Former Club Asia presenter is one of the shortlisted few in a 4Talent magazine, published by Channel 4.

The 21 year old radio and television personality is among five nominated for the Off-Air Radio 4Talent Awards 2008. The full list is here.

Author Rashmita Patel has just published her second teenage novel – Web of Lies.

We ask her what makes her tick and why she likes writing books for teenagers.

What do you do other than write?

I work as a School Librarian. I have been working at Alumwell Business & Enterprise College for the last 14 years.

How did you first find the inspiration to write and what drove you to finish it?

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Nafeesa Shan, a reporter on the Lancashire Telegraph, last night won the GG2 Young Journalist of the Year award.

The GG2 awards are an annual event held by Asian Media & Marketing Group to award high achievers in various categories. In total 11 awards were handed out.

Nafeesa was also shortlisted for Young Journalist of the Year at this year’s 17th annual North West Newspaper Awards.

27 year old journalist Angela Saini has left the BBC to go freelance.
AIM magazine asks whether it was a wise decision to make, and why.

You’ve just won an award for your work at the BBC. Why leave now?

Although I love news reporting, I always really wanted to be a science journalist. Winning a high-profile award for a major investigation opened up lots of doors, but rather than go down a route not meant for me, I decided to follow my dream.

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The London Film Festival has announced a major event for this year’s calendar titled: UK and India:The Shape of Things to Come.

Co-sponsored by the UK Film Council, it will explore the implications of the recent UK-India co-production treaty.
www.lff.org.uk

Director Smita Bhide’s debut feature film, The Blue Tower, has been nominated for Best UK Feature at the Raindance Film Festival this year.

The film’s stars include Manjinder Virk (Britz), Kayvan Novak (Fonejacker), Indira Joshi (Kumars at No 42), Madhav Sharma (Coronation Street) and Abhin Galeya (The Bill’s Arun Ghir, pictured) as the hapless hero, Mohan.
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A new novel by writer Hema Macherla is published next month in the UK, after getting top billing on the chat-show Richard and Judy.

Breeze from The River Manjeera was picked as a finalist on the program’s book competition, reaching the final 26 out of 44,000 entries, an incredible achievement for a book written in the author’s second language.

Hema was was born in a village in the state of Andhra Pradesh, South India. She came to the UK in 1977 speaking very little English. She lives with her husband in London and has two grown up children.
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Earlier this year, the activist Zerbanoo Gifford published a book on the achievements of Asian women from across the world. Ms Gifford is the director of Asha Foundation and holds the Nehru Centenary award for her international work, championing the rights of women, children and minorities.

She made history by being elected as the first non-white woman Liberal councillor in 1982, and has stood three times for parliament and has been a member of the Home Secretary’s Race Relations Forum, and she has chaired the Commission, ‘Looking into ethnic minority involvement in British Life’.

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The Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival has announce that this year’s programme includes eight films from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. This is part of a worldwide selection of over 180 feature films and over 100 shorts from more than 40 countries.

The Festival runs from October 15 –October 30.
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The former BBC head of the Asian Programmes Unit has said the division has been an “integral part of BBC television for more than 40 years”, on the eve of his leave to Sony.

AIM magazine has learnt that Gurdip Bhangoo (pictured), who was until recently executive producer at the APU, is leaving the corporation to become head of programming at Sony Entertainment Television in India. He will start on 1st October and report to Albert Almeida, business head, SET India.

The move has raised doubts about the future of the Asian Programmes Unit, which has always been the subject of great affection amongst British Asians.
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by Nisha Sahdev
Freelance PR and journalist

Born in London and raised in the West Midlands Punam Verma began her career as a travel presenter for Trafficlink 6 years ago and then went on to becoming a Journalist with BBC WM. She also presented the radio show ‘Midlands Masala’ occasionally.

Today – Punam Verma is the first British Asian Presenter for Dubai One TV. She writes and presents her own entertainment show called ‘Out & About’, which is broadcast all over the Middle East.

How did you get a job in television?

After working as a radio presenter for many years I was looking to expand my skills. By complete fluke I received a junk email. I was about to delete it, but I decided to open it. At the bottom of the mail was an advert saying ‘Dubai TV looking for new Presenters’. The job wasn’t even advertised in the UK.

Anyway – I sent them a 2 minute showreel I had put together, via email. In the meantime they were casting 40 people in Dubai. About 5 days letter I received an email saying that I had been offered my own TV show. They hadn’t met me and I hadn’t met them. We both had to take a leap of faith.

2 weeks later I quit my job at the BBC and was on a plane to Dubai!
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Getting into Publishing is Penguin Group’s annual open day for students and graduates, particularly those from ethnic minority backgrounds with an interest in Publishing, to learn more about opportunities at Penguin and in publishing.

The day consists of morning and afternoon presentations from senior employees of the company and a networking lunch in the afternoon where candidates have the opportunity to meet senior managers of the company.
Date: Thursday 20th November 2008; 10am – 2pm
Location: 80 Strand, London, WC2R 0RL
To attend: Please send a CV to gettingintopublishing@penguin.co.uk by 31st October 2008.

Actress Zahra Ahmadi, also known as Shabnam Masood on Eastenders, has reportedly quit her role in the popular BBC soap.

The 29-year-old actress said she wanted to leave in order to pursue other projects. There are reports that she was frustrated by a lack of storylines for her character.

In a statement she said: “I’ve made the tough decision to leave as I’m still young and I want to try other roles. But I’m really happy the door has been left open for me to return as it has been a great experience.”

Eastenders executive producer Diederick Santer said: “Zahra is a fine actress, even though she’s leaving, the door is always open for her to return. The Masood family have been a great addition to Albert Square so there’s plenty more to come from them in future.”

A source told the magazine Digital Spy yesterday: “Zahra’s leaving slightly earlier than expected, but the rest of the Masoods are sticking around and they’ve got some big stuff coming up in the autumn.”

The Masoods were introduced to Albert Square last year, with Goodness Gracious Me actress Nina Wadia most prominently playing Shabnam’s mother Zainab.

The BBC has appointed its executive Seetha Kumar as controller for bbc.co.uk, the popular internet arm of the corporation. She will lead editorial strategy and development for the website.

The new role was created following a BBC Trust review that said it lacked “editorial direction and strong management”. Seetha Kumar joined the BBC in 2005 and has been director for crime and health documentaries and head of lifeskills for television.

US company Levi’s Jeans has signed Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar for a new campaign to market its 501® jeans across India and other emerging markets.

Actress Seeta Indrani, best known for her part in ITV drama The Bill as WPC Norika Datta, has joined the cast of the BBC hospital drama Doctors.

AIM magazine can reveal that the actress has already started filming her character, and is due to appear on television soon.

She will play the part of Dr Lily Hassan. A source said it has been written as a long term character rather than just for a few episodes.

The Juice are a London based Rock band who continually play at gigs across the country.

Featured last year in an episode of the BBC Asian arts programme Desi DNA, where they played as backup instrumentalists for the pop singer Deeyah, the band say they have done over a hundred gigs just in the capital city. (Video below)
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How do young Muslims in Britain get through Ramadan? Comedienne Ayesha Hazarika respects her faith but has never fasted during the Holy Month. Leading up to this year’s Ramadan, Ayesha and filmmaker Irshad Ashraf travel the country to see if other young Muslims are equally casual about their faith. Ayesha is challenged to keep a fast and finds that many of her peers are making remarkable religious choices. Will Ayesha’s journey change her? The Funny Thing About Ramadan inter cuts live performance with Ayesha’s journey of self discovery.

The show features interviews with the cool new Imam of Finsbury mosque, a Muslim fashion designer from Glasgow who took part in the Apprentice, a couple of giggly Muslim teenagers from St Albans who give advice on how to make it through Ramadan, two white Muslim women whose parents converted to Islam on the Moroccan hippy trail, and a Muslim Hip Hop couple from London.

Documentary,Wednesday 10 Sep 11.25 BBC1

Eastern Eye announced yesterday that it was planning to hold its annual Asian Business Awards on 19th November.

As with every year, the ABAs will be accompanied by Success magazine – which will publish an up-to-date audit of wealth for the richest 20 Asians in the UK and India’s 20 richest Indians. The magazine is published only once a year by Eastern Eye.

The Asian Business Awards will take place at Wembley Stadium.
www.easterneyeuk.co.uk