Category Archives: Arts and Entertainment

Desis on U.K. ‘Apprentice’

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England’s magnificent Punjabi Boy alerts us to their home-brewed edition of “The Apprentice,” which features a pair of desi contestants. If you’re among the ladies who was turned off by our American Raj, check out the U.K. alternative:

Name: Raj
Age: 30
Qualifications: LLB Law (Hons).
Career: Internet entrepreneur, founder and managing director of an estate agency.
Hobbies: “I have no hobbies or interests – my total focus in on business.”
He says: “I’m an entrepreneur, not an angel.”

To quote Punjabi Boy, he’s a “complete dork.” Since American Raj is totally awesome, we win that round. But then our Raj’s awesomeness is easily trumped by the “feisty and sexy” Saira Khan:

Name: Saira
Age: 34
Qualifications: BA in Humanities, MA in Environmental Planning.
Career: Sales manager for an online recruitment company.
Facts: She runs marathons, loves diving, and speaks four Asian languages.
She says: “I hope that as an Asian woman I will give other Asian women the inspiration to go out there and do well in business.”

Indeed, it never fails: the British version of any television show is always better.

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Gotham Chopra explores spirituality on TV

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Former Vice President Al Gore on Monday unveiled his long-awaited television venture, “Current,” which is described as “the first national network created by, for and with an 18-34 year-old audience.” Deepak Chopra’s son is prominently featured:

Among Current’s young on-air talent is Gotham Chopra (host of “Current Soul,” an exploration of spirituality from a young perspective), a former Channel One News anchor who has reported from around the world and interviewed leaders including Bill Clinton and the Dalai Lama, wrote three published works including the comic book Bulletproof Monk (serving as executive producer of the film adaptation), and was called one of the “most powerful and influential” South Asians worth watching by Newsweek. [PRNewswire/Yahoo!]

Twenty-somethings discussing and exploring spirituality? What, did a high-pitched screeching sound already have a prior commitment?

PRNewswire/Yahoo!: Al Gore and Joel Hyatt unveil Current…

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Indian music in ‘The Far Pavilions’

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There’s some buzz surrounding plans to bring together western and Indian music for the U.K.-theatre production of MM Kaye’s classic romantic novel “The Far Pavilions”:

The original book, published in 1978, told the story of forbidden love between an Indian princess and a British army officer during the time of the Raj. To replicate the contrast between the two cultures that forms the essence of the book, the new musical, directed by Gale Edwards, has two composers – Philip Henderson, who is British, and Kuljit Bhamra, who is Indian. [BBC News]

Gurinder Chadha has got to be pissed. Her monopoly on brown-woman-white-man productions appears to have crumbled. Every KFC in her immediate vicinity is advised to prepare for an onslaught of takeout orders.

BBC News: Indian music tradition revived in musical

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Minimum love for ‘Maximum’ author

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Suketu Mehta’s “Maximum City,” an account of Bombay’s two-decade transformation, was beaten out yesterday for the Pulitzer Prize in non-fiction by Steve Coll’s “Ghost Wars,” an in-depth exposé of the CIA. Mehta’s book was a nominated finalist along with “The Devil’s Highway,” by Luis Alberto Urrea. Winners of the annual prize receive $10,000, and get to emboss a gold seal on the cover of their book. Pulitzers are administered by Columbia University, which gave the award’s highest honor to the Los Angeles Times for its series exposing medical problems and racial injustice at King/Drew Medical Center. A full list of winners is available on the award’s official web site. Past recipients of the prestigious award include Jhumpa Lahiri, David Mamet (I couldn’t resist), and a bunch of other folks. The first South Asian to capture the award was Gobind Behari Lal in 1937, for his coverage of science at Harvard University (via Sreenath Sreenivasan). Yep, we were science geeks even back in the 30s.

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Sir Branson, ustad of the photo op

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Richard Branson inaugurated the first London to Bombay route for Virgin Atlantic last Thursday (via Zoo Station). He cavorted atop a jet wing in a Virgin-colored sherwani and took the Andheri-to-Churchgate local with the dabbawallahs to deliver hot lunches to his staff. In his spare time, he played a cricket match at the Oval Maidan next to Bombay U, paraded before the Gateway of India in a chariot and wore the infamous light bulb-festooned black leather suit that Amitabh wore in Yaarana. He’s also throwing in a couple of free airline tickets for two dabbawallahs to represent at Prince Charles’ wedding (thanks, Turbanhead). This guy’s theatrics put Steve Jobs to shame.

Getting a taste of British-style bureaucracy, Branson nearly got deported for an expired visa; ringing up the prime minister got that sorted. Branson said he’d been wanting this route for 10 years and pushed for unrestricted access to Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, even more aggressive than India’s open skies agreement with the U.S.

In 2000, he inaugurated the Delhi route:

His performance in Delhi in 2000 was even more impressive. Clad in Punjabi dress, he did the bhangra and then rode his way on a cycle rickshaw…

Photo galleries of Branson’s visit: 1, 2

Exporting a South Asian viewpoint

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For quite some time now I have been interested in finding examples of Bollywood and/or other Indian media’s influence on Islamic societies, especially the more conservative ones. I try to blog about such instances when I can. As I have stated before, I see a tremendous amount of potential in the ability of a brown face to deliver a moderate message to another brown face irrespective of religion. Initially I was planning a blog entry only on this announcement today which I saw reported on Asians in Media’s website:

With Al Jazeera blazing the way for brand recognition amongst non-western news channels, no one can accuse India’s Zee TV of lacking ambition.

The broadcaster announced earlier today at an Indian media industry event that it is planning to launch a global English news channel to rival the BBC and CNN.

“The channel, which will be beamed from India, will have content in line with that of international news channels like CNN and BBC and would target a wider audience rather than the Indian diaspora,” Zee chairman Subhash Chandra (pictured) said at the Ficci-Frames conference.

He said the aim was to portray a more south Asian viewpoint to the world in response to global events.

I really believe that such a channel has the POTENTIAL to rival Al Jazeera in ways that any channel promoted or created by the West will never be able to. In doing some background research for this entry however I came across this story in Time Magazine about a 13 year old minstrel in Afghanistan. It was interesting enough that I got completely sidetracked from my original post. However, I will explain how the stories are tenuously related at the end. Continue reading →

‘Apprentices’ battle lawsuit

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Former “Apprentice” contestant Raj Bhakta has been sued by a company in Florida that hired him for $4,000 to host an event last December. They gave him half of the fee upfront, but Bhakta never showed up:

On the night of his scheduled appearance, however, Raj was a no-show. “I was sick and couldn’t go,” Raj explained. “I called them up and said, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t make it. I’m ill and I’m going to send back the money.’ I even offered to go back and show up for free another time for their time and troubles.” But for Vacations Only, the offer was apparently not enough. Even though Raj says his assistant returned the advance, Vacations Only claims they never received it. Now they want nearly $25,000 in damages. “I was amazed,” Raj admitted. “You know, I hadn’t gotten a phone call saying that they hadn’t gotten a check back and instead of getting a, ‘Hey, would you mind sending a check?’ I got, ‘Within 30 days you get sued!’ But we live in a litigious society.” [Celebrity Justice]

Bhakta hired fellow contestant and Florida-based attorney Bradford Cohen to represent him. You may remember Cohen as the guy who gave up an exemption, and was subsequently fired during the early weeks of season two. You may remember Bhakta as the guy who got fired for just being way too awesome.

Celebrity Justice: ‘Apprentices’ united: Bradford to represent Raj
Previous posts: A Brown Apprentice??, Life after being “Fired!” and ‘Apprentice’ Raj returns with a vengeance

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A Mutinous DC Film Fest

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Imagine my surprise upon opening the handy-dandy filmest DC insert in the Washington City Paper, to find a plethora of Indian films being screened. Now, I am used to seeing one or two, but amongst the many other fine films from other countries being screened, 10 Indian films have been selected for screening. A couple highlights of the selections include an opening night screening of Rituparno Ghosh’s Raincoat (starring TMBWITW Aishwarya Rai) sponsored by Air India and Nutella, a screening of Chokher Bali also starring Rai, both with Ghosh in attendance, the stunningly beautiful, musically amazing, yet poorly scripted Dil Se (score by AR Rahman), Dev starring Om Puri and Amitabh Bachchan (with Amitabh in attendance), and Songs of Mahulbani which will be shown with the Oscar nominated Little Terrorist. Continue reading →

Mamet’s stain on Broadway (updated)

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Re: Apul’s post, David Mamet’s racist salesman drama Glengarry Glen Ross is being revived on Broadway next Wednesday. Even though the lines are uttered in character, it’s a deeply offensive play:

MOSS: I’ll tell you what else: don’t ever try to sell an Indian.

AARONOW: I’d never try to sell an Indian.

MOSS: You get those names come up, you ever get ’em, “Patel?”… You had one you’d know it. Patel. They keep coming up. I don’t know. They like to talk to salesmen. They’re lonely, something. They like to feel superior, I don’t know. Never bought a fucking thing… They got a grapevine. Fuckin’ Indians, George. Not my cup of tea. Speaking of which I want to tell you something: I never got a cup of tea with them. You see them in the restaurants. A supercilious race. What is this look on their face all the time? I don’t know. I don’t know. Their broads all look like they just got fucked with a dead cat, I don’t know…

ROMA: Patel? Ravidam Patel? How am I going to make a living on these deadbeat wogs? Where did you get this, from the morgue?… Patel? Fuck you. Fuckin’ Shiva handed him a million dollars, told him “sign the deal,” he wouldn’t sign. And Vishnu, too.

The play, written in 1984, won a Pulitzer and was turned into a major 1992 film with Alec Baldwin, Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey and Ed Harris. Mamet had second thoughts, but only decades later:

He thinks maybe he should take another look at his anti-Indian remarks that still smolder in Glengarry Glen Ross, a play he wrote 20 years ago. “Patel” was a racial epithet uttered by guys in his line of work years ago, when he was selling real estate. Maybe it doesn’t belong in the play anymore, given what the times are now.

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