The Truth in Fiction

Inspired by his own story, actor and writer Maulik Pancholy hopes to provide representation to every kid who’s ever felt ‘different’ growing up

- Maulik Pancholy

The number one question I get asked about my new novel, The Best at It, is how much of your lead character—Rahul Kapoor—is you? As an actor—and now an author—I believe that we are all constantly in the process of telling our own stories. Every time we interact with another human being, we are making choices about how we present and reveal ourselves. And we are telling the story we need to tell at that moment in time. My story traces back a generation to parents from Gujarat, India who migrated to the United States.

And my literal story began on a Friday morning in Dayton, Ohio when I took my first breath. There are interesting details adorning the characters in my origin story. Here’s one: my mother first landed in the US in the middle of a Midwestern winter. She had no jacket, and her feet were clad in chappals. No one told her how different the weather would be in this foreign land.

Colourful details like those are important because they drive the emotional content of the story. As my mother departed the plane into this snowy world, she was already forging a new identity: a woman who dared to be an engineer even though society told her the study of science was for men, a woman whose aspirations would force her to define what it means to be an Indian American.