On the question of the four -year trip to bringing ‘Deli boys“To HuluManaging producer Jenni Konner is quick to check. “I don’t know who told you four, because it’s five,” she told IndieWire.
Konner read the test which became “Deli Boys” before the beginning of the Covid-19-Pandemic and had his first meeting with creator Abdullah Saeed during the early days of Lockdown. “He had such a funny, original voice, nothing I’ve seen,” Konner said. “It is in a similar way that I felt when I met Lena (Dunham), who just didn’t talk like this. No one (doing) anything like it. ”
“Deli Boys” tells the story of the brothers Raj (Saagar Shaikh) and Mir (Asif Ali), whose world is rejected up and down after their father dies and Turns out to be a Philadelphia Drug Lord. His company Darco Empire is dismantled and leaves the boys responsible for a neighborhood delusion – and a lot of cocaine. Konner and her producing partner Nora Silver joined during the development process and helped Saeed Finesse a pilot that they could strike studios and who eventually landed at Onyx Collective. Michelle Nader joined as an actor for production.
“I honestly think Showrunner is like a four-person job, and I think it’s very difficult to make a person a showrunner,” Konner said. “So between the three of us we actually had a real system down. We were there throughout the process and very, much involved in the post. “
Konner caught in IndieWire when he was in place for “Nobody Wants this” season 2 to chat about the trip with “Deli Boys” and her obvious, full pride for the Hulu series.
The following interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Indiewire: I love talking about how you got involved from the beginning, what were the first stages?
Jenni Konner: So five years ago we got a test, which means that only someone wanted to staff on a show. And my producing partner Nora Silver and I was like, why don’t anyone try to do this? It’s such a good script. So we developed it for a while. We took it out and we sold it to the 20th – this is so crazy, it was Fox 21 then, then it became Touchstone and then it became 20th. Then we went to a million networks, and frankly no one wanted it, except onyx. Tara Duncan loved it and really understood it. And and then 100 million (things) – there was a script, there was covid, that was the strike. It took a very long time, but here we are.
I hear many stories like this one I talk to, especially as writers and directors for color, how much harder it is to get things done. Was it a feeling of it from your end when you tried to engage studios?
I didn’t know it at all. What I felt was that it was a pretty risky show. It was a lot of violence, a lot of crime, and I think people were a little afraid of it, because nothing like that existed. And sometimes, if people can’t see it on TV Already, or any version of it, they don’t do what it is.
So what did you address you about the script specifically?
It felt so healthy and really, really specific. I was excited about this idea to tell a family story, this cute, sweet family history that you could get away with a lot of violence and gore because it was such a sweet story and through a Muslim lens. It is an immigrant story, without it being the immigrant experience, or if it, it is very heavy, really, with a Muslim lens on it.
It’s a really good way to put it. So how was the first meeting with Abdullah? How did you taught him to see if he would be mesh creatively?
I think it was like the first week or something of covid. It was right in the beginning and and we just loved him. He was extremely warm, and I could tell immediately that he was cooperative. You do not want to start developing, with someone who does not have lots of experience, unless they feel they will be open and cooperative. And we knew immediately that he was the kind of person we wanted to work with, because we valued him and he valued us, which is kind of everything you need in this kind of building a show from scratch.
What does it look like to be the more experienced party and work with someone new? What position do you want to occupy in that relationship, and how do you want to guide them?
When we develop the script, there is a lot of collaborative writing. I don’t do writing, but much to sit and talk about history and character that I would do in a writer’s room. So it’s a type of world’s smallest author room. But then I also think that my job is to start an inexperienced person through the system. You are in collaboration with studios and networks, and we are very, very lucky that we had a studio and network here which were really creative partners.
But there is a way to understand what it is like to take notes and what it is like to be in casting and how to talk to people and how you are part of the marketing and how to talk to actors. There is no reason he should have known how to do any of these things, and he wanted to learn. He was a mushroom and he got better and better and better at it.
It’s amazing. And then Michelle came in, and how did you divide this responsibility?
Michelle, I have known for a long time and have been a friend, and frankly we tried to get her like five other shows, and she was always really busy, because she is so good at her job. This one was just magical. In my opinion, the show has really blessed. She was magically free, she and Abdullah loved each other so much, and she is so good at their job, and we could really share and conquer and Nora do all production items.
She was the real showrunner, and we just did everything to support her, would read everything and be on note calls and be very involved in the process, and we were also on stage – but it was her room, and she really handled it.
I see that you also had Vali (Chandrasekharan) and Nisha (Ganatra) who are involved in the executing production team, but I know that Nisha tends to be more directed. Can you tell me more about their roles?
Vali was an EP for once we received orders for a pilot, and he was very helpful. He was on his way every day, he helped us to develop, we made a writer’s round table as he ran. And then Nisha is someone, first and foremost, I have known for similar 25 years. I was actually an extra in her student film, and I always love to work with her. She really took the style of the show – pilot directors really put what it will look like and feel.
She is also very, very cooperative, which is one of the reasons why I love to work with her, but I also think the reason I was so excited for her to do this is that she can really raise a show. There are many programs on TV that work with the same budget that we are that do not look like this show, and I think she made it seem like a kind of more expensive show than it was. In the pilot, when Lucky (Poren Jagannathan) shoots Hamza (Faiz Siddique), and there is only this crazy blood spray on the boys’ face, and she chose that was how she would show it, rather than showing shooting. And it was such a good, hard, successful joke, and it’s the kind of magic that Nisha can give. So things are really beautiful, but also actors really love her.
She is so good. I am her. She has such a fantastic career.
I mean, the best. I love her. I mean, really worked with her forever.
And then you were involved in throwing Saagar and Asif, right?
Deep. Casting is one of my favorite parts in the process. It was a really exciting thing, because the truth is that now in climate -TV, especially when it contracts (the business), we are asked to get celebrities linked a lot. And when looking for Pakistani actors in a very specific age group, there are no known ones. Like Riz Ahmed would not. So we got the chance to make discoveries, which is very rare. I couldn’t really do it in a while, and it puts you in a really exciting position. With Porsa, who is always incredible, but it was a part that she had not played. She played a mother a lot, and she played these roles brilliantly, or a best friend, and it was really, really exciting to put her in a lead role, to see how fun she could be, to see how badass to see her in a leather jump. It was just a dream.
I’m sure you see some of the reactions that are already starting, but everyone is wild for her, and rightly.
She is incredible. And Brian George, who played the Pakistani guy in “Seinfeld”, is now a really strong lead, so it’s a bit exciting. I’m sure you’ve seen them around; Saager and Asif are basically in love, and actually brothers and socialize all the time and came really close, and the chemistry is really, really magical.
Oh, it’s very sweet. Since you spent so much time with the show, do you know, in development and pre -production, everything that, were you there? And how did it feel, if not on set, then, as well as seeing diaries and stuff and kind of just seeing it actually happen?
It is always the most exciting, and it is the matter of being a writer or actor, you are so dependent on the process, and it is just very, very satisfying. We had our premiere two nights ago. We finished it a year ago, and Disney and Onyx really had the foresight. It felt like a really long time before we were broadcast, but now I’m so grateful, because it’s a really quiet time on TV, and it’s not like we are competing with four thousand other shows right now. So we waited a long time, and our premiere was only a few days ago. Nora continued to say, “I can’t even believe that this is happening,” as it is still in denial that it even comes out. It took a really long time, but worth waiting.
Is there a larger map earlier season 1?
Yes, absolutely. I mean, when you are in a writer’s room – this happens in “No one wants this” too – you are always like, “It’s a really good idea – for the next season.” Just good ideas (but it is) too early to do it, and I think it’s really fun. We have many ideas, and probably 99 percent of them will change, but it is really fun to have ideas and a vague map for what it can be. Stories it was too early to tell.
I know that you, in terms of development, you are done with the process of opening up the show. But is anyone ever doing a show? I will ask you to look up it right now for someone who will start up their hulu tomorrow.
I can’t do it. Are you crazy? I didn’t even beat when we sold it. I feel this is Abdullah’s job. It is a family story that is a crazy crime comedy through a Muslim lens. Is that good? Does Muslim lenses sound homework-y? Maybe just a family story in its core, with a lot of violence and crime and drugs and fun. I’m not good at this! I’m not a lift plan. Someone can beat it.
You know, you can have a show that is really, really good and have had the worst time. But this was really lucky, the lucky thing about having an amazing time to write, a fantastic time at set, a fantastic time editing, and now the world likes it.
“Deli Boys” is now flowing on Hulu.
