Shiwani Srivastava on Wedding Season

Shiwani Srivastava was raised on Bollywood films and the rom-coms of the 1980s. She writes screenplays examining relationships, family dynamics, and immigrant experiences through the lens of comedy, drawing on her work as a journalist and her family’s roots in India. Her romantic comedy WEDDING SEASON was released by Netflix this summer, where it debuted as one of their Top 5 films worldwide. Srivastava, repped by A3 Artists and Affirmative Entertainment, was named one of Variety’s 10 Screenwriters to Watch in 2022. She has projects in development with Paramount, ReelFx, Gunpowder & Sky, and Samosa Stories. A native of New Jersey, she received a BA in English and Journalism from NYU and an MA in South Asian Studies from the University of Washington in Seattle, where she currently lives with her family and their overstuffed bookshelves. SYNOPSIS WEDDING SEASON is an American romantic comedy directed by Tom Dey. Starring Suraj Sharma and Pallavi Sharda, it follows the story of Asha and Ravi, two Indian-Americans who are being pressured by their parents to find spouses. They pretend to date to survive a summer of weddings, only to find themselves falling for each other… and finally getting the courage to be their true selves. The script was written by Shiwani Srivastava as a spec and landed in the hands of a Netflix executive after winning the ScreenCraft Comedy Contest in 2018.

Om Podcasten

All writing is a tightrope walk from where the idea originates to the moment a book, movie, or TV episode emerges in the world. In The Write Process, Charles Jensen, director of the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, asks writing instructors and students who’ve walked the tightrope and come out the other side to talk about their process. Each episode tells the story of how one writer took one project from concept to completion, showcasing the various—and varied—paths we take when we follow one good idea all the way home.