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EXCLUSIVE: Across a wide swath of genres, the inaugural Desi List revealed its finalists today.
Drawing from talent such as 2020 Black List recipient and Apple TV+ Wolfboy and the Everything Factory scribe Monisha Dadlani, the12 projects made public were drawn from 346 submissions. The selections are perfectly balanced between big screen and small screen efforts – as you can see below.
As Deadline exclusively revealed last month, the successful Desi List applicants were decided from a selected group of 43 writers, showrunners, directors, actors, producers, executives, agents, and managers put together by The Salon and the Black List. Among those judges were Mindy Kaling and Riz Ahmed, and Salon co-founders Nik Dodani, Bash Naran, and Vinny Chhibber.
To that, the trio Wednesday said: “The 2024 Desi List represents a wide spectrum of stories that entertain, explore untold histories, and bring richly layered characters to the forefront. We urge the industry to stay steadfast in supporting diverse projects like these — not simply as a gesture of social responsibility, but as a strategic economic imperative. Study after study shows that there are billions of dollars on the table for those who embrace the full range of human stories.”
Black List founder Franklin Leonard praised his Salon partners and the writers who made the cut.
“What an incredible group of scripts from our first ever Desi List,” Leonard said today. “Infinite thanks to the Salon for their incredible work on this process, and congratulations to the writers whose work they selected. Read these scripts, everyone!”
Check out the full list of the 2024 Desi List titles and loglines here:
A SILENT WAVE – Dini Parayitam & Jerika Marchan (Feature)
In Post-Roe Texas, married and unexpectedly pregnant Indian-American, Amal, falls in love with Charulata, a new bride from India, undoing their carefully constructed lives.
CEYLON: MOTHER AND LAND – Thanmye Lagudu (Pilot)
After their mother forcibly enlists them as child soldiers, two Sri Lankan Tamil brothers must negotiate their place in a violent civil war. Simultaneously, a tenacious Indian American journalist navigates the perilous frontlines where she uncovers atrocities hiding in plain sight.
DEAD SERIOUS – Luveza Mubashar (Pilot)
When their mother’s failed suicide attempt lands them back at home, an avoidant Pakistani millennial and her overbearing older sister must try to manage their unhinged mother while struggling with how to get along, get out of their own ways, and free themselves of a shit ton of baggage.
EMPATHICO – Sejal Pachisia (Pilot)
When a megalomaniacal CEO invents a technology that allows humans to experience “physical empathy,” the disgraced co-inventor teams up with a journalist to take down the woman who took everything from her.
GHOST MOM – Kiran Hefa (Pilot)
An entertainment journalist’s grief is cut short when her recently deceased mother mysteriously resurrects.
MOTHER MEHREEN – Anna Khan (Feature)
A Muslim teenager’s lies to cover up her secret abortion from her small Mississippi town spiral out of control when she accidentally claims immaculate conception, and is soon heralded as the mother of the next messiah.
NIGHT OF POWER – Yasir Masood (Feature)
On the eve of the first day of Ramadan while facing the largest heat-wave that Texas has ever seen, 3 young Muslims embark on a reluctant crime spree that pits themselves against the Houston underworld.
RETURN TO MECCA – Saj Pothiawala (Pilot)
A former tennis prodigy and a border-crossing smuggler assemble a group of undocumented ringers to take on the establishment world of Southern California juniors tennis.
RUBY – Keerthi Harishankar (Pilot)
When a hookup with a man in an open marriage gets her pregnant in abortion-unfriendly Ohio, rootless and unemployed ROOHI decides to raise the child with the couple.
SKIN – Urvashi Pathania (Feature)
A dark-skinned Indian American woman is tempted by a dangerous skin bleaching tank — and the white woman who invented it.
THE CHARM OFFENSIVE – Erin Williams & Sean K. Jain (Feature)
Handsome yet awkward tech millionaire Charlie Winshaw hopes to rehabilitate his image by becoming the newest Prince Charming on a Bachelor-esque dating show. But instead of falling for one of the women, he sparks an affair with male producer Dev Deshpande—and their forbidden flirtations risk turning their worlds upside down. Based on the novel by Erin Cochrun
THE MARIGOLD PARADOX – Monisha Dadlani (Feature) A couple’s elaborate wedding weekend is jeopardized when their future selves travel back in time to stop the matrimony
In other list news, the 20th anniversary edition of the Black List proper is expected to come out next month. Perhaps we’ll see some more crossover with the Desi List there again.
