70 new potential American television shows have filmed pilot episodes in the hope that it will be selected for the upcoming 2018-2019 season.
Indian actors Anupam Kher, Vir Das and Suraj Sharma have bagged key roles in three shows and if their show's pilots are picked up, will star on American network television later this year.
Actress Priyanka Chopra was the first Indian to headline her own show, Quantico, which airs on ABC. The third season begins on 26 April.
Kher will be part of an ensemble cast with Ryan Eggold, Freeman Agyeman, Tyler Labine, Janet Montgomery, and Jocko Simson on NBC's New Amsterdam. The show is inspired by Dr Eric Manheimer's memoir, Twelve Patients: Life & Death at Bellevue Hospital.
According to the show's synopsis on magazine Entertainment Weekly's website, "this character-driven medical drama follows the new director (Ryan Eggold) of a New York hospital whose maverick approach disrupts the status quo while always prioritizing patient care. The hospital is the only one in the world that has the capability to treat Ebola patients, prisoners from Rikers Island, and the president of the United States all under one roof."
Kher, who was recently shooting for the pilot in New York city, is likely to play one of the doctors at Bellevue Hospital.
Comedian-turned-actor Vir Das will appear alongside Scott Foley and Lauren Cohan on the dramedy Whiskey Cavalier based on the partnership between an FBI agent and a CIA operative.
The hour-long show, which will air on ABC, will follow "an inter-agency team of flawed, funny, heroic spies who periodically save the world (and each other) while navigating the rocky roads of friendship, romance, and office politics." Das could be playing one of the spies that help Foley and Cohan save the world.
Meanwhile, Suraj Sharma, who made his Hindi cinema debut with Phillauri (2017), is a part of the comedy God Friended Me in which an atheist, played by Brandon Micheal Hall, has his life changed when God becomes 'friends' with him on Facebook. Produced by Greg Berlanti for CBS, the cast also includes Javicia Leslie, Joe Morton, and Violett Beane.
Actress Pallavi Sharda, who was last seen in Begum Jaan (2017), has a role on the investigative drama Murder with Teyonah Parris, Michael Chiklis, Luna Lauren Velez, Leonard Roberts, Andrea Demetriades, and Jennifer Mudge.
Besides these Indian names, more artistes of Indian origin will be seen behind and in front of the camera. There are three shows that could headline an Indian-American artiste. ABC's The Greatest American Hero, a reboot of the popular 1980s show, will feature Hannah Simone as Meera who finds she has superpowers after an inexplicable event. Actresses Gia Sandhu and Zenobia Shroff are part of the cast as Meera's Indian-American family. Rachna Fruchbom is a writer and executive producer on the show.
CBS's Pandas in New York, from executive producer Ajay Sahgal, will focus on an Indian family of doctors in New York starring Dhruv Singh, Ashley Tisdale, Nishi Munshi, Hina Abdullah, Dan O’Brien, Bernard White, Gita Reddy, and Mike Castle.
Aseem Batra will serve as executive producer with Amy Poehler on NBC's comedy I Feel Bad, based on the best-selling book by Orli Auslander, starring Sarayu Blue.
Many other artistes of Indian origin like Lilly Singh (aka IISuperwomanII) Janina Gavankar, Mouzam Makkar, Aasif Mandvi, Kosha Patel, Kapil Tawalkar, Parveen Kaur Vinny Chhibber, Amit Shah and Karan Oberoi are part of pilots that also up for contention.