VOTE FOR SHALINI! Now, please!

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shalini ROCKS.jpg This is going to be the sloppiest, most rushed entry I’ve ever posted, but that’s because I’m so excited about what I just saw, I want to get the information to you sooner vs. later. I can edit after I publish, damnit.

There’s a show we have received several tips about– “The Lot”. We keep hearing about it because it has a desi contestant named Shalini Kantayya:

ON THE LOT, executive-produced by Mark Burnett and Steven Spielberg, will give aspiring filmmakers from around the world the chance to earn a $1-million development deal at DreamWorks.
Premiering on May 22 and airing twice a week throughout the summer on FOX, this reality-competition series features a cast of undiscovered filmmakers who will compete to win the support of the show’s viewers, as their fate will be decided by a weekly audience vote…
Every week, the hopeful filmmakers will produce short films from a chosen genre, running the gamut from comedies to thrillers, dramas to romance, action to horror. They’ll have access to the best resources the industry has to offer — professional writers, cast and crew, and maybe even Hollywood celebrities. [link]

I usually don’t get home until about now, so I knew I wouldn’t get to watch it and that’s why I promptly forgot about it– until tonight, when I was channel-surfing because I’m sick and on the couch. Once I heard that of the 15 finalists, five would be featured tonight, I stuck around to see if the brown girl would be in the ring…and she was.

Despite being high on codeine and everything else in my virus-wracked system, I sat up for the first time all day because THIS GIRL IS TALENTED. No wonder they plucked her out of a pool of 12,000 applicants from all over the world.

I’m not typing that because she’s brown– she had the BEST FILM OF THE NIGHT and Michael Bay, the guest judge who directed “Transformers”, agrees with me.

Here’s the thing: there’s but a wee two-hour window in which to vote for true awesomeness (dial 1-88-Thelot-05 or click the next link to show your love online). You can vote as many times as you’d like (handy “Vote” button is highlighted in yellow) AND you can view Shalini’s 3-minute clip yourselves– I think once you do, you’ll be cheering her on as effusively as I am, though you won’t sound like a frog while doing it.

206 thoughts on “VOTE FOR SHALINI! Now, please!”

  1. The 1 min clip was impressive but this killed it for me 🙂

    First movie you ever saw? Seeing the film, GHANDI, was the first memory I have of going to the cinema with my entire family. I was 7 and I fell asleep during the intermission of the three hour epic, but I have never forgotten the opening scene…

  2. See, I didn’t see her one-minute clip OR read her bio OR really know anything about her– which is why my ardour for her feels so pure. 😀

  4. Vanya, can we blame whoever put the content up and give Shalini the benefit of our doubt? Aw, is my girl crush showing or what? 😉

    ::

    Raju, thank you so much. 🙂 Very kind of you.

  5. Kudos to your tuning in, Anna. I understand that the show’s viewership increased 50% tonight, thanks to you.

    (It had to be said.)

  6. thanks for the tip, anna – the short is so funny!

    i can see how the gandhi comment can seem stereotypical or irritating, but c’mon! don’t tell me you’ve never identified with the scene where he’s booted from the train in pretoria!

  7. n-f-s (may I call you “n-f-s”? 😉

    I think our first commenter was objecting to the spelling error vs her choice of films. That’s why I immediately attempted to blame someone else for it, since I doubt Shalini did the final spell-check etc. 😀

    VOTE!

    Her film was about a South Asian comedian who is gay and there were times when I couldn’t even tell you what he said, because the entire three minutes were shot so beautifully. Suh-woooon.

  8. Yeah the picture and those teal glasses don’t help us in being objective about which contestant, i mean film is the best.

    A N N A on June 5, 2007 09:55 PM · Direct link Vanya, can we blame whoever put the content up and give Shalini the benefit of our doubt? Aw, is my girl crush showing or what? 😉

    ::

    Raju, thank you so much. 🙂 Very kind of you.

  9. maybe i’ll wait a week or two to see if she Sanjaya’s herself out of the contest…

    no offense to the Sanjaya lovers – his audition was amazing.

  10. n-f-s is just fine.

    the spelling irritates me too, so point taken. obviously the Fox web editors weren’t Scripps contenders…

    also – i am coming to DC early next week – any chance of a SM social gathering? crosses fingers and toes

  12. maybe i’ll wait a week or two to see if she Sanjaya’s herself out of the contest…

    1) If we don’t vote for her tonight, you may not have that luxury. 🙂

    2) Everyone at SM is well-aware that I love my papaya…but to me, Shalini is way more skilled than Sanjaya, relatively speaking. Watch her stuff, she’s good!

  15. OMG.. I’m so glad you covered it.. already voted 10X. Does anybody know who the featured comedian is?

  16. dude i texted mad times. i was really hoping SM would cover her. what’d you all think of her little film on the south asian gay comedian? how bold was that shit?! while the other kids were doing their little routine 3 min comedy. she actually made a documentary? insane!

    i also didn’t think that the other girl made that bad of a film. it was voted the worst of the night. i thought it was the second or third best.

  17. ok i voted until the flashing of “vote again” had me worried about seizures.

    I think she also tried out for the show to bring attention to her work. I’m sure everyone saw the Jay-z UN MTV special and already knows about the water issue. When you read this information from Shalini’s film site it strikes a nerve again.

    Her theme song is “Umi Says” by Mos Def…

    another of Mos Def’s songs apply to her film “New World Water”

    http://www.adropoflife.tv

    “”The more I researched and read about water, the more I became convinced of the vice president of the World Bank’s Ismail Serageldin’s statement on the future of war. “If the wars of the twentieth century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought over water.” I found the statistics alarming; between one-half and two-thirds of the world’s population will not have access to drinking water by the year 2027.””

  19. I had EXACTLY the same response as Vanya – Ghandi?? But then, we have to give her the benefit of doubt – maybe the content was put up by some other moron. The one minute short was ok. Good editing and timing.

  20. Agree with Vanya, that GHANDI was nearly the first thing I saw too, but maybe she didn’t write her responses (one hopes)? The clip, though, has a guy singing a really bad Desi English telegram, and that “Grandpa?” thing is straight out of “Must Love Dogs”…..

    Anna, not to out-Fanjaya you, but a) while his audition may not have been as good as Raju remarks, we did see the Papaya get better, and b) Papaya showed a way better Desi accent at the Asian awards…wait for it.

  22. But are you guys watching the three-minute film I saw tonight? It’s the one Shlok mentioned– if you went to the website I linked, and you clicked vote, I think THAT was the ONLY way to view it. If you went to her contestant page or whatever which had the scarlet misspelling, you’d only see her other film, which was nowhere near as moving. 🙂

  24. By the way– our girl Shalu (do you love how I just appropriated and nicknamed her?) IS NOT ALLOWED TO SEE THE SITE or watch the show…so it’s not like she even knows about the glaring typo. Eeeek. She also doesn’t know about the shitty ratings SY accurately referenced.

  25. Yeah the clip on the vote page is better than the one minute clip. the link you originally put up only brings us to the main page… have to click vote, zip, email then you see the video :

  26. the link you originally put up only brings us to the main page…

    Well, it was a quick and dirty post…and I couldn’t see a way to link to the voting “pop-up”. Once I went back to try and add links for my second update of this, I was confused by the site. But I should have spelled out what you did, sooner. Mea culpa.

  27. Thanks for posting this Anna – I voted about 10 times before it cut me off! Her video was amazing – the others were ok, the dough musical had me cracking up, but they were nothing compared to her movie. It was shot so well and was really moving, while still being funny. Loved it!

    Feel better! =)

  29. Oh, ANNA, she’s great! I’ve been dyyyyyyying for SM to pick this up. I didn’t like her comedy short last week, but even for a “mediocre” short I enjoy her technique. I like her “serious stuff” (as the judges call it) way more. I also love her because of her water work (I like to project my own interests onto others that way, haha).

    Hope you’re feeling better =/ Codeine is no fun.

  30. Ohhh not fair, they don’t have this show aired in the UK yet, and seeing all the comments and the post regarding it I really wanna watch this now. I have tried searching for it on YouTube but for some psycho reason my PC is not allowing too go on to this website. arghh soo annoying.. Any of you beautiful peeps know of any decent websites that I can watch this show on?

    Hey Anna hope you get well soon. High on Coedine is soo crapy… Now i’m feeling hungry :S hmmm feel like some vege puri..

  31. Some of the films work; the latest film in question does not load up. May be a UK thing.

    Anna, Boiling water, dollop of Honey, fair few drops of lemon and dash of brandy does the trick. If that does not work the substitute the honey, water and lemon for more brandy. 😉

  32. I’m trying them now, and hers is the only movie that won’t play, while the other 4 do. Dough (the musical) is the best of the lot, the ones I can see, that is.

  33. Great to see some original and new talent. Good luck to her!

    Hey American cousins, there’s an American Desi director who is showing his movie in the UK at festivals at the moment. It’s called ‘Punching at the Sun’ and I’m going to try and catch it, listened to a radio interview with him. It’s about Indian youth in New York after 9/11, got great reviews and looks raw and truthful. I don’t remember it being reviewed by anyone on Sepia Mutiny.

  34. Great post Anna and appropos to an earlier discussion about indians in the media.

  35. Vanya, can we blame whoever put the content up and give Shalini the benefit of our doubt? Aw, is my girl crush showing or what? 😉

    You’re right, I never considered that possibility. In which case I truncate my first comment to:

    The 1 min clip was impressive.

    and she gets my vote. Thanks for introducing us to her, Anna.

  38. That Sanjaya link to the asian awards is hilarious – what was he thinking with the “my hart is beeetiing” accent? worth the wait, thanks Amrita.

    Have not been able to view shalini’s video, taking to long to upload, is anyone else having that problem?

  40. Thanks for posting this Anna. Shalini’s piece on Vidur Kapur was well received by her peers and Michael Bay. Now, I definitely have to give his Transformers movie a chance!

  42. Are you sure you weren’t high on diet pills?

    I was not, actually. I have bronchitis.

    Since this is the seventh comment you’ve left about me, I’d like to propose an idea, because I’m solution-oriented like that; get me a personal trainer. Your phat salary at UBS should be more than enough to cover it.

    Or are you one of those people who likes to complain about a problem, but not do anything about it? You’re so persistent with calling me “elephant” and telling me I eat too much, put up or shut up. Contact me via my email, which is also where I would prefer you take whatever your bizarre problem with me to– no one should have to read you here.

  43. Hate to be a party pooper, but doing this kind of work is easier for a gal. No pressure to work a soul-less job just for the money, or certainly not the same as the dudes get.

  47. …You are speaking of positions of power, they are always tilted towards men, in every industry. And I speak strictly from a desi perspective.

    Most desi independent filmmakers, in particular those that have succeeded in the documentary form… are indeed women, like here and here. Both of whom have husbands that bring home the bacon.

  48. No pressure to work a soul-less job just for the money, or certainly not the same as the dudes get.

    Well, there’s an easy solution to that, you know. If men can just be content with staying home all the time, there would be no pressure.

    No worries. I’m sure there’s a sugar momma for you right aroud the corner, HMF.

  49. If anyone’s going to seriously contest that the desi community puts significantly more pressure on males to work stable, lucrative jobs, that’s some serious, bonafide, Cleopatra of denial going on.

  50. Why the desi community in particular? I think the premise applies to men at large, and I think the pressure is real. But I also think it’s self-fulfilling, to an extent. It’s up to men not to give in to the demands and pressures and try something different.

    Women feel the pressure too, although to a lesser degree and in a different way. I mean, think of the amount of time and money a woman spends on her education. To chuck it all and say “I’m cool, I have a guy who brings home the bacon” is really not easy at all.