Blogerazzi: Prasad and "Ocean of Pearls"

Jennifer Young: Verrendra Prasad, on-stage during SFIAAFF, spoke about writing Ocean of Pearls. "Sarab, the producer/director had wanted to make a movie about health care; he’s actually a practicing physician, [has been] for quite awhile. He had been working with my mentor, who’s a screenwriting professor at the University of Michigan. He had always envisioned the project as just sort of a straight medical drama—and Jim my mentor kept sort of pushing him. “Make it a Sikh movie. Make the character a Sikh.” It wasn’t actually until after 9/11—the first victim of a hate-crime post 9-11 was actually a Sikh man… the events after 9-11 made him rethink this idea and he began to go along with what Jim suggested. Jim recommended me because I had written a script in his screenwriting class that was about a second generation Indian American dealing with religion and it was sort of a perfect fit."

03.20.2009