Vishal Vaidya on Broadway, Approval, & What He’d Tell Young Brown Kids
This conversation is part of the Brown Voices project, featuring conversations with South Asian Americans living lives that defy the stereotype of what “success” is supposed to look like for us. Their stories are shared here to inspire the next generation to imagine a wider sense of what is possible.
In Brown communities, the stories we hear about success are often narrow: a specific kind of job, a specific kind of achievement, a specific kind of life that signals to everyone around you that you’ve MADE it.
But what does it look like to spend decades in one of the most approval-dependent fields in existence — and slowly stop chasing that approval?
That’s some of what I talked about with my childhood friend Vishal Vaidya: Broadway actor, performer, voice teacher when we caught up this week for the first time in nearly a decade.
Vishal has performed in Groundhog Day and Merrily We Roll Along on Broadway (the latter now streaming on Netflix via Sony Classics Pictures), worked with actors including Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe, and Lindsay Mendez, and performed at The Old Globe Theater as Ajit in the Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge musical, Come Fall in Love. He currently stars in the world premiere of The Lunchbox at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and runs a private voice teaching practice. He has also partnered with Broadway for Arts Education, a nonprofit bringing arts programming to underserved communities.
I spoke with him about building a creative life on your own terms, the model minority myth’s quiet grip on how we were raised to think about achievement, and what he’d tell the young Brown kids sitting in those same classrooms now. Watch our conversation on YouTube (or listen on Spotify).
When Vishal and I talked in 2017, he was fresh off his first Broadway show and running at full sprint. Nearly a decade later—during which he’s done a ton of incredible work, come out publicly, and gotten married—his relationship to success looks different. I asked him what success means to him today.
With my career, success is about finding joy in the work I’m doing on the day… But what I’ve learned is to trust my gut — and leading with that is what success means to me.
Vishal Vaidya
We also talked about how instead of chasing accolades, he’s now chasing alignment, which has also given him the ability to say no.
Vishal Vaidya on approval-seeking, and unlearning it
Vishal works in a field built on other people giving you approval and opportunities—auditioning, being evaluated, being selected or rejected. We spent a long time on how you navigate a life like that without losing your own sense of who you are.
I got to a point where I was like, I can’t seek approval from others. I have to lead with approval of myself… If you’re seeking approval, you’re going to want to be nice so that people will like you, but actually that might diffuse the work you’re actually doing.
Vishal Vaidya
That reframed has allowed Vishal to move with self-assuredness. He walks into an audition now with a sense of “here’s what I have to offer,” rather than “please approve of me” — which means the roles he is offered (and those he accepts) are in alignment with what he has to offer.
Opportunities need to be in alignment for me. That’s not true for everyone. But for me, it’s the alignment — and it’s allowed me to say no to more things, which is great.
On the model minority myth, and what school didn’t teach him
We talked briefly about the model minority myth, and on what’s expected of South Asian American kids. He shared that despite having been a good student, his chasing teacher approval came at a cost:
Academic success has so little to do with life. I know so many people who maybe got Bs and Cs in school but are able to go about so much of life with their own willpower, whereas I spent a long time not having frameworks for what I actually need to succeed, because I was always chasing the deadline, the teacher’s approval.
Vishal on South Asian representation in theater, and what The Lunchbox means
Vishal reflected on what’s changed in his field. When we first talked in 2017, the landscape for South Asian actors in musical theater was genuinely narrow, and that’s changed:
Post-pandemic, there are all these younger actors who are Brown, who sing, who dance, who are so talented, who are funny. And it’s been really cool to witness.
Vishal Vaidya
Vishal is currently in The Lunchbox, a world premiere musical at Berkeley Repertory Theatre based on Ritesh Batra’s 2013 film, running through July 12. The show demands a niche and intensive skill set, that Vishal says could only happen now—years ago, there might not even have been a large enough talent pool to draw from. But he’s still waiting for the “big commercial thing”—a long-running Broadway production that could serve as a training ground for South Asian artists the way Wicked or Book of Mormon has for other communities.
But he’s no longer holding his breath for it to validate him.
“Creativity is a way of life”—what he’d tell creative South Asian American kids
Vishal offered some genuinely surprising words of advice to young, creative South Asian American kids:
The path doesn’t have to be solely a creative path to be creative. Creativity is a way of life, not necessarily a path of monetization or a job path. Do it all and see what your instincts tell you is the right path.
Vishal Vaidya
He pointed to people in his own cast at The Lunchbox: an actor who completed medical school before deciding he wanted to perform; their music director, who was a lawyer before.
When you’re young, putting pressure on yourself to decide what you’re going to do for the rest of your life is not fair to you. Your identity is so expansive. Find creativity in everything you do.
Vishal Vaidya
What he wishes educators knew about their Brown students
It’s not either or — it’s yes and. Coming from Brown cultures does not mean you’re not American. It just means you have two cultures. And it’s a gift, actually, to have both. In learning about the cultures of your students, you might be helping everyone. It’s an asset to everyone to learn about everyone’s cultures.
Vishal Vaidya
This conversation is part of the Be Inspired archive, a series of profiles and conversations with South Asian Americans living lives that defy the stereotype of what “success” is supposed to look like for us. Snippets of this and other conversations will appear in Brown Voices: South Asian American Experiences in Schools, rereleasing this fall.
The best way to make sure you don’t miss any of it, especially the preorder, is to sign up for my newsletter.
