Shreyas Pardiwalla: It is going to be a full house at my place for Navroz

He may have gained popularity with the films like Yaariyan, Sweetiee Weds NRI and Sanam Re, but now actor and theatre personality Shreyas Pardiwalla is becoming a household name with his funny videos on social media. The actor, who is also a clinical psychologist, has been bringing out the funny side of Parsis on Instagram, much to the amusement of everyone.We spoke to Shreyas on the occasion of Navroz and asked him how he’s celebrating the day. Excerpts from an interview:

Since they couldn’t celebrate Navroz last year due to COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown, Shreyas’ family will be hosting a lunch at their residence for extended family this time around. “My mother, nani and aunt have decided to host a lavish lunch for all Pardiwallas at our place this year. It has been more than a year since we all got together like this, so we are looking forward to it,” says Shreyas. Getting nostalgic about the pre-COVID times, he shares, “Before the pandemic, our Navroz highlight was the Gambhar that used to be organised at a nearby Parsi colony. It is kind of similar to the bhandara, but we have singing, dancing and merry-making too, besides delicious food. If not that, my boys and I would head out to Parsi restaurants on a binge spree.”

Shreyas is a self-confessed foodie, and says he loves to gorge on Navroz delicacies. “It may come as a shocker, but we are vegetarians as a family. We do not have non-veg and alcohol, which people think is a very typical Parsi thing. That said, we don’t miss out on anything because we have a good vegetarian spread too,” he shares. Talking about the spread for Navroz, he adds, “Our day begins with sev rawa – a traditional sweet which is like sevaiyan, but with a lot of dry fruits, kesar and caramelised sugar. For lunch, there will be dhan dar and patiya, which is a delicious tomato gravy, and saria (potato wafers). For dessert, we have the typical Parsi custard. The meal will be wrapped up with my mum’s famous mint and lemongrass tea that everyone loves.”

Shreyas had previously spoken about the representation of Parsis in mainstream Bollywood. Opening up about it, he says, “I wouldn’t call it misrepresentation – but films have never really explored Parsis beyond an uncle or an aunty yelling ‘dhikra aiyyan aao ni’ or using a lot of expletives. Not all of us are like that! Hardly any films show how Parsi families actually are.” He adds that though films like Pestonjee, Parzania and Being Cyrus got it right, those were not mainstream films. But he does agree to one thing about Parsi representation in movies. “Bollywood got one thing right about Parsis – we are a very happy bunch of people! And we believe in ‘Majjani life’,” he says.

As his videos on various Parsi characters gain popularity, he speaks about how it is well received among the community too. “As a community, we know how to laugh at ourselves and take humour positively. When the lockdown was imposed, and we had nothing else to do, I decided to bring out the everyday humour I see in the community. To my surprise, people got hooked to the characters I made up. Parsis from across the globe messaged and commented saying they loved the videos. People wanted more such videos to be made,” says the actor.