In 2002 in the American journalist Daniel Pearl, South Asian Bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, was researching a story on shoe bomber Richard Reid. The story drew him to Karachi where a go-between had promised access to an elusive source. As he left for the meeting, he told his wife Mariane he might be late for dinner. He never returned.

A film on the life the journalist, starring Angelina Jolie as his wife, opens across theatres in America tomorrow. A Mighty Heart will then open in India on September 14th. The film also stars actor Irfan Khan (The Warrior, Namesake) and British actress Archie Panjabi (Bend it Like Beckham).

DJ San-j-Sanj is working on a new project, with backing from a major international record company, to compile an album for the 60th independance day of India and Pakistan in August

“I need songs for the album which reflect peace, none of the lyrics should look back to 60 years ago or any mention of India or Pakistan or any country. The album is about world peace, you can sing about war, knife/gun culture etc and in any language,” he told AIM magazine.

There is no cash advance budget but there will be a contract for royalties on sales. An ad campaign and video is also planned. Interested musicians can get in touch by email: bollyparty@hotmail.com

The BBC’s attempt to revive Jade Goody’s career through an interview with Piers Morgan, for You Can’t Fire Me, I’m Famous, will be broadcast next month. The new series was originally pushed back until Autumn.

It will feature Morgan talking with Goody about the events surrounding this year’s crisis-hit Celebrity Big Brother. Morgan is seen as largely sympathetic towards Goody during filming and sources say he blamed much of her situation on her upbringing and the public’s obsession with celebrity. Goody frequently breaks down in tears during the interview.

Earlier this year television producers told AIM magazine it was ‘a scandal’.

Actor Kabir Bedi will join William Hague MP, Ian McCartney MP and Michael Moore MP, on June 19th 2007 at the House of Commons to hold a birthday reception for the world’s only Nobel Peace prize political prisoner, Aung San Suu Kyi.

She is the democratically elected leader of Burma and is to spend her 62nd birthday in isolation under the rule of the military junta. This is the 11th birthday she has endured while under house arrest. Theatres and venues across the world are joining together to read an extract of a new play about her on the day.
Media contact: Suki Dusanj on 0207 324 4716

On June 16th BBC Asian Network will launch a flagship Bollywood show called Love Bollywood. Passionate and irreverent in style, the four-hour show every Saturday will focus on the latest Bollywood releases and star interviews. Another four-hour show on Sunday will provide industry hits - classic and new - that shape the world’s biggest film industry.

Sheetal Parmar, the show’s producer says of the new show, “Love Bollywood is an in depth look at Bollywood films, the stars and the industry, but for the first time, it’ll be predominantly about the audience and their experience of it. Many British Asians have been brought up with Bollywood and it’s a part of their cultural make up whether they like it or not! It’s ambitious and bold, and very exciting to be able to produce something like this.”

Bollywood aficionados Raj& Pablo will be presenting on Saturday, whilst Asian Network and Zee TV’s Murtz will present on Sunday with Rajini Vaidynathan, from Radio 1.

Rajini says: “People might think it’s a bit odd me doing this with a background from News, but anyone who knows me will know I’m mad about Bollywood, just like most British Asians who’ve been brought up on a diet of Bollywood films. I’m really happy to be involved with something so different, and to be able to indulge in a guilty pleasure!”

A retrospective exhibition dedicated to the paintings of controversial Pakistani artist, Tasaduq Sohail, will open at The Noble Sage Gallery on 20th June.

Sohail fled his homeland in 1961 to start a new life in the UK. Though far away, the oppression and violence that he encountered as a young man after partition never left him. The paintings in this exhibition, all executed in London, respond to his past with a biting, satirical wit as much as with a strange, macabre vision of the world.

Rebellious and prolific, Tasaduq Sohail is today certainly one of the most renowned contemporary artists of Pakistan. At 77 years old, he has had over 40 solo exhibitions to date, more than 25 in Pakistan and 15 internationally. A month back, a painting sold for well above double the starting estimate at a Bonhams auction. Sohail is finally enjoying the success he deserves after more than forty years of toil to break the London art scene.

The British Film Institute is collaborating with Nitin Sawhney and the London Symphony Orchestra to present a live accompaniment to a very rare silent film film called A Throw of Dice in Trafalgar Square on Thursday 30th August.

The film has been restored by the BFI. It is a splendid epic of love and loss where a woman’s fate relies on A Throw of Dice.

Directed by Franz Osten, a German, it was filmed in India and is a very rare example of an early film made in India. It is also hugely entertaining and Nitin Sawhney’s score (soon to be released on CD) makes for a very special experience.

Lord of the Rings, the first major stage adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic trilogy, will premiere in London at Theatre Royal Drury Lane on Tuesday 19 June. The production has been billed by critics as a mesmerising and spectacular theatrical event, featuring an ensemble of over 70 actors, singers and musicians.

It will feature music by Bollywood composer, A.R. Rahman, along with performances from Finland’s most contemporary folk music group, Värttinä.

A London television production company is developing an enquiring and quirky documentary to be shown on British TV about people in the UK who share a bed every night, looking at the myriad of behaviours we deal with while falling asleep, staying asleep and waking up each morning beside a partner.

Mixing light-hearted humour and serious analysis, it’ll explore the daily routines and realities of sharing a bed with another person, revealing much that is important - and much perhaps that isn’t so important - about sleep, relationships and modern British society.
To find out more, go to www.bedsharing.co.uk

Writer Preethi Nair, author of Gypsy Masala, 100 Shades of White and Blue Indigo, will be presenting a story-telling workshop next week in London. The event will aim to help people learn how to write a short story , to think more creatively and communicate more effectively.

Saturday 16th June; 10am - 4:30pm; Waterstones, Picadilly, London. It will cost £60 per person and all proceeds will be donated to Multiple Sclerosis charities. To book or find out more email: maria@kissthefrognow.com or go to: preethinair.com

London Calling! filmmaker Tanuj Chopra will have the UK premeire of his award-winning Sundance film, Punching At The Sun, at the Declaration of Independence Film Festival later this week. It is the first South Asian feature length film to be in Sundance.

South Asian immigrant culture, post 9/11 politics, interracial relationships, violent streets, and the American firestorm of hip-hop culture all mix into a fierce concoction in Tanuj Chopra’s vibrant and spirited first feature, Punching at the Sun. Elmhurst, Queens, is a rough place for Mameet Nayak, a beautiful 17-year-old South Asian immigrant with a passion for basketball and a hair-trigger temper. It gets rougher when his older brother, Sanjay, is gunned down in the family convenience store.

More on the film and screening times here.
On June 5th there will also be an after-party at @ Horse Hospital from 9pm, hosted by DJ Rekha from NYC’s Basement Bhangra.
Contact: information@punchingatthesun.com.

The former editor of west-Yorkshire based newspaper Asian Leader has launched a new freesheet starting this month. Anasudhin Azeez edited the Johnston Press owned paper before resigning from the newspaper when it lost a court battle.

His new venture, Asian Lite, will be a monthly title launching in June. Though it will have a cover price of 70p, it will be distributed free for the first six months.The editorial office is situated in Manchester, with production being run out of Rochdale and printing across in Leeds. He said the paper would differentiate itself by running positive stories on Asian achievement in Britain.

BBC Birmingham - Inside Out West Midlands is looking for contributors for a film about skin lightening products. Do you know anyone who has used these creams and has had a bad experience? Or do you know of anyone who is using these creams and is very happy with the results? If so contact researcher Holly Bradbury on 0121 567 6184 or email holly.bradbury@bbc.co.uk.

Top Indian broadcaster NDTV has flown London-based chef and author Manju Malhi to Delhi where she will present a series offering “bland” British dishes to the local over spiced palates.

From Welsh Rarebit and Neeps and Tatties to Cod Roe and Chips, can the international image of ‘tasteless and unimaginative’ British grub be blitzed by well-known TV cook Manju’s influencing crusade in the kingdom of curry? “The proof of the pudding will definitely be in the eating,” she says. NDTV broadcasts on Indian cable TV to a potential audience of 50 million viewers.