10 years after NC family’s documentary, people still want to ‘Meet the Patels’
When you walk into Vasant and Champa Patel’s Ballantyne home, a movie poster for “Meet the Patels” can immediately be seen from the door. Walk a bit deeper inside, and a collage of memories adorns a wall near their kitchen.
“We had hundreds of these,” Vasant said as he holds out a pack of matches that reads “Finding the perfect match isn’t easy,” and includes the film’s title. Champa walks out with a yard sign with the same insignias.
“We planted these all over Charlotte,” Vasant added. “They were everywhere.”
More than 10 years ago, the Patels, along with their children Ravi and Geeta, didn’t have the yard signs just yet when they attended the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival to premiere their “family home movie” that became a documentary sensation the following year.
“Meet the Patels” follows Vasant and Champa as they try to convince their son Ravi to find a partner as he approaches his 30th birthday. At that time, Ravi was dating a woman named Audrey in secret from his parents, but she didn’t fit their preconception of what should be a traditional Indian couple.
“I found out that they were going to screen the movie for 450 people,” Vasant said, recounting the premiere. “I panicked because (our movie) was a homemade, small documentary. There’ll be 50 people sitting there.
“There ended up being over 350 people there and (Champa and I) were sitting in the back. Our son was talking during the Q&A and mentioned that his parents were here. So many people in the audience got up and said, ‘We want your parents on stage!’ We walk and get a big applause.
“That was just the beginning of the fun.”
Home movie becomes major film
The Patels called the film “confidential information” when it was first started in 2009 .
Ravi and Geeta were cooking something up — asking for old pictures they had never seen and home movies they had taken. “They came home and said, ‘Hey Daddy, give us your picture and videos and whatever you have,’ ” Vasant remembered.
For those familiar with the finished product, you’ve seen those pictures and videos. Their daughter and the film’s co-director Geeta Patel also spliced in footage of a family trip to India where Ravi agreed to be putting in a serious effort to find a partner by his parents’ standards.
At the same time, Ravi had broken up with his girlfriend Audrey, who was the opposite of what tradition said he should be with.
Mixing footage from the trip, other interviews and a bit of animation, “Meet the Patels” captured the family’s journey in what The Charlotte Observer’s Lawrence Toppman called “one of the happiest surprises of the movie year” in 2015.
“All you saw in the movie was never planned for a (feature film),” Vasant said. “There was no talk about it. It was private moments. So (the kids) were scared. (They said) Mom and Dad, we have taken some of the videos and pictures and trip, and we made it into a movie.”
Vasant and Champa said they asked them to watch the movie and give them their opinion. They gave them the option to ask for anything to be taken out that they didn’t want in there. Vasant said the kids left and were scared: What the heck did they do?
An hour and a half later, the kids came back into the room. “We told them that we liked the film,” Vasant said. “We were very impressed with what they had done.”
Fast-forward years later and they’re in Toronto premiering the movie. “That’s a highlight of our lives that our children made a little film, and it’s going to be (at TIFF),” Vasant said.
“There are over 200 films in competition, and they picked our little film to show there. It is a big deal to us.”
10 years later, people still want to meet the Patels
The last time the Patels watched the movie was in 2023. They said a group of professionals in Charlotte asked them to attend a retreat they were having in Florida where they would screen the film and were curious to hear from Vasant and Champa after the screening.
“So did your son get married to that girl? What is he doing now? What is your daughter doing now?” were some of the questions the group was asking, Vasant said.
“It would be nice to make maybe a 10-15-minute follow-up and say this is what happened. Add it to the end of the film and re-release it as an updated version,” he added.
For their kids, Vasant said they feel very good about the film all the years later because it kicked off their careers as filmmakers and actors. “It was also kind of a closure on their part on what they were doing at that time … they were on the right path, and they had the talent to do it,” he said.
“I think it renewed confidence and renewed direction that we are in the right field.”
Champa said reflecting on the movie now is much different than that first screening with their kids. “When we saw the movie a year and a half ago, we felt like ‘Oh my god, it is the best thing they have done.’ In the beginning, obviously, we were scared inside about how the world will see it. Now, we already know how the world has approached it and how they feel about us. So, it’s more satisfying when we saw it (recently).”
For those clamoring to find out what happened over the intervening decade, Independent Picture House will be bringing the entire family together for a 10th anniversary screening of “Meet the Patels” on Dec. 13 at 6 p.m.
Vasant and Champa said for this screening, it will also include a first-time feature for the movie.
“It’s the first time their spouses will be there for the Q&A,” Champa said. “I want them to be on the stage. They have very good spouses, and we want to hear what they think (of the movie).”
“Meet the Patels 2, “next?
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This story was originally published December 2, 2025 at 5:15 AM.
