If you thought Asian parents did not have enough Indian dramas to choose from, fear not, now there is even more choice of lightning special-effects and extended crying scenes.

Indian broadcaster NDTV, known for its leading news channel of the same name, is launching NDTV Imagine in Britain this week. It hopes to challenge rival Star Plus in its dominance of soap operas.
Continue reading…

Manju Malhi is an British chef and food writer, specialising in Anglo-Indian cuisine. She was raised in North West London where she grew up surrounded by Indian culture, traditions and lifestyles.

She came to prominence in 1999 when she won a competition to find a guest chef for the BBC’s Food and Drink programme and cooked with Antony Worrall Thompson on the show.

What is the Easy Indian Cookbook?
Easy Indian Cookbook is basically what it says on the tin. It’s a spiral bound book of recipes that are simple to follow. It is a book for those who have never dabbled in India cuisine but have wanted to try out and experiment. I have really had to go back to basics with the recipes because the book is also for the American and the Australian market.
Continue reading…

Arun Sarin has long been considered the most powerful person of Asian origin working in the British media sphere by this magazine. But the chief executive of Vodafone, a company that is certain to be a big player in the growing mobile media and advertising market, announced yesterday that he was planning to step down.
Continue reading…

Former chat show host and criminal lawyer, Ritu Sethi, has been nominated for a prestigious First Woman Achievement Award in the Business Services category.

The awards ceremony is hosted by the Confederation of British Industry and celebrates women that are trailblazers and leading pioneers in business. The winners will be announced on Wednesday June 11th at the Marriott, Grosvenor Square, London.

Ritu Sethi hosted Chai With Ritu on the Leicester based terrestrial channel MATV. She is a partner at Sethi Partnership Solicitors.

Ethnic marketing specialist Pink Kiwi is hosting a media conference this week, titled: Minorities in the Media: A United Solution. The two-day event, which will take place in London on the 28th and 29th of May will be hosted by broadcaster Henry Bonsu and BBC presenter Mishal Hussain.
Continue reading…

by Yasmin Hai
Writer and journalist

Alas, business was never better for me – a British journalist with a Muslim heritage – than in the months following 9/11. Every week brought a phone call from some television company offering me work on a documentary, which might help ‘uncover’, ‘understand’, ‘unravel’ or ‘unveil’ who Muslims really were.

And while I welcomed the job opportunities, very rarely was I asked to work on a film that related to the Muslims I knew. In fact, more often than not, my colleagues had already decided who Muslims were: an alien and incomprehensible people.

While this might have been reason enough to write a memoir about the community I had grown up in, I held back. Being a ‘secular’ Muslim, I had fallen for the Fundamentalists’ propaganda, now bolstered by the British media, and didn’t believe I had anything to contribute.

But this soon changed.
Continue reading…

London School of Economics PHD student Helen Kim sent this:

I’m looking for people, men and women, between the ages of 18-35 who listen to Asian music (bhangra, bollywood, desi beats, desi hip hop) AND go out to Asian nights in London, who would be willing to talk about their club-going and music choices, as well as how their music tastes reflect their identity.
I am open to all forms of interviews, such as face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews and over email.

If interested, contact: h.kim2@lse.ac.uk

BBC News reporter Angela Saini has won a prestigious European journalism award, the Prix Circom, for an investigation into bogus universities that was broadcast on BBC London and the Ten O’Clock News in January 2008. It was also featured in the Guardian newspaper and New Statesman magazine.

(left to right: producers Nigel Morris and Sharif Sakr, with Angela Saini, president of Circom Anita Bhalla and BBC London TV editor Antony Dore)

The investigative piece won the BBC London Programme the best Magazine Programme award, which was presented at a ceremony in the Slovenian city of Maribor. 27-year-old Angela has been a reporter at BBC London for almost two years, prior to which she was a ITN News trainee.

“It’s great to see your work recognised internationally.” she told AIM Magazine.

60×60 Secs, the first project of 360º Britain India Pakistan, was launched this week by Moti roti.
Trailer

Continue reading…

Digital radio station has promoted Husain Husaini from head of news to head of programmes. The new role was created within the management team and he will be focused on delivering the station’s editorial strategy and output over the coming years.

Andy Parfitt, currently controller of Asian Network along with other BBC stations, said: “We are building a very strong leadership team. Husain has an excellent track record of delivery and I am looking forward to building Asian Network’s editorial ambitions.”

There is internal speculation that Husaini is being groomed to eventually take over as head of Asian Network. That position is currently being held by Vijay Sharma.

Punch Records director Ammo Talwar is being awarded an MBE in the Queen’s New Years Honours List for 2008, for his services to the music industry.

Others named in this years list include OBEs for Kylie Minogue, George Alagiah and Jazzie B, a knighthood to Michael Parkinson and MBEs for Brian Ashton, England’s head Rugby coach and John Higgins, the current world professional snooker champion.
Continue reading…

Sathnam Sanghera was born to Punjabi parents in the West Midlands in 1976, attended Wolverhampton Grammar School and graduated from Christ’s College, Cambridge with a first class degree in English Language and Literature in 1998.

His weekly Business Life column appears in The Times on Saturdays and he also reviews cars for Management Today magazine. His first book, If You Don’t Know Me By Now, is published by Penguin in Spring 2008 He lives in South London.

This is an exclusive interview with the young writer on the subject of his book.
Continue reading…

The British Heart Foundation has launched another marketing campaign specifically focusing on British Asians.

It concides with a new BHF survey revealing that four in five South Asians over 55 would not phone 999 first if they experienced central chest pain, even though they are one of the groups at highest risk of a heart attack.

It is part of the Doubt Kills campaign.
Continue reading…

In a lecture to the Royal Society of Arts this week, BBC Chairman Sir Michael Lyons said this, among other things:

Let me take as an example how the BBC can improve on its record of reaching ethnic minority audiences.

It has the scale and scope to be able to offer targeted channels such as the Asian Network, or BBC 1Xtra, the digital station for young black urban audiences. But the need to reach everyone should not be an excuse to go on creating more services. The BBC must also find ways to bring those audiences into mainstream output. That’s a real challenge, but it can be done.

There was an outstanding example on BBC One recently in the Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency, a wonderfully warm-hearted piece, set in Botswana, demonstrating all the hallmarks of high quality: good writing, great acting, strong production-values and so on.

Nearly 7 million people watched – well above the average for the Sunday night slot. And they loved what they saw – the appreciation index was significantly higher than the average for drama. But what was really interesting was that it drew a large black audience – much higher than the average for BBC One.

So it is possible to bring diverse audiences together to share a common BBC experience – if the BBC is prepared to take the necessary risks – in this case showcasing at primetime on the flagship channel an entirely black cast with Botswanan accents in an African setting.

Well said. But who is going to get the BBC Channel commissioners to listen? Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency was a wonderful piece of drama, but how often does something like that get commissioned?

Ever wondered what it must feel like to have started the Asian underground revolution? To have made 15 Bhangra albums, received gold discs and had your name in the Guinness book of records? Continue reading…

Producer / Director Fahima Sahabdeen of Sae University is casting for her final student short film production Terrorised. Continue reading…

by Satinder Chohan
Playwright

I began writing my first play ‘Zameen’ after reading about farmer suicides across India and in my ancestral homeland of Punjab.

I had always imagined Punjab as a lush green, mythological land of sturdy farmers, saints and warriors but discovered that in recent years, an ‘economics of genocide’ had driven thousands of its farmers to suicide.

According to vastly underestimated official figures, 150,000 Indian farmers took their own lives between 1997 and 2007. It was a story I felt compelled to tell.
Continue reading…

Singer Jay Sean releases his new album, My Own Way, from today. The album is available from most music retailers.

Nikita Lalwani’s multiple award nominated debut novel Gifted has been turned into a drama for BBC Radio 4. The drama serial will broadcast in the mornings next week.

Its cast will include Archie Panjabi, Sadia Ghaffar, Nina Wadia and Sagar Arya.
Continue reading…

British actress Rebecca Hazlewood’s new film – Kissing Cousins – has started doing the festival rounds in Los Angeles. The former Crossroads star left for Los Angeles a few years ago and returns to London on occasion.

Kissing Cousins is produced by Amyn Kaderali and Manish Goyal. Both were behind Call Center, a short film that became very popular on the web.

Kissing Cousins played at the Asian Pacific Film Festival last week and is currently touring other film festivals in the United States.
Continue reading…

BBC Asian Network’s publicist Dina Rana has moved on to the corporation’s Future Media team, to work on projects such as BBC iPlayer. Her last day with Asian Network will be Friday May 16th.

Her position will be filled by Andrew Bate, who previously handled publicity for Asian Network as well as Radio Five Live.

B4U Music has become the first and so far the only Asian channel to launch on the newly launched free-to-air satellite service: Freesat.

The BBC and ITV backed service will reach almost all of the UK and feature over 80 free digital channels – television, radio, interactive – plus high definition (HD) services from the BBC and ITV. Launched last week in the UK, Freesat has no subscription and no contract. It offers high definition digital television for for a one off payment, starting at £49.99, and an £80 installation fee.

It is unlikely many of the major Asian satellite channels will migrate to the service. A significant number of the big players including Sony, Zee and B4U still charge charge a monthly subscription via Sky. B4U Music is B4U’s only free to air channel.
www.freesat.co.uk

Health experts in the Midlands have produced a magazine specifically targetting British Asians to inform them about potentially fatal diseases.

The magazine, titled Apnee Sehat (Your Health), has been produced with help from the Department of Health and was was launched a fortnight ago by Prince Charles at an event in Coventry.

A number of DVDs and other educational pamphlets have also been produced to encourage older generation British Asians to learn more about a healthy lifestyle.
Continue reading…

A new play produced by Kali Theatre illustrates the impact of disastrous environmental damage and devastating effect on human lives by Genetically Modified seeds and Western pesticides in India.
Continue reading…

BBC Asian Network saw a massive jump in listeners over the last three months, figures released by the industry body Rajar showed this week.

In contrast Sunrise Radio, Kismat and Club Asia radio did not do so well.
Continue reading…