So, I knew that if we did a good job of making a film that doesn’t feel like a documentary and isn’t so Indian but still specifically our scenario, I knew Indians would be like ‘yeah this is worth my time.’”. Ravi Patel, is an actor based in the United States.As an actor, he is best known for his roles in American Housewife, Past Life, Grey's Anatomy and others alongside Melanie Griffith, Katy Mixon, Ellen Pompeo, Patrick Dempsey, etc. He said her reaction to the film was beyond perfect. Who Ravi ends up with in the film isn’t what matters. But after a while, their parents just allowed the project to continue without any real issue or extra attempts to pay attention to the camera. Geeta served as cinematographer, writer, producer, editor, and director of the film, alongside her brother. Viewers are likely to bring far more judgment and understanding to Ravi and his issues than the movie does. Kind of like the articles you read in The New York Times.”. Courtesy of Alchemy Geeta, a filmmaker, had recently finished a documentary project. Directed by Geeta Patel and Ravi Patel Finding one's soul mate is hard enough in this modern world. Oh, and her last name should be Patel because in India, Patels usually marry other Patels. The idea to film “Meet The Patels” came to the brother-sister dua when they were on a trip to India to look for an ideal wife for Ravi Patel. And that’s the kind of reality that needs to be portrayed more and more in mainstream films today both in Hollywood and the Indian film industry: Life isn’t always filled with tension between parents, and parents aren’t always so intolerant as they can appear onscreen. In MEET THE PATELS, Ravi Patel is an actor living in Los Angeles who has just broken up with his longtime girlfriend Audrey.This couldn't happen at a worse time, because Ravi is visiting India with his family, where his parents and extended family find it almost incomprehensible that, as a man about to turn 30, he isn't married. The siblings joked that the only thing their mom cared about was her physical appearance in the film. After a just-can’t-commit breakup, Indian-American comedian Ravi Patel throws in the towel and agrees to let his endearing parents create a “biodata” for him, officially putting him on the semi-arranged marriage market. It’s about the true meaning of culture, love, family and what one needs in a mate in order to have a fulfilling, real life. His sister, Geeta Patel, is a writer and director. She has a sister, Geeta Patel who is a film director and writer. Career Television and film He is also co-directing “One in a Billion” with his sister Geeta Patel. “It was almost as if we’d made the trip just to see them,” he says. At the same time, he cocks an American kid’s dubious, amused eye at the world of all-Patel marriage conventions, or the family-network exchange of “biodatas,” a sort of romance resume that spousal prospects and their families can use to evaluate his job, horoscope, caste, skin tone (“wheatish”), and parents’ address. She was born on December 22, 1975, and from Evanston, IL, she is 45 years old as of 2020. At first, the siblings attempted to make a film that was more scientific than personal. Ravi V. Patel, Geeta V. Patel, Champa V. Patel Genres Comedy, Documentary, International Subtitles English [CC] Audio languages English. How old is Geeta Patel? Still, the film does have the bouncy, scattered comic feel of a Spurlock project. “It was a life-changing experience,” Ravi said about making the film. In a scene from “Meet the Patels” Dad explains which area of Gujarat Ravi Patel should find a girl. She began her career as a screenwriter and worked for studios such as Disney and Twentieth Century Fox. Geeta, who now works as a film author and director, is a graduate of Duke University, where she studied Comparative Area Studies. Neither Ravi Patel, a 30 year old small-time upcoming actor, nor his sister are married, to the chagrin of his parents Vasant (Financial planner) and Champa (an accomplished match-maker and real estate agent), who had an arranged marriage. Meet the Patels is a 2014 American romantic comedy documentary film directed by siblings Geeta V. Patel and Ravi V. Patel. Actor Ravi Patel, who you may have seen in the TV shows “Master of None” or “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” found himself in that situation, though not just around the holidays. This doc captured so vividly the incredible pressure that Indian adults are under to get married. He calls it an all-access ticket to being treated as “unconditionally a part of the biggest family in the world.” As proof, he offers a funny, heart-warming story about how a road trip with his parents and sister became a lively inter-generational party when they happened to stop at a Tennessee motel run by other Patels. In his words, “The routine was killing in a way that I’ve never killed before, as if we were all survivors of the same war.” • Prior to MEET THE PATELS, Geeta spent 7 years working on “Project Kashmir,” a documentary covering this social and political war zone. Ravi Patel and his sister, Geeta, worked together on the documentary Meet the Patels, in which Ravi struggles to find a partner both he and his parents love. . Writer(s): Matthew Hamachek, Billy McMillin, Geeta Patel & Ravi Patel “If you wanted to get married you’d be married” The title Meet the Patels seemed strange for a movie about an almost-thirty year old Indian-American ( Ravi Patel ) allowing his parents to commence the process of an arranged marriage for him over the course of a year. This doc captured so vividly the incredible pressure that Indian adults are under to get married. Courtesy of Alchemy. Husband. “I think we just spent so much time making [the film] that they were just ready for it to be over, and they didn’t care,” Ravi said. And the courage to take a different path. His sister, Geeta Patel, is a writer and director. Courtesy of Alchemy View Slideshow 2 of 3 After a recent breakup with his long-term girlfriend, Ravi Patel decides to go along with his parents desire to find him love. It’s not about Ravi finding love through using biodatas and going on fixed dates through his parents. However, Ravi has been, without his parents' knowledge, dating Audrey, a red-headed American woman, and Ravi recently broke up with her. Part home movie, and part romantic comedy, Meet the Patels is a documentary crafted by brother-sister team Ravi V. Patel and Geeta V. Patel. Geeta married Mukesh Patel . “Real life is a lot funnier than movies.” This statement could not be truer for the new documentary, Meet The Patels, and its filmmakers, siblings Geeta and Ravi Patel. Geeta added: “We’d say ‘Ma we told you,’ and she’d’ say ‘Yeah, but I didn’t think you were really going to.’”. But for Meet The Patels co-director and subject Ravi Patel, a first-generation American actor who was 29 when he and his filmmaker sister Geeta first started shooting their home-movie-turned-comic-documentary, the name means a lot more. Like so many families, the extended Patel clan has its positives and negatives. Because if we went in the journalistic direction it would actually probably become the common cliche. The main disadvantage seems to be that “When are you going to get married?” isn’t an intimate nuclear-family question, but a broad, insistent, culture-wide concern, an excuse for every Patel they meet to scold them for being single, then offer to set them up with instant spouses. Also Read - “Meet the Patels”: In search of a desi bride. This doc captured so vividly the incredible pressure that Indian adults are under to get married. He got married to his wife Mahaley Patel. “It started with them not taking us seriously as filmmakers, thinking the video camera was insignificant,” Ravi said. The documentary was one of the most-watched documentaries of that year (2014). “So it just started going in that direction. This is especially true if your family really wants you to get married. Geeta and Ravi are the unmarried children of Vasant and Champa Patel. It all began when Ravi Patel, a 30-year-old Indian-American investment banker turned Hollywood actor, pestered by his parents on a long flight to India to get married, agreed to … Published Date: September 29, 2015 4:01 AM IST, Updated Date: September 29, 2015 4:03 AM IST. The Patel subcastes, the Indian-American marriage network, and Ravi and Geeta’s family are all highly specific environments, and the film offers a peek inside for outsiders. The film is more about Ravi navigating an emotional crisis by broadening his horizons, examining the tension between his American heritage and his Indian roots around the question of how to find love and happiness, and accepting that maybe there’s some merit to longstanding traditions and his parents’ old-fashioned values. His father is a financial consultant and mother is a real estate agent. Born on 18th December 1978, the 39-year-old is a married man, and his wife's name is Mahaley Patel. The film explores the expectations surrounding marriage in the Patels' first-generation Indian immigrant family and in wider American society. Geeta and her brother, Ravi V. Patel, were nominated for an Emmy for their film Meet The Patels. Join Facebook to connect with Geeta V. Patel and others you may know. “I’ve seen a lot of Indian Diaspora films that deal with this subject, and the parents are often like monsters or weird or so old school. All Rights Reserved. But the film’s value may lie more in the entertaining ways it reveals how, regardless of all those specifics, some familiar emotions run through family connections in general. Geeta and her brother, Ravi V. Patel, were nominated for an Emmy for their film Meet The Patels. His ideal bride is beautiful, smart, funny, family-oriented, kind and—in keeping with tradition—Indian (though hopefully raised in the US). In his words, “The routine was killing in a way that I’ve never killed before, as if we were all survivors of the same war.” • Prior to MEET THE PATELS, Geeta spent 7 years working on “Project Kashmir,” a documentary covering this social and political war zone. We just had disagreements on how to get to this commonplace.”. Ravi Patel has a sister named Geeta Patel. Meet the Patels releases this September 11th and we had the chance to chat with siblings Ravi and Geeta about this hilarious new documentary.The film-making duo created this lively film surrounding their family and about Ravi’s love life. Geeta V. Patel bio. Ravi Patel has a sister named Geeta Patel. Given the chance to make Meet The Patels a fearless exploration of his hang-ups, he deflects with stand-up-style humor and distracting detail. Patel is married to actress Mahaley Patel with whom he has a daughter named Amelie. 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