Newest TV Trend: Indian-Themed Shows

Bollywood is coming to Hollywood, with more Indian actors and TV shows about Indians and Indian Americans coming to the small screen. The interest in all things Indian “was boiling, hovering there, with the increasing popularity of Indian clothing, food, and Bollywood movies”—and then Slumdog Millionaire came along last year and pushed the growing trend “over the tipping point,” one studio exec tells the Hollywood Reporter.

That means Fox is resurrecting Nirvana, a comedy about adult Indian-American brothers and their parents whose pilot was shot in 2004, while NBC has Outsourced, a comedy featuring an American managing customer service reps in India. But despite the trendiness, ethnic comedies face an uphill battle: While there have been a few winners, such as George Lopez, even box-office success wasn't enough to carry the TV version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding: The "American audience is very American-centered and not interested in other cultures for their own sakes," notes a TV historian. (More Indians stories.)