Mindy Kaling feels ‘scrutinised’ by Indian-American community

The Office star Mindy Kaling opens up on the scrutiny she is under because her “community is so starved for any kind of representation”.

Mindy Kaling sometimes feels overly “scrutinised” by the Indian-American community.

The 46-year-old star, who rose to fame in The Office and The Mindy Project, has opened up about the “pressure” that comes with representing her own heritage in the world of television.

She told The Hollywood Reporter‘s Awards Chatter podcast: “My community is so starved for any kind of representation, so there’s a lot of pressure on that.

“If you show a certain kind of Indian person and they have different traditions than the kind of Indian person that those people knew and grew up with, that feels disappointing.

“So I’ve had to deal with that for 20 years of my career, and I can’t say that it’s easy, but I will say that that same group of people who are scrutinising me the most are also the ones that ride for me the most.”

Mindy is always determined to do right by “the people in my community”, even if sometimes she gets “p***** at them too”.

She explained: “And so getting it right, particularly for the people in my community, is a thing that it is really important to me.

“But I get mad at them — I feel like they’re my family, where I get pissed at them too, and I wish they had some sense, or more of a sense, of what it’s taken to make it this far.

“I do think there’s some things that I have been scrutinised with that my fellow creators of shows don’t necessarily have to deal with.”

The star also reflected on the significance of The Mindy Project for representation, and her own career goals.

She said: “I’ve lost a lot of weight since then, but, at that time, I was a size 10 or 12, dark-skinned Indian woman as a lead in a romantic comedy show…

“I went into that show with the skills I had learned from The Office, but I got to finally do the thing I want to do, which is romantic comedy.

“And I got to do the other thing I wanted to do, which is have more than two lines an episode.”

Meanwhile, Mindy previously admitted that she feels “lucky” to be “celebrated” for her dark brown skin.

The actress is an investor in and ambassador for Lion Pose, a brand that meets the skin needs of people of colour, and Mindy explained why she feels so proud of the brand.

She told Allure magazine: “I’ve always struggled with hyper-pigmentation and I’m always trying to find products that help with my acne scars and dark spots, but that don’t also change my skin tone.

“I feel incredibly lucky that I’m someone who’s celebrated for my dark brown skin. And I did not want to change that. And so this is something that just really works for me.

“So that’s why I came on as an investor, not just as an ambassador or whatever. And I just selfishly wanted in on their success and I was lucky that they found room for me.”