SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association, and SAMMA, South Asians in Media, Marketing and Entertainment Association, present the latest in their series of high-profile webcasts - via BlogTalkRadio.com - with some of the leading South Asian names in global media, arts, entertainment, politics and much more...
Listen to recordings of two SAJA & SAMMA TV-related webcasts. Both are below: One with folks from "Outsourced" and the other with stars of reality TV.
===>Meet stars Rizwan Manji, Parvesh Cheena and Sacha Dhawan, executive producer Robert Borden and writer Geetika Lizardi of NBC's "Outsourced":
Wednesday, March 30, 2011: A conversation with several South Asians who made waves in reality shows in recent years.
PhotographerNigel Barker (@beautyequation)- "America's Next Top Model" judge
SingerAnoop Desai (@anoopdoggdesai)- "American Idol" contestant - finished in 6th place in 2009
Chef Maneet Chauhanof Vermilion in NY & Chicago - "Next Iron Chef" - season 3 contestant and judge on "Chopped"
Conducting the interview will be Madhu Goel Southworth, Senior Counsel, Legal & Business Affairs, AMC. Producing the show will be Sree Sreenivasan (@sree), digital media professor at Columbia Journalism School and co-founder of SAJA.
It's Grammy Sunday in America, and here is a music-related post, including some items connected to the biggest music awards in the land and some not.
Two long-time friends of SAJA, Chandrika Tandon and Vijay Iyer, were nominated for Grammys today. They didn't win, but they certainly showed yet another dimension of the South Asian community in the U.S. You can listen to the SAJA webcast here.
Chandrika Tandon (@soulchantmusic), nominated for Best Contemporary World Music Album for "Soul Call"; and Vijay Iyer (@vijayiyer), nominated for the Best Jazz Instrumental Album for "Historicity".
Jay Sean, who hit #1 on the Billboard charts with "Down" two years ago - and whose webcast with SAJA/SAMMA you can listen to at this link - is back. Here's a press release:
Jay Sean and Lil Wayne Recreate Magic
On February 8, 2011, Jay Sean released his latest single “Hit the Lights” featuring Lil Wayne on iTunes. The club banging track rocketed to the top 20 on the first day and within 72 hours, “Hit the Lights” shot up the charts and held the #4 spot. Jay Sean and Lil Wayne have surely recreated the magic of their first single together, in fact, this time around the dynamic duo has outdone the initial success of “Down” by taking their track to the top five immediately following the release.
For interviews with Jay Sean please contact Komposit Entertainment: isha at kompositlive.com (tell her SAJA sent you).
From a note by SAMMA co-founder Raj Shah:
HP, in its new global campaign “Everybody On” with Alicia Keys includes a video from Billboard pop/urban recording artist Jay Sean, on the heels of Jay’s Tuesday release of a new track “Hit the Lights” (#3 on iTunes as of Friday).
It's the first time that HP, the largest computer-maker in the world has included a South Asian artist in its U.S. content/campaigns.
This is a preview on YouTube before it hits the HP Global site:
Nita Chawla, a NY-based singer-songwriter, has just written a song, "Revolution," dedicated to the people of Egypt & Tunisia. It's not yet on NitaChawla.com, but she's shared it with SAJAforum. Thanks, Nita!
Long-time SAJA member Brian Q. Silver, Ethnomusicologist and World Music Curator of the Voice of America wrote in to let us know that he has launched a new VOAWorldMusic page on Facebook. He's looking forward to your feedback: BSilver at voanews.com.
Liveblogging, sorta, the Grammys:
11:20 pm: This ad runs:
10:50 pm: Nicki Minaj, the Trinidadian hip-hop star (who is of South Asian origin) is presenting a category with will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas.
10:10 pm:Norah Jones, who won nine Grammys between 2000 and 2009, is presenting a category (she presented with Ringo Starr last year).
[Desi Spotting = items with a South Asian connection - see our archive]
Sunday, Feb. 6, 2011: Live-blogging the Super Bowl on this post, looking for South Asian stuff during the telecast - starting 6:30 pm EST. You can see all the commercials at http://foxsports.com/ads
What did we miss? Email us: saja at columbia.edu or @sajaHQ on Twitter.
We'll be looking for sideline shots of Brandon Chillar, who is a member of the Green Bay Packers. A terrific linebacker for the team, he was injured in November, so is not in uniform tonight.You can listen to the SAJA webcast from 2009 with Chillar; his agent, Jim Ivler, his agent; and Kevin Negandhi, ESPN anchor.
SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association, and SAMMA, South Asians in Media, Marketing and Entertainment Association, present a conversation about the biggest day in American sports from a South Asian perspective. Join us as SAJA co-founder Sree Sreenivasan (@sree) and sports marketing prof Vijay Setlur (@vijaysetlur) chats with ESPN's Kevin Negandhi (@knegandhiespn), who's co-hosting SportsCenter that night; Anish Shroff (@anishESPN), ESPN anchor-reporter, who covers college footballl; Adnan Virk (@adnanvirkESPN), ESPN anchor; Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala), NY Giants reporter for the Wall Street Journal, who is covering the Super Bowl; and Arash Markazi (@arashmarkazi) columnist for ESPNLosAngeles.com. We had hoped to have Chillar call in for a few minutes, but he wasn't able to join us (see above for our 2009 webcast with #54).
12:08 pm: SAJAer and ESPNEWS anchor Adnan Virk (@adnanvirkESPN) (or the right) co-hosts "Highlight Express," filled with Super Bowl coverage. Negandhi was a guest on SAJA's Super Bowl webcast - see link above - and discussed his career path, advice for those interested in sportscasting and more. Click on image for bigger version.
10:02 pm: A desi gets a Super Bowl ring - Brandon Chillar (who is on injured reserve) will be among those who get a Super Bowl Ring as the Packers beat the Steelers. That makes him the second South Asian to win a ring (Bobby Singh was the first, with the St. Louis Rams).
From an 2009 post on SAJAforum, here are the only two other South Asian players to play for the NFL:
Bobby Singh, St. Louis Rams (the only player, perhaps, to be on the teams to win an NFL Super Bowl, a Canadian Football League Grey Cup and an XFL championship)
Sanjay Rajiv Beach, who played four years from 1989-1993 (for the NY Jets, Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers); he is in the record books for catching soon-to-be superstar Brett Favre's first proper completion, in 1992 (Favre's very first completion was a pass deflected to, and caught by, Favre himself).
9:58 pm: SAJAforum exclusive! This is a photo of SAJAer and ESPN anchor Kevin Negandhi (@knegandhiESPN), taken minutes before he hosts SportsCenter, which goes live on ESPN as soon as the Super Bowl ends on Fox.. The SportsCenter right after the Super Bowl as got to be one of the highest-rated episodes of the most popular sports shows in the world. Negandhi was a guest on SAJA's Super Bowl webcast - see link above - and discussed his career path, advice for those interested in sportscasting and more. Click on image for bigger version.
UPDATE - 10:08 pm: A photo of Negandhi in action:
8:20 pm: SAJAer Aman Batheja (@amanbatheja), a reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is tweeting from the action. Here are some of his tweets:
amanbatheja8:12pm via twidroyd jerry jones was right. this is the greenest #superbowl ever #sbst #sbxlv http://twitpic.com/3x9j2l
And you can see one of his blog posts here, which is about fans outside the stadium (which is where you see him below).
7:40 pm: From tweets to @sajaHQ by Niraj Warikoo (@nwarikoo), religion reporter for the Detroit Free Press:
The guy who helped former Steelers all-star center Mike Webster when he was sick was an Indian-American, Sunny Jani http://es.pn/hch7fM
"For the last six years of Mike Webster's life, from 1997 to 2002, Jani was his most consistent, most constant companion."
7:05 pm: There are three Groupon ads coming up during the Super Bowl telecast (featuring Cuba Gooding, Jr., Timothy Hutton, and Liz Hurley). The site with came to worldwide attention when it turned down Google's offer of a $6-billion acquistion, is now preparing for an IPO said to be valued at $15 billion. The desi connection? Groupon's VP of product development is Suneel Gupta (@guptathink), who we featured on SAJAforum two years ago when he launched KahaniMovement with his brother Dr. Sanjay Gupta (@SanjayGuptaCNN) of CNN. Suneel's wife is SAJAer Leena Rao (@leenarao), who is a writer at TechCrunch, the popular tech news site.
6:45 pm: While you're watching the most famous hair in American sports - that would be Troy Polamalu's lustrous tresses - take a moment to see a NY Post article called "The Hair Pair." It's about how SAJA Board member Raakhee Mirchandani (@raakstar) has the same hair as Polamalu.
Big news for one of the more prominent desis in magazine publishing: Newsweek managing editor and longtime SAJA member Nisid Hajari has just landed a major deal to write "Midnight's Furies," a dramatic history of the Partition of India and Pakistan, told through the characters of Gandhi, Jinnah, Nehru, Churchill, and Mountbatten. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will be publishing the book, which Hajari says he hopes will help explain how so many of America’s problems in the region today stem from the traumatic birth of South Asia’s two great rivals.
You’ve probably been reading about all the tumult at Newsweek this year—the sale to stereo magnate Sidney Harman, the hiring of Tina Brown as editor-in-chief, the merger with the Daily Beast; Fareed Zakaria's move to Time. You might not have realized that Hajari has been running the magazine since late August as acting co-editor, while also writing several pieces about India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
“Under Tina, this is going to be one of the more exciting places to be in magazines next year,” says Hajari, who plans to leave New York early next year to research the book. “The idea of staying on was tremendously tempting. But I’m really looking forward to digging into this subject, which I think is powerful, timely, and surprisingly, given how much has been written about it, not all that well understood outside the region.”
You’ll probably continue to see Hajari’s byline in Newsweek in the months ahead. As you may know, Brown just hired another SAJA member, Tunku Varadajaran, to oversee Newsweek International - we'll catch up with him soon. Seems like the international editions editor title has a deep South Asian connection. Varadarajan's predecessors include Hajari and Zakaria.
The topic of Hajari's book - due in a couple of years - is fascinating and full of drama. When I last co-taught a Columbia Journalism School class about covering India's religions, we assigned "Freedom at Midnight," the bestselling 1975 book by Dominque Lapierre and Larry Collins. It's nonfiction, though it reads as really gripping fiction. But it has been 35 years since it came out, so I can't wait to see what Hajari finds in his research and what kind of story he tells. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, I'm hoping he'll be on Twitter soon.
Post your comments below. We'll make sure he sees them.
Here's the trailer for "Today's Special," a new film from Aasif Mandvi. See below for information about our webcast with him.
SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association, and SAMMA, South Asians in Media, Marketing and Entertainment Association, present the latest in their series of high-profile webcasts - via BlogTalkRadio.com - with some of the leading South Asian names in global media, arts, entertainment, politics and much more...
Meet Aasif Mandvi, one of the most recognizable South Asian names working in American entertainment today. He's a star on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and a film and stage actor. He'll discuss his new movie, "Today's Special."
MIT quantum astrophysicist Nergis Mavalvala was announced Sept. 28 as one of 23 winners of the coveted 2010 MacArthur Fellowship, also known as a genius grant, and will receive a $500,000 “no strings attached” award over the next five years.
“I had always known of the MacArthur fellowship and all the wonderful scientists, historians and artists who had won it in the past, but I never, ever in my wildest dreams thought that I would be one of them,” Mavalvala, the first-known Parsi to receive the award, told India-West.
“I am incredibly humbled and so grateful to my colleagues and everyone who has supported my work,” she said from her office at MIT on the afternoon the winners were announced.
Back in 1996, we put together a list of past South Asian winners (or, in the case of Jhabvala, South Asian connections). Anyone missing? The award was first given out in 1981.
A lot has happened since then, especially in the last few months: The much publicized sale of Newsweek by the Washington Post Company to electronics magnate Sidney Harman (for a $1 pricetag and the assumption of $47 million of liabilities). Rumors of a hookup with The Daily Beast. The launch of a Pakistan edition of Newsweek. Several big names have left the magazine, including SAJAer Fareed Zakaria, who is now an editor-at-large at Time, connecting his CNN show, "Fareed Zakaria GPS" with the network's Time Inc cousin.
In America’s relationship with Pakistan, carrots predominate, in part because we have so few sticks. After our almost unquestioned support for Pakistani dictator Gen. Pervez Musharraf didn’t elicit sufficient cooperation against the Taliban, we showered the civilian government that replaced him with $7.5 billion in aid, to little effect. American generals praise the very real sacrifices—in blood and treasure—made by the Pakistani Army in the fight against militants in Swat and South Waziristan; yet calls to broaden the campaign to North Waziristan, home to one of the deadliest Afghan insurgent groups, the Haqqani network, go unheeded. U.S. and Pakistani diplomats recite platitudes about “our common enemy, and Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari repeatedly invokes his assassinated wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, to underscore his dedication to battling extremists. But that depends on whose extremists.
We asked the always upbeat Hajari three quick questions about Newsweek, the future of US-Pak ties and the new Pakistan edition. His answers, via e-mail:
Earlier tonight, after a day of work and teaching, I sat down with my dinner to watch the 10 p.m. ESPN "SportsCenter" (which was on ESPNews because of college football). It was a major sports day: playoff baseball featuring Yankees v. Twins and Giants vs. Braves; Randy Moss has his first day of work with the Vikings; among other stories.
But to me, the biggest story was the anchors. It was the first time, as far as I can tell, that two South Asians anchored the biggest sports news show in the land. What more proof do you need that America is changing than to see two non-caucasian, non-African-American anchors hosting a quintessential American TV show? Growing up in the U.S., I never saw South Asians on TV and could never have imagined the changes that have come to pass; I've documented some of those changes in a post on the eve of the "Slumdog Millionaire" Oscars victory.
Here's a photo of Kevin Negandhi, left, and Adnan Virk doing their anchor thing:
I wasn't the only one to notice. While I was taking the photo above, I got the following note from Amar Shah, a fellow SAJA member and senior segment producer at Mighty Oak Entertainment (and former ESPNer and "Page 2" contributor):
Just wanted to spotlight on ESPN tonight there was a South Asian tandem of Kevin Negandhi and Adnan Virk in the anchor chairs.
First time I've ever seen that. An Indian-American and a Pakistani-Canadian. Pretty bad ass.
More on Negandhi here and more on Virk here. The other South Asian anchor on ESPN is Anish Shroff(who had been a top three contestant on the 2004 ESPN reality show, "Dream Job"). Post your comments below.
Earlier on SAJAforum - SAJA sports webcasts (these are also examples of the changes around us):
>>> SHORTCUT TO THIS PAGE: http://bit.ly/kakaria <<<
Funeral arrangements: Viewing on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 3-5 pm and 7-9 pm at Moloney Lake Funeral Home, 132 Ronkonkoma Ave, Lake Ronkonkoma, NY, 11779;tel: 631-588-1515. The cremation, for family only, will be held on Wednesday at 11 am. Please note: A separate SAJA memorial service will be planned for the weeks ahead.
Please post your comments and memories of Amrit in the comments section below or e-mail saja@columbia.edu - we already have comments from S. Mitra Kalita, former SAJA president; Shashi Tharoor, Indian parliamentarian and author and many more. Add yours!
NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: You are welcome to re-use any of the materials from the site.
Amrit Kakaria, a leading Indian-American journalist in the U.S., died on Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010, in Long Island, New York. The cause was a heart attack (he had been battling cancer, but it was under remission). He was 72. He is survived by his wife Bettina Kakaria and other family members, including, his brother Bal Kakaria.
Kakaria retired in 2002 after 45 years in the media business, most recently as head of U.S. operations for the India Today group (he had earlier launched India Today's North American edition and also worked in New Delhi and London).
An early member of the South Asian Journalists Association, Kakaria played a critical role in the group's growth as an adviser to the group's founding members. In 1996, wrote a personal check for $2,000 to launch its most influential program, the SAJA Journalism Awards.
"Amrit was SAJA's guiding spirit and a mentor to dozens of us in the media," said Sree Sreenivasan, SAJA co-founder and a professor at Columbia Journalism School. "His passing is a tremendous loss to all South Asian journalists in the U.S.," he said.
In 2005, he was inducted into the SAJA Hall of Fame, which recognizes pioneering South Asian journalists for their contributions to U.S. media as well as veteran U.S. journalists who helped shape coverage of South Asia (other inductees include Gobind Behari Lal, who won a Pulitzer Prize for science writing in 1937 and the first journalist to write about cancer research; his nephew, Brij Lal, a veteran broadcast journalist who joined ABC News in 1952; Gopal Raju of founder of India Abroad; Peter Bhatia, executive editor of The Oregonian and former president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors; Rajan Devdas, a photojournalist for more than 60 years in India and the U.S.; A.M. "Abe" Rosenthal, the former New York Times editor who covered South Asia as a young correspodent and continued to write about it as a columnist and James W. Michaels, former editor of Forbes, who first covered India during its struggle for independence and revisited the region in reports over five decades).
ABOVE: Amrit Kakaria, as he was inducted into the SAJA Hall of Fame in June 2005 by SAJA co-founder Sree Sreenivasan.PHOTO: Preston Merchant.
"Amrit was involved with SAJA from its very early days and cared deeply about SAJA," said John Laxmi, SAJA treasurer and board member. "He took the liberty to call me and email me every now and then to give me tips, advise and admonitions to keep SAJA on its track and committed to its mission. Anyone who has dealt with Amrit will miss his kind and gentle friendship," he said.
SAJAforum's Ankita Rao wrote in June about "Outsourced," a new NBC's show this fall:
A spin-off of the 2006 movie by the same name, the plot
follows a jaded salesman, Todd (Ben Rappaport), to India to oversee a call
center.
If the movie is indeed a taste-test, “Outsourced” promises
to channel a stereotype into a subtle, lively storyline complete with romance
and cultural commentary.
The cast is mostly comprised of vaguely recognizable BBC
stars, sitcom hoppers and newcomers such as Rizwan Manji, Rebecca Hazlewood,
Anisha Nagarajan and Sacha Dhawan.
Writer Robert Borden hails from “The Drew Cary Show”, and director
Ken Kwapis tested out his diversity comedy with “The Office”.
The show debuts tonight, as part of the Thursday night 9:30 pm slot, right after "The Office." You can see the trailer below. More on the show at http://www.nbc.com/outsourced.
Many of you weighed in on Ankita's post (more than 50 comments!), without seeing the show. Please watch tonight and post your comments and analysis below.
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