When the kettle whistles and the tea is ready, it's time for the DesiQuest after-show—and what a show it is! Omar Najam and I, Sandeep Parikh, are all cozied up inside the teapot, steaming with excitement. After every episode of DesiQuest is launched, we'll release another episode of the Tea Kettle with me and Omar and a very special guest, or guest from either behind or in front of the camera.
And who better to chat with in our inaugural episode than Jasmine Bhullar, the brilliant mind weaving the tapestry of DesiQuest. It's a laughter-filled session, where we peel back the curtain on Episode 1 and Jasmine's magical universe, a place born from the seeds of many ideas. Our conversation meanders through the gardens of creativity, where extroverted effervescence meets the tranquil depths of introversion, and we find that our differences are not just okay—they're essential for the rich tapestry of our show.
Hang on to your teacups because we're not just sipping tea; we're spilling it on the surprises that creativity often springs upon us. The unpredictability of what tickles our audience's fancy can be as bewildering as a maze in Jasmine's realm, yet it's this very spontaneity that fuels our passion. We share tales of unexpected hits and misses, and the emotional rollercoaster of bringing new content into the world. If your curiosity is piqued by this sneak-peak and you're craving to unwrap even more secrets of DesiQuest, please join our Patreon, where the rest of the conversation continues. Join us in this celebration of imagination, where every twist and turn is a story in itself.
When the kettle whistles and the tea is ready, it's time for the DesiQuest after-show—and what a show it is! Omar Najam and I, Sandeep Parikh, are all cozied up inside the teapot, steaming with excitement. After every episode of DesiQuest is launched, we'll release another episode of the Tea Kettle with me and Omar and a very special guest, or guest from either behind or in front of the camera.
And who better to chat with in our inaugural episode than Jasmine Bhullar, the brilliant mind weaving the tapestry of DesiQuest. It's a laughter-filled session, where we peel back the curtain on Episode 1 and Jasmine's magical universe, a place born from the seeds of many ideas. Our conversation meanders through the gardens of creativity, where extroverted effervescence meets the tranquil depths of introversion, and we find that our differences are not just okay—they're essential for the rich tapestry of our show.
Hang on to your teacups because we're not just sipping tea; we're spilling it on the surprises that creativity often springs upon us. The unpredictability of what tickles our audience's fancy can be as bewildering as a maze in Jasmine's realm, yet it's this very spontaneity that fuels our passion. We share tales of unexpected hits and misses, and the emotional rollercoaster of bringing new content into the world. If your curiosity is piqued by this sneak-peak and you're craving to unwrap even more secrets of DesiQuest, please join our Patreon, where the rest of the conversation continues. Join us in this celebration of imagination, where every twist and turn is a story in itself.
Hello everybody and welcome to the Tea Kettle named after the Tea Kettle in the show, and now you're inside of it with us. This is the Desi Quest After Show podcast, exclusive to our Patreon backers, and this entire endeavor cannot be possible without you, dear listeners. So thank you, thank you, thank you so much. I'm your host, Sandeep, executive producer and cast member, who plays Ash, and my co-pilot and also host is none other than the effervescent Omar Najam, who plays Murkha. Hi hi, omar, is that a good?
Omar Najam:
Hello, effervescent goodness. I'm so touched. Thank you.
Sandeep Parikh:
I always feel like now you're like yeah, you're so bubbly, you know. It's like I always feel like refreshing. I feel refreshed after I hang out with Omar.
Omar Najam:
My goal is to be, like you know, in commercials, like soda commercials, when, like they play basketball and then they crack open a soda and then they drink it and they're like that sugar water, really like carbonated sugar water, really hit the spot. That's what I'm going for. So thank you, thank you very much.
Sandeep Parikh:
Well, after every episode of Desi Quest is launched, we'll release another episode of the Tea Kettle with me and Omar and a very special guest, or guest from either behind or in front of the camera. And guess what, this week we have both in one, because we have the creator, executive, producer and game master of Desi Quest, jasmine Bhullar, aka that Bronze Girl, aka Bronze, aka, I don't know, have you had any other ones?
Jasmine Bhullar:
Yeah, I think that's the best stuff.
Sandeep Parikh:
How are you feeling, how are you doing?
Jasmine Bhullar:
Amazing I'm the opposite of Omar. Is that for effervescence I have like the more.
Sandeep Parikh:
We get a hangover.
Omar Najam:
I always feel like I always genuinely feel like distilled and like reset when I hang out with you. Jasmine, really, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm just like okay, good, good, I texted you about this the other day, I don't even know how to do that bit.
Jasmine Bhullar:
Yeah, you were messaging me about it. I have like a very, I think my thing is extroverts hate me and introverts love me. Interesting. You know, I'm just introverts and they're like it's not exhausting to be around you and extroverts are like. Why are you like that?
Sandeep Parikh:
Well, it's because you call them out in emotion. I'm an extrovert and I don't feel that way.
Omar Najam:
This is how you find out you're an introvert.
Sandeep Parikh:
I think they're frail extroverts that don't like hanging out with you.
Jasmine Bhullar:
Yes and no. I think sometimes Sandeep you're very much like is everything good? And I'm like yeah, I'm just sitting here, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yeah.
Sandeep Parikh:
Well, that's just my personality. To make sure everything's good.
Jasmine Bhullar:
But that's like extro vert energy of like why is your face like that? And I'm like it's just like this.
Omar Najam:
There aren't. There's so much. There's so much energy in this space. That is like are you mad at me?
Sandeep Parikh:
And you're like what?
Omar Najam:
I just got here what's up why? What did I get myself into? What's happening? You say that's not my energy.
Sandeep Parikh:
My energy is are you never said it's your energy?
Omar Najam:
You've never. You've never said are you mad at me? More frequently than not, you have said to me, when I've entered into a room breakfast is over there I would say that's the most common introduction in person.
Jasmine Bhullar:
Breakfast is over there. Breakfast is over there. It's free, don't tell anyone.
Omar Najam:
I guess I'm just a hotel card.
Sandeep Parikh:
I guess I'm very yeah, I'm a breakfast guy, I don't know. We always hanging out at hotels. Let's go, ok, anyway. Ok, we're getting off track. Before listening, we're going to jump in. We're going to talk about episode one, because people who have consumed the show will now be listening to this. But before we dive into that dissection of episode one, we ask that hey, you know, take a moment. You know, if you haven't already, maybe think about going over to the desiquest. com to hop on our mailing list and get a special discount on some sweet, sweet merch. That's just for you Patreoners. That's what happens if you get on the mailing list. So if you haven't done that, please do and listen.
Sandeep Parikh:
There were a handful of sponsors that really took a big chance on us to make this show possible, and so for each of these, we wanted to just shout one of them out. So for today, that honor goes to our very first sponsor, Gharana Foods. They were the first ones to come on board and say yes, I will sponsor you, before we had really anything but the Kickstarter up. We love them. They're a family run business. They're chukris like out of this world. We ate it on set, loved it, and so listen, go, go, go over to their website, gharanafoods. com, and get 10 percent off your order using the code Desi Quest, and that link will be in show notes. All right, did it Paid our bills. Now let's, let's, let's, let's, jump on in. Jasmine, you spent months, maybe years, preparing this world no Months.
Jasmine Bhullar:
Yeah, yeah, I think it was like it was one of like an hour. Five ideas that I had oh my God. Kind of banging around. I would say, yeah, this all the, all the really quick.
Omar Najam:
Do you have an?
Jasmine Bhullar:
all.
Omar Najam:
Hold on this entire world. This entire world was one of five ideas. Like I like in re in, like watching the episodes, I'm like this is a whole universe.
Omar Najam:
Like when you're in it, you're in it but, like you know, now I get to like. Now I'm not worried about like making the choices and doing all this and I'm absorbing all the information. I'm like every corner of this universe, how everything works, how everything functions, how it comes together. And then you're here being like that was one of five. You know, I got. I'm an undersea one, I got you know, bio shock. That's cute. I can top that.
Jasmine Bhullar:
It's wild because, like I I don't know why at any given time I could probably like pitch like nine seasons, and most of them are half baked. I think that's my superpower, though, like I don't fully bake, I kind of keep everything a little doughy in the middle, and then when someone's like this one, I'm like all right, let's pop it in the oven.
Sandeep Parikh:
Right, it's kind of it's. My first question is like what was your mindset when you were first birthing it? So it's kind of like you had pieces of ideas kind of thing, and then, yeah, and you're like, ok, now that we're really doing this, let's you know 420 for for three hours, is that? Is that what we're talking about?
Omar Najam:
Wait, yeah, I'm kind of 420.
Sandeep Parikh:
I mean, I'm a degrees on the OK anyway, what. So when you're doing your prep, like what are, like, what were like the points of interest that were jumping out at you, it was mostly just thinking about Actually, like the, the miniseries.
Jasmine Bhullar:
So when I'm doing something that's like more long form, I usually prep differently than if I'm doing a miniseries. Usually with the miniseries what I start with is a storyboard and sending that over to our director, Schaubach, and I actually don't start on that until, like, we have a director which is probably a little late in the process, but I'll have like some ideas of stat blocks and some ideas for MPCs and a vague idea that's like kind of just notes. And then what happens is is, you know, we get a wonderful director like Schaubach and I start fleshing out a storyboard, which I know is very different for D&D prep, but I think is useful when you're coming into a miniseries. Because what happens then is you can kind of write the Omar episode right.
Jasmine Bhullar:
Like you get to, you get to make sure that, like, every character has like a moment versus like, if you just prep for it like a normal game, then you might not, you might not have that.
Omar Najam:
I guess, yeah, do you? Um, I know you've discussed this like elsewhere in certain iterations, but like, can you take us through that process of storyboarding, like what you physically are doing, to be like, okay, this is how this will all work and breathe and feel like a family at the table?
Jasmine Bhullar:
Yeah, it's funny because my storyboard changes rapidly, usually after, like in between episodes too, which is why I structure it like that. So I have like really broad columns to start, which is like the realities of production, which is like is there, combat this episode.
Sandeep Parikh:
So that's usually where I start. Okay, yeah.
Jasmine Bhullar:
Is there going to be combat? Is there a potential for combat this episode? And then it's usually like, okay, what major locations are we going to be in? What moving characters are in those locations? And then, what specific plot threads do I have that I think the players will grab and latch onto. And there are times that what the players latch and grab onto is different than what you originally thought. And so then you change the storyboard to kind of reflect that. Or you might think, going into it like, oh, I think this character is going to be kind of like taking the lead on a lot of decision making and then maybe they don't. So then it's like, okay, what can I give them an episode two, so we can see like what they're good at or or what in their backstory is like traumatizing, and then they just kind of like push on different keys on the keyboard until we hopefully make some music. It never feels like it's going well when it's happening.
Sandeep Parikh:
And you're just doing that in the moment, like you're not like following a script here. You're like kind of like in the moment, reacting to what's happening and then just deciding and feeling out intuiting, like okay, now it's time to get your ideas.
Jasmine Bhullar:
There's times I'm like, oh, I'm sure they'll love this and probably not like this, and then it's like the opposite, where it's like, oh no, I actually love this MPC and I hate this other MPC.
Sandeep Parikh:
So that's fun too. Hey, so sorry to interrupt, but the rest of this episode is for our Patreon subscribers only. So if you'd like to hear the rest of this juicy conversation, let me tell you it gets juicy. There's another 50 minutes 50-5-0 of this conversation over at patreon. com/desiquest. Thank you so much for supporting the show.
