It was a desi queen love fest on Lilly Singh's eagerly awaited late show debut - with the South Asian comedy powerhouse Mindy Kaling starring as first guest.
The pair bantered on screen, with Kaling telling Singh she was "so proud of her" and thrilled at her ascent as the first woman of colour to front a late show on mainstream US television.
"You are killing it. Has NBC ever had this many Indian women one at one time?" Kaling joked.
"Only for you would I be here at 1:30 in the morning. I don’t know who is minding my child and I don’t care," she laughed.
The presenter of NBC's A Little Late With Lilly Singh rose to fame after cultivating a 14-million strong following on her YouTube channel. She celebrated her debut with an Instagram rap video, featuring her chopping up corporate men in a boardroom and defiantly placing her portrait next to the 'white Jimmy's' of NBC.
The show represents a melding of old media and new - with snippets of the show premiering on YouTube. The streaming giant also initially provided a free link to the episode for Singh's online international fan base before NBC swooped in with a sign-in wall.
Kaling, creator of the hit comedy the The Mindy Project, and star of Late Night co-starring Emma Thompson - a film centred around a trailblazing female late-show host, said she was often asked about Lilly during the press for the film.
"You would come up all the time. And we would talk about all the late night talk show hosts who look kind of all the same and then I would bring up Lilly Singh and they would be like, ‘Isn’t that so exciting another Indian woman on TV?
"And I’d be like there can only be one! I’m not happy about it," Kaling joked.
Kaling said she couldn't wait for her daughter to grow up watching Singh on television.
As a fan of both women, it's incredible to see a show with women who look like you making jokes about desi bling and South Asian life on television, centred as host and guest. It's a moment that did not go unremarked by Kaling.
"It’s thrilling if I had seen you growing up. I was already obsessed with late night TV but it was a love that didn’t love me back."
"Thanks dede – this is like a family reunion!" Singh joked, referring to Kaling as the Hindi word for 'older sister'.
"That’s how we feel about you. You paved the path for so many people like me."
The pair joked about being kitted out in Indian wedding colours of purple and red to celebrate the occasion.
"We did bring the Indian colours – I didn’t wear tan," Kaling joked.
"This is the closest to the wedding lengha I’m going to get – let’s be real," Singh rejoined.
To see South Asian women in entertainment centre-stage, being fully themselves, mediating their own voices unfiltered and bringing a fresh voice to a stale formula is thrilling.
