Rushi Kota on Highlighting Traditional South Asian Matchmaking Culture in Hallmark Channel's "Make Me a Match"

"I don't have enough good things to say about it and Hallmark," he continued. "Everyone on set was amazing. From the producers and the director to the entire cast and crew, everyone came to set every single day so prepared to work and with such a positive attitude. I had a great time making this movie. Coming out of the [recent] stresses of life and going to Vancouver, I didn't know if I was going to have enough time to prepare for it, as it happened kind of quickly. But once I got there everything just fell perfectly into place. Then hitting it off immediately with Eva … I can't say enough good things about her."

In the film, Kota portrays Bhumesh (Boom), the son, and business manager, of famed Indian matchmaker Raina (Rekha Sharma), whose age-old methods of pairing couples have a huge success rate. Eager to adopt some of those magical traits is Vivi (Bourne), who believes incorporating some of them into her dating app Data Mate could take it to the next level. After reluctantly finding herself the guinea pig of the experiment, Vivi embarks on the process. While trying to find her perfect match it becomes clear she didn't have to look too far.

One thing that became immediately apparent to Kota when reading the script was that by exploring Indian culture he was doing something important. "This is a big deal for [Hallmark] and for South Asian culture," he shared. "For us to be on the mainstream is incredible. This is who we are, and now on TV with shows like Never Have I Ever on Netflix, it's starting to get really mainstream and give a lot of people who look like me an opportunity to do this craft. I'm extremely proud that I get to represent and tell this wonderful story.

"It's also a fun story we're telling that's also part educational," he added. "They're not making cliches of anything, so it's a very big moment for me and South Asians. I was like, 'Wow, we're really making some moves over here.' And the other big thing is it's not so different for everyone. The culture is a little different, sure, but at the end of the day, all the issues that the characters in the movie, the South Asian characters, and the non-South Asian characters, are going through are universal. That's what I think is the takeaway from the film."

With the recent box-office and Oscar success of movies like the Indian Telugu-language film RRR, Kota is thrilled to be able to further things. "RRR was a really cool movie, and actually from where I'm from in India," he explained. "It used the Telugu-language, and that's the first time I've seen anything like it come to the Oscars. That was huge! I think it's really good that all markets are going in this direction, and I hope they do more like it. It's great that RRR is getting highlighted, but America is a melting pot, so we have to make stories that are inclusive of everyone."

Regarding the educational aspect of Indian match-making culture depicted in the movie, despite having prior knowledge Kota learned a few things. "I've never personally used it as I met my wife in high school, and we married in 2020," he revealed. "What's depicted in the film is pretty true to how it goes. Especially the traditions of astrology, which are very accurate. We also had a lovely cultural consultant on set who made sure everything was appropriate to real life and that was refreshing for me. I was born in India but growing up in the States I'm a little removed from the matchmaking side of things. I learned an immense amount just by being in this movie.

"And it does work," he added. "India has a huge successful marriage rate. Things are shifting a lot more, but I just realized that most of my family has been through an arranged marriage. That was revelatory for me. After Never Have I Ever came out people were asking me about arranged marriage and matchmaking. I never thought about that until recently. All my family has been going through that -- and they're all in very successful marriages. The movie also touches on how important family is because, at the end of the day, you are all part of a family."

With so much of today's dating culture relying on dating app analytics to find that perfect match, Kota is hopeful that by highlighting some tried-and-true traditional methods, that might shift. "Love is a core part of our DNA," he pondered in closing. "I don't think AI, computers and algorithms are there yet. Sure, it can work in theory, but if you hate the way a person snores, or some little tick they have in the morning, it's going to make [things] really challenging."

Make Me a Match will be telecast Saturday, June 24 at 8 p.m. on Hallmark Channel as part of their June Weddings programming event.

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