New York [US], June 28 : Maulik Pancholy is best known for his roles as Jonathan on '30 Rock', Baljeet Tjinder in 'Phineas and Ferb' and for bringing the story of a gay Indian American boy to readers in his critically acclaimed debut novel, 'The Best at It'. Pancholy, who has always been vocal about the struggles of the LGBTQ community, recalled how challenging it was to talk about his identity as a child and the growing visibility and representation of these people in the entertainment industry.
Speaking to ANI, he recalled his childhood days, saying, "When I was 12, I didn't know how to say, I'm gay, because I didn't really know a single openly gay person. And I was sort of taught by the media around me that being gay was something that I needed to hide, or something shameful."
Referring to his recent Audible Original podcast, 'Murder at the Patel Motel', a comic Agatha Christie-style mystery written by and starring Maulik, he shared, "Writing books, or even creating an audio series like Murder at the Patal Motel, where we have a nuanced lead gay brown character, I'm trying to rewrite that narrative and let people know that it's okay actually to be exactly who you are. And so, for every young person out there during this Pride Month, I hope you can find the courage to be yourself and find the community that I have found."
Pride Month, sometimes specified as LGBTQ Pride Month, is a month-long celebration of LGBTQ pride, honouring the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) culture and community.
'Murder at the Patel Motel' features Maulik Pancholy, Poorna Jagannathan, Karan Soni, Murray Bartlett, Margo Martindale, and Anna Camp among others.
The LGBTQ+ community faces a slew of issues, including social stigma, discrimination, and others. While talking about the approach of people towards the community, he said, "I think a hundred per cent things have gotten so much better. The community is also much larger and more visible. There's now much more support available. It's much easier to find a community to find pockets of places where you can feel like you can be yourself and find that support."
He also talked about the challenges he faced, "Here in the US, there's also been a lot of backlash against that, like both of my books have been banned. One of them very publicly last year, when a school tried to ban me from coming to visit a school with my book. And so the fight continues to go on. I know, in India, I was very disappointed to see that same sex marriage did not pass. And so I think that it's so important for us to keep telling our stories to keep letting people know that we're here to keep letting people know that we're just people like everybody else."
On speaking about the representation of the gay community in the entertainment industry, he emphasised that it has gotten better with time, "I think things have gotten a lot better. But I always feel that we could be doing more, and we have a long way to go."
While sharing how the idea for his latest project, a scripted comedy podcast, 'Murder at the Patel Motel', was conceived, he added, "I'm always surprised how people in the United States are not aware of the prevalence of Patel motels. You know, many people are familiar with Indian American family-owned businesses, but they may not be aware of Patel motels... about 50% of motels in the United States are owned by Indian Americans, and most of them have their last name Patel."
He continued, "In fact, there's such a large group that they're sort of jokingly referred to sometimes as the Patel motel cartel. But they actually have a lot of power too, like within the hotel industry in the United States, they're one of the largest lobbying groups. And so I thought the outside of Patel motel would be just such a perfect place to set some kind of story. I was really interested in telling an Indian American family-run kind of story about a complicated Indian American family. I always wanted to centre a gay Indian American lead character in a story because I feel like we so rarely get to see that in American media. And so that's kind of how the idea came about..."
He shared how the story developed and why he thought of a comedy murder mystery, "I was like, what kind of a story could we set at a Patel motel? And then I've always been really interested in this idea of what it's like to run away from your past and then have to go back and face it, and really not be able to become the person you are until you fully face your past head-on. And then to raise the stakes of that, it's like, well, what if you need to make good with someone from your past and you can't because that person is gone? And that's where the idea of this murder mystery kind of happened. And, you know, I've done so much comedy.
"Comedy is kind of like the place that I like to live in. And so this comedy murder mystery idea was sort of born out of all of those ideas coming together," added Maulik.
Maulik voiced the character of Baljeet Tjinder on Disney's Phineas & Ferb. He recalled getting associated with the project and the love he got, "Playing Baljeet on Phineas & Ferb is such a gift. I started recording that cartoon in 2006. I think our first episode aired on television in 2008. And season five of Phineas & Ferb just released on Disney like two weeks ago in 2025. So I've been involved with this show for almost two decades, and it's it's such a joy. The creators are so talented and so funny. I think they're doing kind of a very unique thing in the kids' cartoon space where they're not only writing for young kids, but they're also writing content that adults can enjoy as well. So it's really interesting how there are multiple generations of people who come up to me all the time and are like, oh, my gosh, Phineas & Ferb was my childhood, whether they're 45 or they're 12. So it's it's such a joy. And I really love it."
On talking about his upcoming projects, he shared, "I just finished filming on a movie that Jesse Eisenberg wrote and directed. It's his next movie after his 'A Real Pain. And that was really, really so much fun. It stars Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti. And we had just such an incredible time making it. I'm in the current process of writing a third novel, which will come out in the summer of 2026."