Pinch yourself, folks; Hollywood is finally giving Indian characters the glow-up they deserve in 2025!
Indian-British actress Simone Ashley isn’t waiting for Hollywood to make space for her. She’s carving out her own. If you’ve watched Bridgerton, you know exactly why the world fell in love with her. With her undeniable screen presence, stunning beauty, and sizzling chemistry with Jonathan Bailey, she made Season 2 one of the best in the series. Overnight, Simone Ashley became a game-changer. But while audiences celebrated her as a leading lady, Hollywood’s deeper issues with Indian representation didn’t just disappear.
For years, Indian women in Western entertainment have been sidelined, either reduced to quirky best friends, hyper-intelligent nerds, or exoticized love interests with barely any depth. Rarely do we see them as the main character, let alone the romantic lead in a classic feel-good rom-com. Instead of waiting for the industry to catch up, Simone Ashley is taking matters into her own hands. She’s not only playing the lead in her upcoming film Picture This but also serving as an executive producer. Though the film isn’t from her own production house, Ashley’s involvement signifies a powerful shift: Indian actors are no longer waiting for better roles. They’re demanding them. They’re stepping into decision-making positions to shape the stories being told. As Hollywood continues to struggle with meaningful representation, Simone’s move isn’t just another career milestone; it’s a statement.
Indians have appeared in Hollywood films for decades, but their presence often felt symbolic rather than substantial. Aishwarya Rai was one of the first Indian actresses to break into Hollywood with films like Mistress of Spices and The Pink Panther 2. At the time, her crossover was seen as groundbreaking, yet it didn’t spark a larger movement. Indian actors remained largely sidelined in mainstream Western media, often limited to supporting roles. The Harry Potter films included the Patil twins, Parvati and Padma, but their portrayal did little to celebrate Indian culture. But the real heartbreak came in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, when the much-anticipated Yule Ball scene turned into a moment of secondhand embarrassment when they were dressed in gaudy, ill-fitting Indian outfits. The outfits felt more like cheap costume pieces than elegant cultural attire. To this day, their portrayal remains a sore spot for many, a reminder that being included isn’t the same as being seen. In 2007, The Big Bang Theory made headlines for featuring an Indian character, Raj Koothrappali, as part of its main cast. But as iconic as the show became, Raj was written as the “bottom of the pile” in a group of socially awkward geeks. His selective mutism around women, self-loathing attitude, and disdain for his own culture made his character even harder to digest than Apu from The Simpsons. The show’s portrayal of Indian identity wasn’t just problematic, it is also outright harmful.
More recently, Priyanka Chopra and Mindy Kaling have carved out space for Indian women in Hollywood. Chopra became the first South Asian woman to headline an American network drama with Quantico and has since taken on major roles in Citadel and Love Again. Meanwhile, Kaling has used her creative influence to push for better representation through projects like The Mindy Project, Never Have I Ever, and The Sex Lives of College Girls. Yet, despite these successes, Indian women in Hollywood are still boxed into narratives that revolve around their cultural identity rather than simply existing as fully developed characters.
What makes Picture This such an important moment isn’t just that it features an Indian lead; it’s that Simone Ashley had a hand in shaping the story itself. “When I first got the script, there were a lot of changes that I wanted to be made, so we really flipped it upside-down,” she told Digital Spy in an interview about the British rom-com. As a romantic comedy with an Indian lead, the film pushes back against Hollywood’s tendency to either ignore Indian women or make their ethnicity the central plot point. And Ashley’s role in the film isn’t just about being on-screen but also having creative control as an executive producer. Being an executive producer isn’t just a vanity title; it means having a say in how a story is told, how characters are portrayed, and what ultimately makes it to the screen.
For too long, South Asian actors in Hollywood have had little control over their own narratives, often handed scripts that reinforce tired tropes. By stepping into this role, Ashley is ensuring that Picture This isn’t just another checkbox for diversity but instead a film that treats an Indian woman as a complex, fully realized character.
However, lasting change isn’t just about the decisions made within Hollywood; it’s also about audience demand. Viewers have more power than they realize when it comes to shaping the kinds of stories that get told. Streaming the Desi-led films and series, buying tickets to movies featuring diverse casts, and engaging with these stories on social media sends a message to studios: This is what we want to see. Hollywood is driven by profit, and when studios see that audiences actively support projects with meaningful representation, they are more likely to invest in similar films and shows.
Beyond just consuming content, audiences can also drive change through discussion and advocacy. Conversations about representation, whether on social media, in film reviews, or through fan campaigns, can push back against Hollywood’s tendency to tokenize diversity. At the same time, it’s important to recognize that representation isn’t just about numbers. It’s not enough for Hollywood to simply cast more Indian actors; the quality of storytelling matters just as much. By being discerning about which projects they champion, audiences can help ensure that diversity in media isn’t just surface-level but truly meaningful.
Although details about Picture This are still limited, its existence alone is significant. Unlike previous Indian-led romantic films, which often centered heavily on cultural identity (like Bride and Prejudice), this film has the potential to normalize an Indian woman as a romantic lead without making her ethnicity the entire plot. This shift is crucial because true representation isn’t just about visibility; it’s about depth.
With Bridgerton, Ashley already helped redefine the romantic heroine, proving that audiences are eager for diverse love stories. Picture This builds on that momentum, breaking the industry’s outdated mold.
However, true progress doesn’t come from just one film; it requires a sustained industry-wide shift. As audiences demand more authentic and nuanced storytelling, we can only hope that Indian representation in Hollywood isn’t just a passing trend but a lasting norm.