South Asian Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Naman Ramachandran As South Asians increasingly make their mark on the world film and TV stage, an initiative to find emerging talent from the region and propel them globally is being launched. Alongside talent from the region who are already entrenched in Hollywood, including Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Freida Pinto, in recent years several South Asian actors have appeared in international projects.

Naman Ramachandran The South Asian House initiative is back at SXSW with the festival’s first-ever South Asian music showcase. Featured acts include Jay Dhami, Bodur, Simar, Avara, Meetu Chilana, The Tabla Queen, DJ Anupi, Bollyflow and The Diversity Band.

EXCLUSIVE: The Black List is opening submissions for six diversity lists in partnership with GLAAD, CAPE, the MPAC Hollywood Bureau, The Salon, the Latin Tracking Board, NALIP, 1IN4 Coalition, and the WGA Disabled Writers Committee, in addition to establishing the Desi List-–a new, curated list that will shine a light on the most promising feature scripts and pilots from South Asian writers.

One of India’s biggest stars has been announced as the first south Asian artist to perform at Manchester’s newest arena Co-Op Live.

Watching proceedings at this year’s Christmas pantomime at Manchester’s Contact theatre, you may be led to think that it’s service as normal when it comes to the panto tradition: Drags as dames - check, a classic fairy-tale - check, and family-appropriate innuendos - check, check, check. But, in reality, this festive production is making history in a number of ways.

EXCLUSIVE: Bohemian Rhapsody actor Ben Hardy and newcomer Jason Patel were kept apart during the pre-production phase of Unicorns, a love story between an Essex car mechanic and a South Asian drag queen.

Indian singer Harrdy Sandhu prophesizes that Punjabi music will take over the world (if it hasn’t already).

EXCLUSIVE: The UK has a new South Asian-focused film talk show.

The Daily Record launched the Our Kids…Our Future campaign in February 2023 after a series of shocking attacks involving children across Scotland.

A rapist has been jailed for nine years after sexually assaulting and raping five women.

Clarkson’s Farm producer Expectation is adapting author Pope Lonergan’s memoir about a decade spent caring for the elderly for TV.

A group of South Asian filmmakers, including Indian director Anurag Kashyap (Kennedy) and the team behind Pakistani Directors Fortnight title In Flames talked on a Cannes panel about how cinema can cross the political barriers that are keeping their countries apart. 

May is Asian Heritage Month, and to commemorate the occasion we’ve gathered five quotes from Priyanka Chopra, in which the “Citadel” star shares her insights on making her mark on Hollywood as a South Asian woman.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas couldn’t be prouder of the female actors of her generation.

Northern has teamed up with Community Rail Lancashire (CRL) – a not-for-profit organisation that provides a link between operators and the travelling public – to launch a project called Try the Train.

Naman Ramachandran British Asian actor and writer Ambreen Razia has secured a development deal with Expectation Entertainment (BAFTA-winning series “Alma’s Not Normal”) to write an original comedy drama series about addiction and postpartum depression between a South Asian mother and daughter. The series, which has the working title “Wasted,” will follow the story of a junior doctor and the ancestral legacy which looms over today’s generation of Muslim immigrants. As an actor Razia most recently played Shandy Fine in hit Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso.” Razia’s previous writing credits include “Hounslow Diaries” for BBC Three, which was adapted from the stage play “Diary of a Hounslow Girl,” a project that looked at the lives of modern Muslim girls in London. Recent stage plays include “POT” and “Favour.” She has also been part of the writers’ room for Channel 4’s BAFTA-winning series “We Are Lady Parts,” directed by Nida Manzoor, and Disney+ show “Extraordinary.”

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Nearly a week after the Oscars, the hurt and disappointment of a missed opportunity still weighs heavily on the minds of some South Asian American dancers, who are setting out to ensure it never happens again. Many in the South Asian dance community were dismayed by the astonishing dearth of South Asian representation in the “Naatu Naatu” performance at Sunday’s Academy Awards. While singers Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava were on hand to perform their hit tune from Tollywood smash “RRR” — which made history for India that night by winning best original song — they were joined on stage by not a single dancer of South Asian heritage.

told IndieWire it would be “incorrect” to say that there were few, if any, without clarifying further.)The Academy did not comment further on the backlash. In an interview with AMPAS’ magazine A.frame, producer Raj Kapoor said he worked with the film’s creative team – including producers, public relations representatives, and composer M.M.

EXCLUSIVE: Management company Grandview has promoted Shivani Doraiswami and Brennan O’Donnell to manager.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas is opening up about finally earning as much as her male costar in Hollywood. The Indian and South Asian actor is starring in Prime Video’s Citadel where she shares the leading role with Game of Thrones alum Richard Madden.

While promoting HBO Max’s Velma at New York Comic Con Thursday, star and EP Mindy Kaling admitted that she was surprised by the social media reaction to her decision to make the beloved character a South Asian girl.

Naman Ramachandran For Shoba Narayan, the Indian American lead of Aditya Chopra’s “Come Fall In Love – The DDLJ Musical,” the Broadway-bound production is a dream come true. Chopra’s U.S. stage musical reimagining of his immensely popular 1995 Bollywood film “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge,” commonly abbreviated to DDLJ, addresses the need for cultural unification in a divided world. Narayan plays Simran, a young Indian-American woman whose future is set via an arranged marriage back in India to a family friend. But when she convinces her strict father that she should spend a summer of freedom and fun in Europe, she falls for the charming Rog (Austin Colby), and her plans go out the window.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and Media IFC Films has acquired North American rights to “Four Samosas,” a romantic comedy set in the Little India neighborhood of Los Angeles. The film premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. IFC will release “Four Samosas” in theaters and on demand on Dec. 2, 2022.  Ravi Kapoor directs and Venk Potula (“Veep”) leads an ensemble cast that includes Sonal Shah, Sharmita Bhattacharya, Nirvan Patnaik, Karan Soni, Summer Bishil, and Meera Simhan. The film centers on wanna-be South Asian American rapper, Vinny (Potula), who along with three friends — all of them first-time thieves — plans to rob a grocery store owned by his ex-girlfriend’s father, in order to steal her wedding diamonds and disrupt her pending engagement. 

Angelique Jackson With Netflix’s “Never Have I Ever” now speeding toward its senior season, series star Maitreyi Ramakrishnan shared what sets it apart from other high school shows — its heart.“We pack a punch into a good old half-hour comedy,” Ramakrishnan told Variety in an interview ahead of the show’s Season 3 launch. “It’s very heartwarming. Real things are being spoken about, in a way that it’s natural.

Mindy Kaling is opening yup about B.J. Novak's title as godfather to her two children!The actress and TV creator walked the red carpet at the premiere of season three of her series, held at the Westwood Village Theater in Los Angeles on Thursday, and she opened up to ET's Denny Directo about how Novak is as a godparent.«He's very good with children!» Kaling shared.

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.