Rushi Kota and Eva Bourne star in Hallmark Channel’s first Indian-American rom-com, “Make Me a Match.”
The two actors star as Boom and Vivi, who meet when Vivi signs up for Boom’s matchmaking service. They initially have very different views on love but slowly grow fonder of each other.
TV Fanatic talked to Rushi and Eva about the movie, including Indian matchmaking, their characters’ meet cute, and many entertaining behind-the-scenes moments. Check it out below.
Hi Rushi and Eva. It’s good to see you both. Tell me what inspired you to participate in Hallmark’s Make Me A Match.
Eva: Nikhil S. Jayaram wrote a unique script. I remember reading it, and Hallmark has some great content. However, this just read a bit differently. When I read it, I laughed out loud immediately, and I could tell he put himself in there.
There were some unique qualities of the writer there, which I appreciated and excited me to work with him and meet him. It also seemed entertaining, something different, and I’m always game for something more diverse as well. I was excited to work with Hallmark again too.
Rushi: I agree with Eva. The script was unique. I always wanted to do a rom-com, and I thought the script was incredibly entertaining, and I loved the twist of Indian matchmaking and American dating.
It was also my first lead in a movie, and I was excited that this South Asian story was being told on a mainstream platform like Hallmark.
I know this is your first Hallmark film, Rushi, and you’re well-known to Hallmark, Eva. So, what was your favorite part of your characters?
Rushi: I can go first: I loved my character’s spontaneous, playful, and sarcastic nature. I loved that underneath all of the masks he carries throughout the movie, there were some underlying challenges he had to overcome to move forward. That was fun to play.
Eva: I could visually see the arc, especially when I read the script. I appreciated that there was such a change for her. Again, as Rushi said, there are a lot of coping mechanisms going on with Vivi’s character, which Nikhil writes eloquently. I was excited about that.
I am interested in human behavior, what makes people do what they do, and how they operate. I could see a lot of myself in her as well. She is similar to Boom as well and is pretty spicy. She likes to share her opinion about things, which I see as spicy.
I want to play more characters unsure of every aspect of themselves. However, they have a strong viewpoint on how they would like to go through the world. So, I appreciated that.
It looks like you guys had a lot of fun working together in this Hallmark movie.
Rushi: No fun was had in the making of this movie at all. Eva came to set every day so serious, and I said, hey, we have to lighten up the mood for everyone else working on this project.
Is he always that sarcastic?
Eva: I’m probably more sarcastic than he is, but it was super fun to work with Rushi; I always enjoy lots of laughing every day. Many spontaneous mischievous things were happening daily, which could sometimes be irritating. I’m not going to lie.
I’m like Vivi because I’m schedule-oriented, and Rushi’s more like, let’s see what we can do. I think we’re similar to our characters. We both have very long-term relationships, unique for someone our age. So, having that similarity as actors and in our personal lives was nice.
We had lots of fun together, throwing the schedule off.
Rushi: Totally. I love throwing the schedule off and seeing how much trouble we can get into.
Eva: I’m going to tell a story. We were filming in a park, and we had to go and change for the next scene. So, we were changing in an adjacent building to where we were shooting, and it happened to be a lawn bowling place.
As I’m changing, I can hear Rushi giggling to himself, and I listen to him speaking to this woman, asking if we’re filming there. He responded that his co-star was changing right then and was a competitive lawn bowler and would love to show them the ropes.
He said his co-star would love to teach them new moves, and I could hear him. I came out, and immediately I saw Rushi with a massive smile, and he told me how he boasted about my lawn bowling skills.
I apologized to this poor woman. However, we played lawn bowling or were shown how to throw the ball. This threw us off our filming schedule a bit. Rushi loosens me up a bit, and I feel like I tightened him.
Rushi: We yin and yang each other well.
That was a fun story. So, is Indian matchmaking true to Indian culture?
Rushi: We had a cultural consultant on set named Lena, whom we could consult with. We got everything in the movie accurate to how things are when someone is getting match made.
Eva: When I was researching, there were many more mixers. It isn’t specific dates that were set up initially, anyway.
Rushi: When matchmaking happens, you try it. You pick your initial match and then try it with that person briefly. If that doesn’t work, it doesn’t happen all consecutively. So, there would be a specific time to try it with the person and then move on to the next person.
Eva: It wouldn’t be quite as full-fledged as what Vivi went through
Rushi: We ran against the clock to get the results in for Data Mate as quickly as possible.
Great points. How important do you think the parents’ past history is when couples are trying to find love?
Eva: Pretty important. You’re your own individual, aside from your parents, but within Indian matchmaking, families need harmony, not so much in Western culture.
Rushi: I agree with Eva. Matching families is vital to a relationship’s success. As Eva said, the families need to get along well for the couple to have harmony. On the other side, to play devil’s advocate, we are our own people. We make our own decisions.
It could also work the other way, even if the families didn’t get along and two people loved each other. They get together, and they make it work.
Eva: Obviously, in the storyline, some issues are resolved that allow them to get to a place with more harmony. Even in real life, not everyone will always get along, and you have to find some level of respect for people, even if you don’t agree with them entirely on everything, because you’re not going to.
We’re all different people in the world. There has to be love and respect as long as you have that, even though there may be disputes in the family dynamics. I’m sure there always are in all family dynamics. You can make many situations work.
Absolutely. Most couples have a meet cute nowadays. Do you think Boom and Vivi have one in the film?
Eva: We do have one. It’s slightly different from a normal meet-cute because they do not get along initially. They do not see eye to eye like we’re just talking about. But there is a level of respect, so they can work things through to get to the point where they can see each other a bit clearer.
Vivi has this regimented schedule during her day. She goes to the fountain outside of her work and makes a wish. By chance, a moving vehicle comes along and honks its horn. Vivi accidentally flips the coin she is about to flip into this fountain to make a wish, and it goes off the rails and hits this lovely human in the head.
It took a long time to get that shot, but we finally did when it nailed him in the head. He turns around, and she apologizes to this poor man. Then, she returns to what she was doing previously and her daily routine.
Boom observes her and thinks the wishing well tradition is odd. He calls her out, and she explains, “This is how I do it. He tries suggesting doing things differently from time to time, and she disagrees with this.
They reach this point in this conversation where they realize their ideas of love and how to find love disagree. Then, she runs away, and he gets a taco from the food truck, and they go on with their day.
I thought that was very cute. Without spoiling too much, what parts of the movie do you think the fans will love?
Rushi: There’s so much to love about the film. The movie moves quickly and gives you much information. The fans will enjoy the banter and the chemistry between Boom and Vivi.
The other main character is Raina, who is Boom’s mom. The relationship between her and Vivi and the relationship between Raina and Boom is something that the audience will enjoy.
Eva: I would say the same thing. The relationship between Raina and Vivi builds and is quite remarkable, especially at the end. But there are so many touching moments between Boom and Raina. Many Hallmark audiences appreciate those touching real-life moments.
There are many scenes with Neela, who is so funny. I always love an excellent friendship dynamic, and that is there. So, they’ll appreciate that.
There’s so much that the fans will appreciate about the film. It’s a rapid story. It’s jam-packed. I think that the fans love the wedding.
It’s tastefully done and exceptionally different than any wedding that Hallmark has done. So, I’m very excited about that. And I think everyone will love the wedding.
Make Me A Match premieres on the Hallmark Channel at 8/7c on Saturday, June 24.
Come back for our movie review after it airs!
Laura Nowak is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.