups