Jhumpa Lahiri’s award-winning short story collection is coming to Netflix as a drama series. 3 Body Problem’s Madhuri Shekar adapts the beloved text for the screen, with an ensemble cast led by Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire) and Siddharth (Chithha, Rang De Basanti, Bommarillu). Indraneil Sengupta, Adi Roy, Iyla Sundarsingh McKaig, Sarayu Blue, Justin Bartha, Jayant Kripalani, Parveen Kaur, Swayam Bhatia, and Palomi Ghosh also help bring Lahiri’s rich cast of characters to life.
Inspired by the internationally beloved bestseller of the same name, Unaccustomed Earth is an epic, soapy drama about an immigrant community navigating love, desire, and belonging, with Pinto at the center as Parul Chaudhury. When a star-crossed romance between a devoted wife and her long-lost love (played by Siddharth) comes to light, a scandalous affair is born, and new battle lines are drawn in the elite, insular Indian American community of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Rich with passion and unforgettable characters, Shekar’s series is an intimate look inside a tight-knit community — keep reading to learn everything there is to know about the upcoming adaptation.
Wealthy, beautiful, and sophisticated, Parul (Pinto) is the kind of woman who lights up a room and can’t help but be the center of attention. She grew up in India and moved to America to go to Harvard. She has played the role of the perfect wife and mother for 16 years, but when she’s diagnosed with breast cancer, she uproots her whole family under the guise of getting the best medical care. Really, it’s because she wants to reconnect with the love of her life, the one she never got over.
Amit Mukherjee (Siddharth) is a warmhearted Bengali American man, born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who wears his emotions openly and gives of himself freely, sometimes to his own detriment. The friend everyone turns to in a crisis, he’s dependable in moments of need, but struggles to find stability in work or love. Just as his latest relationship begins to feel promising, his carefully balanced world unravels with the unexpected return of Parul, his long-lost love.
Ambitious and very successful, Jai Chaudhury (Sengupta) is an aerospace engineer who approaches every problem in his life like a math problem to be solved. Born and raised in India, he moved to Boston for grad school at MIT but never felt at home in America — he was thrilled when work brought him back to Mumbai. When his wife, Parul, is diagnosed with cancer and they move back to Boston for her treatment, he finds himself homesick for Mumbai, and struggling to keep it together in a city he hates.
Smart, handsome, athletic Kaushik (Roy) is Parul and Jai’s child, who has always been a good son. But when his parents move him from Boston to Mumbai and back to Boston in the span of six years, he begins to feel like he has no say in his own life.
Ruma (Blue) is a self-assured and ambitious Bengali American mother who is the steadfast breadwinner of her family. An accomplished attorney with uncompromising standards, she balances the chaos of a household full of dreamers and artists with unshakable practicality. Her warm smile masks the quiet strain of carrying more than her share, a truth few ever notice.
Adam Weiss (Bartha) is Ruma’s husband. A sci-fi author and a proud stay-at-home dad to Hema, Adam loves his family, and despite his artistic dreaminess, can often be the grounding voice of reason to his high-powered wife and emotional 16-year-old daughter.
Bright, talkative, a voracious reader, and a bit of a nerd, Hema (Sundarsingh Mckaig) is Ruma and Adam’s child. With a Bengali mom and American Jewish dad, she never quite knows where she fits in. Her outcast status has never really bothered her until she falls hard for the cool new boy in school and becomes obsessed with making him want her back.
Pranab Mukherjee (Kripalani) is a Bengali Marxist who immigrated to the United States in his 20s. A retired professor, Pranab now spends his days enjoying his garden, his family, and his books. When his wife passed away a year ago, Pranab thought he would be on his own forever, but he unexpectedly and inexplicably falls in love with a new woman and is hiding it from his disapproving children.
Nina Singh (Kaur) is a brilliant and driven Harvard med student with both beauty and ambition, on her way to being valedictorian. Newly engaged to the man of her dreams, Amit, she’s determined to build a perfect life. When doubts arise, she realizes her fiancé may not be the man she thought she knew.
Sudha Menon (Bhatia) is Hema’s best friend and confidant. She is funny, confident, queer, and has never had an opinion she would not share.
Anjali Menon (Ghosh) is the formidable dance teacher to the local Indian community, and one of Ruma’s close friends. She lost her husband a decade ago, and has built back her life, her work, and her place in this community inch by inch, with tenacious grit. She has a rocky, combative relationship with her kids, but is genuinely trying her best.
Ushering the stories to the screen are John Wells (The Pitt, Shameless, ER), who executive produces via his John Wells Productions overall deal with Warner Bros. Television, and Shekar (The Nevers), who showruns and executive produces. Lahiri, Nisha Ganatra (Freakier Friday, Late Night), Erica Saleh, Erin Jontow, and Celia Costas all serve as executive producers. Ritesh Batra executive produces and directs the first two of the eight episodes.
Unaccustomed Earth reunites Netflix, Wells, and Warner Bros. Television, following the critically acclaimed show Maid and the hit limited series UNTAMED.
Unaccustomed Earth will come out on Netflix in 2026. Stay tuned to Tudum for updates.
