Midlands based presenter Shivani Mair has reached the top 20 in a web based Channel 4 competition to be one of the new faces of Channel 4. Born in London, Ms Mair presents her own radio show (the Creative Careers Surgery) and has worked in the past for MTV, Star TV, BBC WM, Propeller and Sense TV, Youth Net, Social Enterprise Coalition and more.

You can view Shivani’s contribution to the competition here. The winner gets a presenting trip to Miami and a spot on T4. A few years ago former B4U presenter Gurmej Pawar was among the finalists.

The Daily Mail on Friday published an extensive profile piece on actress and writer Meera Syal, with an interview about her career.

I can’t imagine there are many things left on Meera’s wish list. ‘It’s funny how your goalposts move as you get older,’ she agrees, self-deprecatingly.

‘In my 20s, I wanted to win an Oscar; in my 30s, I thought a Bafta would do, and these days, I have huge respect for people who are just able to survive and make a living as well as maintaining family life.’ But Meera is light years away from being your average working mother - she is a multi-talented overachiever with a dizzying number of accomplishments to her credit.

There are two bestselling novels, Anita And Me, and Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee, both of which were adapted for the screen. On top of that, she has written several other screenplays; had a number one Comic Relief pop hit, Spirit In The Sky, with Gareth Gates; and wrote the script for the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Bombay Dreams.

Rather than going down the traditional route of launching a print based magazine, Fatema Khatun and Shuhel Miah are walking the walk of the internet savvy, blogging generation. The two have launched InsideDesi, an entertainment focused webzine that will combine opinion, interviews and lifestyle.

Halima Khatun told AIM magazine: “Columnists are encouraged to use free reign when writing about news stories they see, and within reason, giving fair comment. It’s written by young people who are the target demographic for InsideDesi.”

The site has far featured interviews with musicians including Jay Sean, Karen David and Kazz of Sona Family. “InsideDesi fills a deficit in the current supply of Brit Asian entertainment news,” Ms Khatun adds.

Another day, another Daily Mail outrage. A Scottish police force’s new telephone number has sparked outrage from the Daily Mail after it found out that some Muslim shopkeepers could object to displaying the advert on their windows because it featured the picture of a puppy.

The newspaper declared that the advert had sparked “Muslim outrage” at the police advert, without actually finding anyone who was sufficiently outraged. One councillor Mohammed Asif did point out that: “My concern was that it’s not welcomed by all communities, with the dog on the cards. It was probably a waste of resources going to these communities.

They (the police) should have understood. Since then, the police have explained that it was an oversight on their part, and that if they’d seen it was going to cause upset they wouldn’t have done it.”

The Independent newspaper recently reported on the launch of Q magazine’s radio arm.

Interestingly, the station has poached young women presenters to overhaul its image:

Rather than a beardy bloke, Blaxill and Q editor Paul Rees, have chosen Samanthi (pictured) as their star turn, a former Xfm presenter who also works for DesiDNA, a BBC2 show on British Asian arts and entertainment. “She’s in her mid-20s and is absolutely consumed by music and film. It would have been easier for us to secure that 40-year-old white guy, but it’s required more depth and thought to bring Samanthi on board,” says Blaxill.

Samanthi will be presenting the Qpm show at 6pm-9pm from Monday to Friday but Q Radio will move further into leftfield on Sunday evenings when, Amber and Nisha, The Broken Hearts, move into the studio. The Broken Hearts are one of London’s most fashionable DJ acts – described by this newspaper as “A Hollywood musical on hallucinogenics”.

A good development, no doubt, that British Asians are being seen past their skin colour and being recognised for their diverse music tastes. Well done to Samanthi for making the move.

The Hackney Empire in London is hosting a season of performances exploring creativity, citizenship and culture by London’s next generation of artists
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A new publishing company going by the name of ‘Revenge Ink’ has launched in the UK to challenge the conventions of the mainstream, highbrow publishing industry by showcasing cutting-edge works from “subversive” new writers.

Two siblings - Amita and Gopal Mukerjee founded the company to “promote strong voices and take on emotionally driven and inspiring projects”, and to “encourage edgy ‘outside-the-box’ thinking”, they said.
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Birmingham City University is hosting a conference on 10th July, with an aim to move forward the diversity debate and dealing with difference in the media industry.
update: Please note, this event has now been postponed to later this year.
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Celebrated rock photographer Peter Sanders has launched a collection of work showcasing the diversity and beauty of the Islamic world. Peter Sanders, who made his name photographing famous rock and roll icons of the 1960s, has launched “In the Shade of the Tree”, documenting his travels around the Middle East.

The book illustrates Sanders four decades of travels and captures the humanity of peoples often labeled by the West as either victims of circumstance or a threat to modern culture.
www.inspiralbooks.com

Asians in Media magazine has partnered with the website ChilliTickets website to help promote cultural and other events to a wider audience. The arrangement has been tested on the website for the past month.

ChilliTickets has emerged as one of UK’s top Asian box-office websites, listing events and offering online tickets to a range of performances.

The arrangement will mean that ChilliTicket’s own listings and those added to the AIM website will now be together listed in the AIM Events section.

ChilliTickets.com was launched in March 2006 and recently acquired Asian Events UK to strengthen its position as UK’s top Asian events ticket provider. Among other event organisers, it recently announced a partnership with Watermans in West London and The Drum, Birmingham, to list their events.

The company says it wants to help theatre production companies sell as many tickets as possible through online transactions.

Sonny Kalar wants to be the Asian Guy Ritchie. Of writing, that is. He has self-published two novels and is working on his third, with more adult and children’s books planned.

AIM Magazine asked him a few questions.

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West London theatre venue Watermans, home to numerous Asian productions over past decades, has won a small legal battle over its funding row with the Arts Council.

Earlier this year the Arts Council made a decision to withdraw its funding from the venue, puttings its future into serious jeopardy.
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Two ITV News teams held a Sikhism Awareness day last week to educate its journalists about the religion.

The day was hosted by news department and organised by reporter J. Singh-Sohal to introduce ITV journalists to Sikhism and inform them of the basics of the Sikh faith.
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A new Birmingham based project will look at how corner shops in the Black Country have changed over the past decades, and turn it into art.
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A new British Asian magazine is set to be launched this summer by MeMedia chief executive Neena Kent.

Henna magazine will focus primarily on fashion and lifestyle, with a twinge of Bollywood.

Its publishers says the magazine will aim its editorial at the “high end haute AB demographic”.

Published by Elbrook Management, it will be edited by journalist Ashanti Omkar.

Tamasha Theatre is inviting applications for its annual New Writing programme. The intensive two-week course seeks to develop the artistic individuality of its participants.

Tamasha is the award-winning company behind productions like East is East, Strictly Dandia, A Fine Balance and The Trouble with Asian Men.

Potential applicants may be a young, aspiring playwright wanting a bridge into professional employment, or an established artist looking to develop their skills in writing for theatre.
See this page for more info.

The Guardian newspaper reported yesterday that writer and media psychiatrist Raj Persaud is fighting to save his career:

One of Britain’s best-known psychiatrists began a battle to save his consultant’s job yesterday after admitting wholesale plagiarism in a book and articles which underpinned his celebrity media career.

Dr Raj Persaud sat quietly at a General Medical Council hearing as the scale of his profiting from “the hard work and scholarship of others” was catalogued and described as making him unfit to practise.

He was also accused of trying to blame subeditors for cutting out acknowledgments which had never existed. Jeremy Donne QC, counsel for the GMC, said that repeated dishonesty had been deliberately used to “enhance his professional reputation and standing with the public and the press”.

A documentary on BBC Radio 4 today will ask wether British Asians are failing to provide and care for their elderly parents as extended families split up and become less traditional.

Yasmeen Khan travels around the UK to find out whether culturally-specific care services are provided for elderly Asians, and asks whether there is a failure to provide for those whose language, nutritional and religious needs are varied and complex.

A Failure to Provide? - 16th June 8 - 8:30pm. You can also listen to the doc after its been broadcast through iPlayer.

Bollywood dance coach Honey Kalaria’s annual Bollywood Dance Championships will be held this year at the Hackney Empire in London on 8th July.

Event organisers say it is the UK’s biggest Bollywood dance competition and entrants from all over the country will be performing at the event, which is being covered by Club Asia Radio.

The winner will be flown to India and be awarded a modelling contract. They will also receive extensive training Honey’s Dance Academy to become a professional dancer.

The prestigious Indian newspaper Tehelka is holding its annual India-Pakistan forum next week at London’s Royal Society of Arts. The event will host prominent political, cultural and opinion leaders from India and Pakistan to debate issues from the two countries.
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The Indian music company Saregama is launching a music CD and series of tours around Britain to commemorate the Indian singer Mohammad Rafi.

At an event at the Nehru Centre in London on Tuesday 17th June, a CD album titled ‘Rafi Resurrected’ will be unveiled by the late Mohd Rafi’s eldest grandson Rizvan Rafi.

A national tour with Indian singer Sonu Nigam will follow in July: at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham(15th July); Manchester’s Apollo Theatre (17th July) and the London Coliseum (20th July). Sony Entertainment Television Asia will broadcast all concerts.

With her book, Making a Fortune - Learning from the Asian Phenomenon, recently published, author Spinder Dhaliwal writes to tell of the entrepreneurs who inspired it.

by Spinder Dhaliwal
Author

At the cutting edge of the British entrepreneurial community are Asian businesses. Asian wealth in the UK now is more diverse and crosses from first through to second and third generations.

This emerging and evolving Asian business community spans manufacturing, entertainment, fashion, hotels, property, food and pharmaceuticals.

Whilst programmes like the Apprentice and Dragon’s Den have popularised the brash go getting entrepreneur, in reality it is hard work, perseverance and true grit that has seen the Asian business community flourish in the UK.
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Actor Sanjeev Bhaskar is to join the cast of the multi award-winning Monty Python’s Spamalot.

He will be crowned as the new Arthur, the King of the Britons, following in the footsteps of Tim Curry, Simon Russell Beale, Peter Davison and Alan Dale.
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Irish broadcaster Setanta Sports is making a more aggressive push for cricket coverage from South Asia, announcing this week it is has secured the exclusive rights to this year’s Asia Cup, the one day cricket series from Pakistan.
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The former EMAP executive Dharmash Mistry, named by AIM magazine a few years ago as one of the most powerful Asians in British media, has been hired by Balderton Capital.

The venture capital firm has invested in companies including Bebo, Betfair and Setanta.
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