In 2025, Poorna Jagannathan stole the show as Lucky Auntie — the razor-sharp matriarch, criminal mastermind, and reluctant caretaker — pulling the strings from behind the scenes of the DarCo crime family. This year, she is back with an even bigger and badder role in Season 2 of the hit Hulu crime comedy ‘Deli Boys’. Played with chaotic brilliance by Jagannathan, Lucky has always occupied a fascinating space between a maternal figure and a menace: a woman who keeps the family business running while simultaneously cleaning up the messes left behind by the men around her.
This season, however, Lucky steps out of the shadows and into the spotlight. As new alliances, romantic entanglements, and power struggles threaten to reshape the Dar empire, Lucky finds herself confronting questions of ambition, vulnerability, and what she truly wants beyond protecting the family empire she helped build.
In conversation with Homegrown, Poorna Jagannathan speaks about Lucky’s evolution from kingmaker to queen regent, the surprising romance with SNL alum Fred Armisen’s casino mogul Max Sugar, balancing comedy with emotional depth, and why the season’s cliffhanger ending sets up the show for even more unapologetically desi storytelling in the future:
When we spoke about Season 1, you said that what unlocked Lucky for you was finding her nurturing side — inspired by a Parsi mother caring for her grown sons. In Season 2, Lucky becomes even more powerful and central to the story. How has that balance between caretaker and crime boss evolved now that she’s no longer operating from the shadows?
I think that duality — mothering and menacing — is where the real comedy of Lucky lies. And that thread is very present throughout this new season. It’s shifted slightly — instead of hiding her power from the boys to protect them and keep them in the dark, Lucky’s prowess is on full display. She is always the smartest person in every room, the strongest, and, consistently, the most unhinged. Playing her is a literal dream come true — I’ve never had more fun in my entire career. And I think the chemistry that the cast has and the sense that we are having the time of our lives really comes through.
You also described Lucky as a culmination of the women in the writers’ room — women who do the work while often making the men around them look good. This season, Lucky seems less interested in supporting the men in her life and more interested in pursuing her own ambitions. Do you see Season 2 as a shift in how she understands and exercises power?
I think she is less encumbered by controlling men this season and is really allowed to be in charge. She is ambitious, but actually this season, she’s burnt out — she has been hitting the pavement hard, looking after these two incompetent dumb-asses. That’s why when casino mogul Max Sugar enters the picture promising her a more luxurious life, she takes the bait. This season, she thinks she might want out, but by the end of the season, we see that she wants in more than ever. And she really steps up and embraces the role of mothering these two idiots.
One of the most unexpected developments this season is Lucky’s relationship with Max Sugar. Unlike the Dar brothers, who often depend on her, Max is one of the few people who can genuinely match her intelligence, ruthlessness, and unpredictability. What interested you the most about exploring that relationship, and what new sides of Lucky did that dynamic allow you to explore?
I think Lucky has to get vulnerable this season, and that’s really hard for her. She really wants this toxic relationship to work, but she has to sacrifice the thing that’s most important to her: the boys. The showrunner, Michelle Nader, actually wrote this arc to mirror how hard it is to date as a single mom and the compromises you are asked to make along the way. But it lends itself to so much comedy — the fact that two ruthless gangsters are in therapy, holding the therapist hostage, is one of my favourite scenes.
Without spoiling anything, the season ends on a major cliffhanger. Looking at where Lucky began in Season 1 — as Baba Dar’s trusted lieutenant and a maternal figure to Raj and Mir — how do you think the events of Season 2 have changed her, and what excites you most about where she could go next?
I absolutely LOVED the way Season 2 ended — it opens that gateway for so much more unapologetic brownness. The ending suggests that there is this whole second family Baba had, and they are going to pose a major threat to the Dars. Imagine all the brown guest stars we can have! We are heavily pitching Malala, Shah Rukh Khan, and Ben Kingsley! I think Lucky might have a lot more to navigate next season, and we might see her having to straddle her old world and new world more.
Deli Boys Season 2 is now streaming on JioHotstar in India.
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The Un-Model Minority: Poorna Jagannathan On Deli Boys’ Subversive South Asian Vision
The Sounds That Run Through Deli Boys: Spotlighting Homegrown Artists
Maya Kurian Has ‘Something To Prove’: The Diaspora & Its Discontent