It’s official: Deli Boys has been renewed for season 2! I recently had the chance to catch up with stars Asif Ali, Saagar Shaikh, and Poorna Jagannathan at the 2025 Disney Upfront red carpet about which shows they’d like to do a crossover with, the “joyous” set, and wardrobe details.

Deli Boys follows a pair of pampered Pakistani American brothers who lose everything and are forced to reckon with their Baba’s secret life of crime as they attempt to take up his mantle in the underworld.

First of all, congratulations on a successful first season. Can you tell me a little bit about what it means to each of you to be able to reprise your roles and grow with these characters, not only as an actor but as a person? There are so many times when you have to close the book too soon before you get to explore certain things.
Poorna Jagannathan: It is the honor of a lifetime for us to be on this particular set. It is nothing but a fantastic time. We’re all so bonded, we’re all family. Our set, I will tell you, is better than anyone else’s set, 100%.
Saagar Shaikh: It’s true.
Asif Ali: Joyous. The most joyous, fun, yeah.

Jagannathan: And I’ve worked on many sets, so have Asif and Saagar. It’s the most joyous, healthy, loving set you’ll ever be on, and it is slapstick comedy. Like, we are falling over ourselves laughing.
Shaikh: Yeah, you think the cast of The Bear is close? We’re closer.
Ali: Yeah, you don’t even know what close is.

Crossover?
Shaikh: That’d be cool if there were a crossover. They do shoot right across the hall from us, so we see each other all the time.
Jagannathan: We’ll be crossing over, we’re just not on camera. 
Shaikh: We’re not in the same city. They’re Chicago, we’re Philly.

We could take a trip.
Ali: We could take a trip.
Shaikh: We could, yeah.
Jagannathan: Show up with like a bag.
Ali: Yeah, a to-go bag.
Shaikh: An Abbott Elementary crossover would be cool.
Ali: An Abbott Elementary crossover would be good. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia would be a great crossover.

Is there one small detail that the audience wouldn’t notice that personally helps you get into character, or is significant to the character you’ve built? 
Ali: That’s a good question.
Jagannathan: For me, the wig is based on Zeenat Aman, who is a big ’70s Bollywood actress, and for whatever reason, Zeenat just ruled Bollywood; she was fierce and sexy, and just did her own thing. So that always helps me.
Ali: The best. Strong.

Shaikh: Yeah, for Raj, I think it’s all the heavy chains. When I put those heavy chains on, it’s not me anymore. It feels like this is a different dude, man, you know what I’m saying? 
Ali: Mine would be sort of like the pullover sweater, something that I would never wear in real life, something that a retired football player would wear while doing commentary, you know what I mean? It’s like a button-down with a pullover kind of thing. Yeah, I would never wear that in real life, but putting that on, when you wear something on a show that you normally would never wear in real life, it really does help kind of lock in the character.

Shaikh: The difference between Asif and Mir is the outfit and this.
Ali: Yeah, the strand, the hot strand.
Shaikh: Yeah, this hot strand. That’s truly the main difference, physically.
Ali: A slutty lock, if you will.
Jagannathan: Asif took nothing back home from wardrobe.

Shaikh: He told Cailey, our costume designer, “I want Mir to wear something Asif would never wear. I want to hate everything Mir wears.”
Ali: And she did such a good job.
Jagannathan: Yeah, she did. She brought it.
Ali: She really did such a good job. But then towards the end, when he kind of has his little change-up, whatever, there’s some really cool stuff. It was a great experience.

The first season is streaming on Hulu.