“The story examines this fascinating dilemma of millions of people trying to make a home away from home and the choices they face today,” he said. This experience “exemplified by the Indian ethno-bubble of the Silicon Valley,” Bhilawadikar said, “started getting captured in a blog - ‘Stuff Desis Like” and later into the script of ‘For Here or To Go?’” “Rishi and I have the advantage of being exposed to both worlds this story straddles,” said Humnabadkar, who hails from Pune. She decided to direct the film when she realised “it wasn’t just my story but also that of many friends and family members.” “At the heart of it, it’s a story about cultural assimilation in a foreign land, and asks the question where is home and where do you belong?” she said. Interviewing several San Francisco Bay area Indian immigrant families, they came across stories of “the visa struggles of immigrant entrepreneurs, students victimised in the Tri-Valley university scam, the ‘reverse brain drain’ phenomenon during the recession, and the tragic wave of Sikh shootings that followed 9/11.” “We understood that the film we needed to make would be the first of its kind, a narrative that unifies the experiences of a very strong and growing South Asian minority across all strata of American society,” Humnabadkar said. When asked about the ongoing debate in India about growing intolerance, both Bhilawadikar and Humnabadkar felt they didn’t “qualify to make comments” as it was “something that’s not part of our everyday reality.” “That said, some of the reactions that I’ve read to the comments made by such accomplished names like Shah Rukh Khan or Aamir khan do little more than proving their points,” said Bhilawadikar.

Humnabadkar agreed, suggesting a “healthy public debate” about the subject. “It is important for a democratic nation to protect its secular fabric, be it discussion of immigration in the US or intolerance in India. We must find unity in diversity.”