She still considers herself the Mindy project. Yet, at age 45, Mindy Kaling has figured out a few things on her way to becoming a powerhouse in the entertainment industry.
“One of the reasons I’m successful is I have a very healthy relationship with failure,” she says. “I fail constantly. When I do fail, I don’t take it incredibly personally. I just live in the failure, feel it deeply and then get over it.”
The flip side is that Kaling is her own one-woman cheer squad. “It’s almost as if we need permission to root for ourselves,” she observes. “Give yourself that permission. And while you’re at it … root for those around you, too.”
Winning, losing and rooting for something big is the topic of her new series. Kaling created and executive produces “Running Point,” a 10-episode sports comedy streaming to rave reviews on Netflix.
Kate Hudson stars as Isla Gordon, the only sister in a family of mostly dysfunctional brothers. After a scandal, she must step up when appointed president of the pro basketball franchise that her family owns.
The question: Can a woman win in a male-dominated world, keep her sanity, deal with her family and even have a personal life?
Kaling knows all about making it big in tough fields. The Cambridge, Massachusetts, native was only 26 when she was hired as a writer for the now iconic series “The Office.” She followed that with her own successful series, “The Mindy Project,” which led to producing a slew of hits, including “Never Have I Ever” and “The Secret Sex Life of College Girls.”
She has a host of projects upcoming on the heels of “Running Point.” But don’t call her a Hollywood mover and shaker — “I’m just a busy comedy writer,” she insists.
Kaling quite often writes from bed in the L.A. home she shares with her three children, Kit, 7, Spencer, 4, and Annie, 12 months.
Her good life advice:
Showtime
Kaling says “Running Point” began when Jeanie Buss, the Los Angeles Lakers’ controlling owner and president, approached her about doing a show loosely based on her life. “I was excited about the idea,” Kaling says. “She is one of the most iconic sports figures of our time, plus she loved ‘The Office.’”
It’s not a strict biopic, but based on real-life wins and losses. “Many people have fictionalized her life and her family, but she’d never been the voice behind it,” Kaling continues. “She is such a remarkable person. We went to the facilities, interviewed her about her professional and personal life. She gave us unprecedented access and also trusted us to do what we wanted to do. This show is inspired by her most interesting, dramatic and cinematic life.”
Underdogs
“I’m always drawn to ambitious women who are underdogs,” Kaling shares. “What’s fun about Dr. Mindy Lahiri from ‘The Mindy Project’ or Isla from ‘Running Point’ is they’re at once glamorous but also impatient, flawed and have a lot to learn.”
Laugh it off
How does Kaling hit the perfect comedic note? “People will ask me how I’ve built resilience or this confidence,” she says. “The nice thing about being a comedy writer is that you experience rejection so often, you stop thinking about it. The key in life is to be resilient.”
Smart approach
Kalin says she was not the most popular little girl or teenager growing up in Cambridge. “I was that little girl who loved science fiction, the chubby, shy, book-reading kid who was lost in sci-fi books,” She says. “I always loved books about young girls who weren’t popular or pretty. They were just smart.”
Act up
Fans of Kaling’s acting will be happy to hear that she is also planning to step in front of the camera again. “I’d like to get back out there and do something,” she vows. “You don’t have to do just one thing.”
Help others
“When I came into this business, I was single-minded: I wanted to make money,” Kaling says. “I didn’t want to go back home and work in my mother’s office. I was selfish. Now, it’s nice to say that I’ve created an opportunity for someone else. So, do your thing, and then help other people.”
‘How I did it’
What advice would she give a young woman trying to make it big? “I was underestimated a lot in my career coming up,” she shares. “There weren’t that many women who wanted to be comedy writers. I’d nod and smile at anyone who wanted to discourage me, smile sweetly and go back to work. That’s how I did it.”
Her superpower
“I’ll tell you one thing, the secret, that has kept me going through the years — my superpower: delusion. If you believe that you’re the smartest person in the world, you are. You have to have insane confidence in yourself, even if it’s not real,” Kaling says with a laugh. “Believe in you.”
No dread
“I never had a career based on physical beauty. I approach aging without any dread. I was never Mindy ‘The Body’ Kaling,” she jokes. “When you are a dark-skinned Indian woman who is not even traditionally beautiful for Indian people, you are good with the birthdays.”
Her everything
The mother of three is protective of her family life and keeps her children out of the spotlight. Yet motherhood is one of her favorite topics. “When things get hard, whenever I veer toward cynicism, my three kids are such a great reminder of pure joy in my life,” she says. “Having kids is everything. I want to be a good role model, and I want to produce content that doesn’t embarrass them but makes them proud.”
Best advice
Kaling says her best life advice is not to be your own roadblock. “There are a lot of people who will stand in your way,” she reasons. “Don’t be one of them.”