March 16th, 2020 
Jackson Murphy 
Mira, Royal Detective is Disney’s latest fun for the whole family animated series. It premieres this Friday March 20th at 11amET on Disney Channel and 7pmET on Disney Junior. Series Developer Becca Topol and EP Sascha Paladino can’t wait for audiences to fall in love with “Mira”, and they’re thrilled the show has already been renewed for a second season.
Becca Topol: Everybody’s working so hard on the team. We’re getting an incredible amount of support from Disney. That’s amazing.
Sascha Paladino: This would of Jalpur is so rich that it’s great that we know we can keep telling stories because there are so many more stories to tell. We spent the first season creating these characters that hopefully kids will want to spend a lot of time with – and we love spending time with and making up stories for. It’s great to know that we’ll have a chance to do more.
Jackson Murphy: What was the overall inspiration for the show?
BT: The overall inspiration is the heart of the show, which is Mira. Disney approached me to develop the show a few years ago. I love doing a female detective – a strong role model. When I started developing it from the beginning, I put a lot of thought into, “Okay – what makes her character really special? And what do I want to see in her?” To me, it’s bigger than just being a detective and following clues, it’s about the way she approaches life and her relationship to other people. I see Mira as something I strive to be in my life: somebody who pays attention to the world around her. She notices things, and she notices what other people are going through and what their needs are.
JM: And this story of a young girl solving cases, finding clues and allowing children to follow along and assist is really strong when it comes to child engagement.
SP: We wanted to make sure kids would fall in love with these characters, but also that these mysteries were… clear enough that kids could figure some of them out by themselves. But we also like some of the mysteries to have a twist that you don’t see coming. We don’t want kids to always know what’s gonna happen, but we like to throw in some curveballs. We read tons of mysteries when we started writing the show. We read mysteries for kids and adults and did a deep dive into what works for mystery stories. And those surprises are such a big part of mysteries, so we wanted to make sure that the show was full of surprises.
JM: And Mira is so confident. She gets appointed by the Queen to solve these cases. She doesn’t doubt herself. She knows what she has to do. Was one of your goals to show that kids should learn themes of owning up to things and confidence and responsibility?
BT: Absolutely. I’m so glad that you observe that as a point. Mira is very passionate about solving mysteries. She loves the challenge of it. She geeks out on it – it’s her thing. Before the Queen approached her, she was already doing it. She was going around and helping her friends and everyone in the community. The Queen noticed her. Mira would solve a mystery on any day even if the Queen hadn’t appointed her Royal Detective. That’s part of the quality of her. She’s embracing her gift.
JM: I love that Mira’s recaps – her flashbacks – are hand-drawings in her notebook.
SP: That was a really specific choice because we wanted to… give you a glimpse into Mira’s head. We call them the “Mira Moments” – when we go into the notebook and see her thought process for what probably happened. And it’s tricky with preschool… I’ve been writing for preschool audiences for a long time now, and one of the things I’ve learned is that it’s really hard to do flashbacks for preschoolers. They’re so in the moment when they’re watching something. If you jump back and forth in time, it can be a little confusing because everything’s just moving forward in their minds. Using these hand-drawn images both gave us a peek into Mira’s thought process and really seemed to suit our audience. They’re flashbacks without flashbacks.
JM: How was it working on this first season balancing all the different characters and the storylines?
BT: It’s been an amazing process because when it comes to the storylines, there’s so much of Mira’s core team: Neel, who’s gonna provide the gadgets. [Mongeese] Mikku and Chikku are there to sniff out the clues and hopefully not eat all of them. And all of her experts come in to give her advice. Priya is an artist. And Mira is close with her family and the whole town. People know her and go to her.
JM: You showcase the beauty of the Indian culture through the characters and the scenery and the outfits. What kinds of research did you do?
SP: We did tons of research. Some of us on the team were lucky enough to go to India, which was amazing and take in the sights and explore. But of course the Internet is also useful for research. And then a big part of it too is making sure we have a lot of South Asians on our crew. It was always important to us that South Asian voices were represented in this show as much as possible and that’s been the case from the writing to the music to the choreography to the art. Making sure that it’s a true collaboration that expresses the culture. We’re trying to celebrate a culture that’s not my own, but I’m running this show, so one of my decisions was making sure we elevated as many South Asian voices as possible.
I’m glad you felt the culture come through. We want it to come through both in big ways, like the holiday episodes that we do that are based on South Asian holidays – but also little moments like interactions between characters. The way that the kids call adults “Auntie” or “Uncle” – that’s a very South Asian thing to do. We wanted to weave those elements into the fabric of the show to make it feel as authentic as possible.
JM: And with the music and dancing as well.
SP: Oh, yeah. From the very beginning, we knew that music and dance would need to be an essential part of the show. And it’s true with any culture, right? That music and dance express that culture in unique ways. It’s so beautiful in Indian culture. And one of the things we do with music is we make sure that we use as many live musicians as possible. There’s really nothing like hearing a Tabla [drum] be played by a live musician. And then working with a South Asian choreographer (Nakul Dev Mahajan) has been really amazing – making sure that we get these moves exactly right. When we animate them, he and his assistant will choreograph them, and our storyboard artists will copy their moves. (And it’s a really big hallmark of Bollywood movies, which we’re really inspired by.)
BT: So much research goes into the music and the dance. We have amazing consultants on the show. We have a cultural consultant from India. She works with us on all the storylines and the music.
JM: Kal Penn and Utkarsh Ambudkar, who just did the rap in the middle of the Oscars, each voice a mongoose – Mikku and Chikku. Do they do their scenes together in the voice booth?
SP: (laughs) That’s a great question. They’re both so busy and so amazing that it’s very difficult to get them in the same place at the same time. Out of all the 25 episodes in Season 1, they’ve only done one episode together. But it’s a testament to how talented they are. Even when they’re not playing off of each other, their acting is so good that when we cut it together, it feels that they are playing off of each other. And they have a rapport even when they’re not in the same time or space continuum. They both blow us away constantly. And one of the great things about working with them, as you saw from Utkarsh’s Oscars rap, is that he and Kal are great improvisers. They’ll really add to the scenes we write, and so many of the funny moments come from them.
JM: Neel, one of Mira’s friends, has all these great inventions. What stands out to you?
BT: I love his flycycle. I love the way he goes around in that. He’s got his special features in that. The flycycle just gets the job done. And the directors shot it really well. The animators and the board artists always make it look good when you see it flying overhead.
SP: We have a big list. I think we’ve lost count because we have so many inventions. But that’s one of the fun things we get to do in the writers’ room is brainstorm different inventions for Neel. One of the things he likes to do is take something that already exists and put his own spin on it. The flycycle is a great example of that.
JM: And in “The Case of the Royal Scarf”, there’s a point where a bunch of goats appear. And you seem to make all the goats look different.
BT: I will give full and utter credit to our amazing art director and our board artists. One of the main goals that I personally had behind the show was to bring life to everyone, including all the animals. They all have very strong personalities.
JM: How has it been also working with Disney Channel India?
SP: I believe it’s the first time that a show has premiered simultaneously on Disney Junior in the U.S. and in India. It’s really exciting. One big part of that to us is that idea of collaboration. This show wouldn’t be what it is without true collaboration. We have been working with a studio in India, Technicolor, to do the actual animation. Because it’s about Indian culture, our Indian animators add so much to the show. They give suggestions. They made it clear how meaningful this show is to them. The idea that they’re working on a show that will represent their culture… it’s very important and special. They see it as a big responsibility, as do we, to make a show that is going to represent their culture and put it out in the world.
JM: What has been the most rewarding part of this experience?
BT: The relationship the team has with one another. We’ve grown really close in working on this. I enjoy hearing the writers’ stories. I’m thrilled that people have their favorite characters and want to see [certain things]. We’re doing a riff on a Hitchcock movie, “Rear Window”. Mira sprained her ankle. She’s gotta solve a mystery with the help of her friends. Everything that the team has brought to the show has been so rewarding.
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