South Asian: Last News

Jon Burlingame editorThe Television Academy’s music branch is leading the way in awarding diversity. Forty-six percent of all of this year’s nominees in the music categories are women, people of color, or both.Nine of the 41 nominees, or 22 percent, are women; 13 of the 41, nearly a third, are people of color.

EXCLUSIVE: The Salon South Asian Mentorship Program revealed its Class of 2022, led by Disney’s Reena Singh, Hillman Grad’s Rishi Rajani, WME agent Bash Naran, actor/writer Nik Dodani, and actor/producer Vinny Chhibber.

A young woman is dead after gaining popularity on TikTok by opening her heart about her difficult divorce from a “toxic” man. It turns out that man who she “shouldn’t have been” married to in the first place was so awful, he not only couldn’t let her leave, he couldn’t let her live.

Naman Ramachandran A trio of global festival favorites — Pan Nalin‘s “Last Film Show,” Mostofa Sarwar Farooki‘s “No Land’s Man” and Gurvinder Singh‘s “Crescent Night” (“Adh Chanani Raat”) — will open the 11th edition of the BMO International Film Festival of South Asia (IFFSA), Toronto (Aug. 11-21).

Freida Pinto says that finding fame so young was like "being Alice in Wonderland. " The 37-year-old actress was an unknown model when she was chosen by Danny Boyle to star as Latika in his multi-Academy Award-winning drama film 'Slumdog Millionaire' and admitted she could only deal with the sudden fame by deciding that she was "chosen" for it. She said: "When you get plucked out of obscurity and get thrown into this completely new world, like an 'Alice in Wonderland' effect - you don't what you're doing there and you don't even know why you're there but you are there and you're going to make the most of it.

Reginald Ponder Hailing from India by way of Brooklyn, filmmaker Urvashi Pathania had to learn to get comfortable with uncomfortable conversations — starting at home. As a child immigrant, Pathania had to adapt to a new culture and new ways of existing that didn’t quite mesh with her parents’ upbringing. “I was always bringing these American ideas home and having to talk to them about how I was experiencing life versus how they grew up,” she says. By the time her short film project “Beasts” was selected for Indeed’s Rising Voices program, the producer-director was already well-versed in tackling challenging subjects in a way that brings people together. “I think I found a way to tell tough stories, but in a way that doesn’t alienate people,” says Pathania.  While Pathania had to navigate various personal and cultural minefields over the course of her life, her career path has always been clear and direct. She entered her first film festival when she was just seven years old; once she discovered the power of film to inspire and educate, she pursued this path with a fierce intentionality. “One of the reasons I love being a filmmaker is because I get to dive really deep into whatever project I’m working on and immerse myself in different communities and see how different people live in the world,” says Pathania.

Covered head-to-toe in a black burka, a delicate figure stands at the door of Pot Kettle Black in Manchester’s Angel Gardens as the start of Lady Gaga’s Alice blares out from the speakers. But within seconds, the traditional garment is ripped apart to reveal an almost too-lifelike impersonation of Boris Johnson hiding beneath.

EXCLUSIVE: Kausar Mohammed is set to recur in the CW series as Dr. Meena Dhawan a.k.a Fast Track. She made her first appearance in tonight’s episode titled, “Keep it Dark.”

Jinkies! Mindy Kaling isn’t here for any criticism that may pop up in the wake of her new role as Scooby-Doo detective Velma Dinkley, who is South Asian in the upcoming animated spinoff centered on the intellectual mystery-solver.

EXCLUSIVE: Bash Naran, a literary manager and producer at Writ Large, is leaving the company to become an agent in the Scripted Television department of WME. He will be based in the agency’s Beverly Hills office.

EXCLUSIVE: Array Releasing has acquired two new feature films from emerging South Asian female directors: Agam Darshi’s Donkeyhead, and Sujata Day’s Definition Please. The company has acquired distribution rights to both films in the U.S., UK, Australia and New Zealand, with the additional territory of Canada for Definition Please. Both films will debut January 21 on Netflix. 

South Asian writer/actor Kausar Mohammed has signed with Paradigm for representation. She can currently be seen as “techspert” Soraya on CW’s 4400. She also voices series lead, Yaz, on Dreamwork’s Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.

Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards, Features EditorRiz Ahmed knows about breaking barriers. For one, he was the first Muslim and the first South Asian actor to win a lead acting Emmy Award (in 2017 for “The Night Of ”).

One minute she’s navigating her desires in teen telly drama Sex Education and the next she’s bodice-ripping in Bridgerton.

Speaking with Good Morning America today, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris revealed the one person she'll be thinking about when she is sworn in to office next month."I'll be thinking about my mother," said Harris, who will become the first female and the first Black and South Asian vice president of the United States in January. "But I feel a very big sense of responsibility.

By Angelique Jackson

"I have a lot in common with Mikku. We both love to eat a lot," Kal said