‘Champions’: Mindy Kaling On Playing J.J. Totah’s Mom On The NBC Comedy

Mindy Kaling currently recurs as Priya Patel on NBC’s “Champions.” While Kaling enjoys playing J.J. Totah’s onscreen mom on the show, it appears that the “Mindy Project” star has no intention of becoming a series regular on the comedy series anytime soon.

In a recent interview with Variety, Kaling was asked if she would consider having a bigger role in future seasons of “Champions.” Though the Emmy nominee didn’t answer the question directly, she did say that she “would for sure come back and do more” but seemingly not as a permanent fixture on the show.

“Because the cast is so funny, to my chagrin, I’m going to have to step back a little bit so [the audience] gets to love the ensemble characters,” Kaling said. “Then I’ll slip in and out when they need me.”

After all, Kaling told Entertainment Weekly last month that “the world of the show is better without her [character] around.” “I would love to be on the show more — I love playing Priya so much, she’s such a dork,” Kaling added. “But I just really wanted to do something where I could enjoy it without the scrutiny that I have when I’m the lead [on ‘The Mindy Project’]. As a narcissistic actress, you really can’t look at things the same way when you’re the lead; I wanted to enjoy this without feeling self-conscious.”

Kaling also admitted to Collider that she hasn’t really thought that much about Priya yet. “She’s such a small part of the show,” the actress said of her character. “The show is so much about this group of people [working on the titular gym]. But, she’s fun because she’s completely opposite from me. She doesn’t have a ton of money, she works really, really hard, and the way she’s decided to raise her kid is because she’s doing it by herself. They’re best friends. It’s great when Michael has this new situation because he gets a lot of structure in his life.”

Another reason Kaling was not in every episode of Season 1 was that she was pregnant with her first child during the time of filming. “I was so, so pregnant in the shooting of this,” Kaling told Glamour. “I was pregnant in the pilot and then I was, and obviously you can’t tell, but I grew and grew, and then we got picked up and I got increasingly more pregnant, so I think I gave birth during the shooting of the seventh episode, so I couldn’t be in all of them, but we managed it in that I’m in four of the 10 [episodes].”

Would you like to see Kaling appear on the show more often? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below!

“Champions” airs Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. EDT on NBC.