sree.net > tv > american desi

Sree interviews Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro - one of Time's "100 most influential people in the world" and the India's richest man.

AMERICAN DESI, a new 24/7 satellite network aimed at second-generation South Asians across the U.S., airing on DISH Network.

NOTE: FREE preview all through the month of April on DISH Network Channel 599 - free!

Sree Sreenivasan, SAJA co-founder, WABC-TV reporter and Columbia journalism professor, hosts three one-hour shows interviewing South Asian achievers in different walks of life and non-South Asians of interest to a South Asian audience. The shows run M, W, F in primetime and are repeated on weekends.

TV Tips for guests on the show: general tips


A Real Player video of "How to Be a Guest on TV" by TJ Walker
- a great media trainer if you are ever in the market for one;
and author of "Media Training A-Z" - at TJWalker.com


Guests Interviewed for 30-minute Segments
as of April 7, 2005
- these shows have been taped and began airing Jan. 20
Need your guest ideas at sree@sree.net or fill-in this form.

  1. DETAILS + STUDIO:
    Each show is an hour long, with commercial breaks, and each guest is on-on-one with Sree for 24 minutes (we have six minutes of commercials). It's "live-to-tape" - which means we shoot in real time, with no editing. A different guest comes on for the second half-hour.

    TAPING DATES:

    Tuesday,   April 19
    Thursday, April 21
    Tuesday, April 26

    Thursday, May 5
    Tuesday, May 10
    Thursday, May 12
    Thursday, May 19
    Thursday, May 26
     
    Thursday, June 2
    Thursday, June 9

    We shoot three one-hour episodes back-to-back, alternating between Thursday and Tuesday mornings each week. Timings are usually:
    9:15-9:45 am
    9:55-10:25 am
    10:40-11:10 am
    11:20-11:50 am
    12:05-12:35 pm
    12:45-1:15 pm


    STUDIO:     We shoot at Stone Street Studios, 48 West 21st Street, 8th Floor (between 5th & 6th Aves)
    New York, NY 10010
    Nearest subways:
    1, 9, F, V, R, W
    Tel: 212.229.0020

    NOTE: FREE preview all through the month of April on DISH Network Channel 599 - free!
    Aladdin, veteran standup comic and actor
  2. Meena Alexander, poet and author of several books of poetry and the editor of the brand-new "Indian Love Poems"
  3. Prof. Susham Bedi, author of several books and director of Hindi & Urdu language education at Columbia University
  4. Arun Bhatia, NYC's leading South Asian real estate developer
  5. Pratap Chatterjee, author, "Iraq Inc: A Profitable Occupation"
  6. Aseem Chhabra, freelance writer
  7. Dr. Jyotsna Changrani, asst. director, Center for Immigrant Health, NYU
    School of Medicine
  8. Hon. Upendra Chivukula, Assembly man, New Jersey Assembly; one of only five people at this legislative level among South Asians across all 50 states.
  9. Jyoti Chopra, head of South Asian business for Merrill Lynch Global Private
    Client's Multicultural and Diversified Business Development Group
  10. Dennis Daniel, veteran India travel & tourism executive; director of sales, Mill Run Tours.
  11. Vijay Dandapani, CEO, Applecore Hotels and president of New York Hotel Association
  12. Dr. Sachi G. Dastidar, Distinguished Service Professor
    Politics, Economics and Society Department, State University of New York
    and founder, Probini Foundation
  13. Abha Dawesar, author of new novel, "Babyji" and one of Time Out New York's "Top 25 Who Will Make Their Mark in 2005."
  14. Shobhaa De, one of India's best-known authors & Time's "50 most powerful women in Asia"
  15. Sabrina Dhawan, screenwriter, "Monsoon Wedding"
  16. Shana Dressler, photographer - just did major photo exhibition about Ganesha Festival in Mumbai
  17. Melvin Durai, humor writer; only South Asian to make a living writing humor articles full time.
  18. Shandana Durrani, senior editor, Cigar Aficionado magazine
  19. Mallika Dutt, executive director, Breakthrough
  20. Prajit Dutta, founder of Gallery Arts India
  21. Mahnaz Fancy, museum curator and South Asian art expert
  22. Jonathan Foreman, former senior film critic & opinion writer, New York Post; wrote one of first articles documenting the influence of South Asian diaspora in America
  23. Jack Freker, CEO, Convergys; world's largest call center company; 10,000 employees in India now; 20,000 within a year
  24. Meera Gandhi, social entrepreneur & philanthropist
  25. Guy Garcia, author, "The New Mainstream" and former Time magazine staff writer
  26. Abraham George, author, India Untouched
  27. Anna Ghosh, literary agent, Scovil, Chichak, Galen; leading South Asian literary agent
  28. Leonard Gordon, historian, Columbia and CUNY professor; director of
    Taraknath Das Foundation
  29. Vanita Gupta, attorney with NAACP LDF; helped overturn the convictions of 45 black folks who were put in prison by a racist system, in Tulia, Texas (Halle Berry to play her in a movie)
  30. Pranay Gupte, brand-new business editor of The New York Sun;First South Asian foreign correspondent of The New York Times; founder/publisher of The Earth Times
  31. Deepti Hajela, newswoman, Associated Press; president, SAJA-South Asian
     Journalists Association

  32. Sree interviews Hon. Upendra Chivukula, Assembly man, New Jersey Assembly; one of only five people at this legislative level among South Asians across all 50 states.
    Deepa Iyer, executive director, SAALT - South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow
  33. Gautam Jain, vedantam teacher
  34. Sandhya Jain, one of only three South Asian art conservators in the U.S.
  35. Manish Jha, senior vice president, ESPN Mobile
  36. S. Mitra Kalita, author, "Suburban Sahibs" and Washington Post reporter
  37. Mira Kamdar, author, Motiba's Tattoos & foreign policy expert
  38. Shahid Khan, managing director, media & entertainment practice, Bearing Point
  39. Uzma Sarfraz Khan, (from Dubai!) director for Mideast & Africa for International Commission for Workforce Development; produced "honor killings" documentary for Oprah in 2002.
  40. Vikas Khanna, chef and teacher
  41. Reema Keswani, author of "Shinde Jewels" (biography of A.V. Shinde, creator of some of the world's most famous jewels while working as lead designer for Harry Winston)
  42. Paul Knox, playwright and writer; his "Gehri Dosti" (about same-sex relationships) is running to rave reviews Off Broadway
  43. Amitava Kumar, author, "Husband of a Fanatic"
  44. Meera Kumar, director of communications, Levin Graduate Institute of International Relations and Commerce
  45. Dilip Massand, Director of DCD Finance, former publisher, Masala

  46. Shandana Durrani, senior editor, Cigar Aficionado magazine
    Cyrus Mehta, leading immigration attorney
  47. Suketu Mehta, author, "Maximum City: Bombay Lost & Found" and Pulitzer finalist
  48. Ved Mehta, legendary Indian American writer; author of 25 books and former staff writer at the New Yorker for 35 years
  49. Naeem Mohaiemen, filmmaker and editor of Shobak.org
  50. Daniel Nainan, part-Indian, part-Japanese standup comic
    Last seen on NBC's "Last Comic Standing"
  51. Manu Narayan, star of "Bombay Dreams" on Broadway
  52. Asra Nomani, author, "Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam" and former Wall Street Journal reporter
  53. Sharmeen Obaid, award-winning documentary filmmaker for Discovery Channel and other major U.S. networks
  54. Azad Ommen, program officer, American India Foundation
  55. Anil Padmanabhan, India Today bureau chief
  56. Arthur Pais, senior editor, Rediff.com/India Abroad; cookbook author and
    observer of the diaspora
  57. Avani Patel, artist whose works explores the boundaries between eastern
    and western culture; member of State Department's Art in
    Embassies Program

  58. Meena Alexander, poet and author of several books of poetry and the editor of the brand-new "Indian Love Poems"
    Vibhuti Patel, senior editor, Newsweek
  59. Carol Perry, senior director of broadcasting, IF Mangament; leading TV talent
    agent of South Asian origin
  60. Shankar Rao Pollapalle, founder, the HELP Foundation
  61. Annapurna Potluri, writer and winner of Asian American Writers Workshop fellowship
  62. Rajika Puri, dancer, actress, writer, performer
  63. Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro Technologies - one of Time's "100 most influential people in the world" and the world's richest Indian
  64. Ram Rahman, photographer, writer, activist
  65. Dr. Roshini Rajapaksa, NYC doctor who just returned from doing relief work in Sri Lanka
  66. Baba Rampuri, author of Baba: Autobiography of a Blue-eyed Yogi
  67. DJ Rekha, pioneering South Asian DJ
  68. Steven Rudolph, president of Jiva International; returned to the U.S. after spending 10 years in India
  69. Purvi Shah, executive director, Sakhi for South Asian Women
  70. Ron Shah, CEO, Jina Ventures & poetry slam champion
  71. Dr. Siddharth Shah, just returned from India where he was doing tsunami relief

  72. Leonard Gordon, historian, Columbia and CUNY professor; director of Taraknath Das Foundation
    Tushar Seth, staff attorney, AALDEF - Asian American Legal Defense and
    Education Fund
  73. Geeta Sharma-Jensen, books editor, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
  74. Aroon Shivdasani, executive director, Indo American Arts Council
  75. Tito Sinha, lawyer and community activist
  76. Harjiv Singh, veteran photojournalist based in Paris
  77. Prof. Raghu Sundaram, a leading professor of finance at NYU's Stern School of Business; expert on derivatives
  78. Jyoti Thottam, reporter, Time magazine
  79. Prita Uppal, creator, The FilmiGame - a DVD-based game about Bollywood
  80. Rashmi Vasisht, director of healthcare policy, NYS Attorney General's Office
  81. Neeraja Viswanathan, author, The Street Law Handbook and former lawyer
  82. Steve Waldman, editor-in-chief and co-founder, Beliefnet.com

If you'd like to suggest a guest (or be one yourself), please e-mail sree@sree.net

Our thanks to the good folks at Gallery Arts India for being the first home of these interview shows, when we first started taping them in their beautiful gallery space.

Tushar Seth, staff attorney, AALDEF - Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund

Vibhuti Patel, senior editor, Newsweek

Ved Mehta, legendary Indian American writer; author of 25 books and former staff writer at the New Yorker for 35 years

Naeem Mohaiemen, filmmaker and editor of progressinve Muslim collective, Shobak.org
 

Manu Narayan, star of "Bombay Dreams" on Broadway
Shobhaa De, one of India's best-known authors & Time's "50 most powerful women in Asia"
Vanita Gupta, attorney with NAACP LDF; helped overturn the convictions of 45 black folks who were put in prison by a racist system, in Tulia, Texas (Halle Berry to play her in a movie)

Jack Freker, CEO, Convergys; world's largest call center company; 10,000 employees in India now; 20,000 within a year
Jyoti Chopra, head of South Asian business for Merrill Lynch Global Private Client's Multicultural and Diversified Business Development Group
Aroon Shivdasani, executive director, Indo American Arts Council

Mallika Dutt, executive director, Breakthrough
Abha Dawesar, author of new novel, "Babyji" and one of Time Out New York's "Top 25 Who Will Make Their Mark in 2005." 
Amitava Kumar, author, "Husband of a Fanatic"
Meera Gandhi, social entrepreneur & philanthropist 
Arthur Pais, senior editor, Rediff.com/India Abroad; cookbook author and observer of the diaspora
Steven Rudolph, president of Jiva International; returned to the U.S. after spending 10 years in India
Aladdin, veteran standup comic and actor 
Anna Ghosh, literary agent, Scovil, Chichak, Galen; leading South Asian literary agent
Anna Ghosh, literary agent, Scovil, Chichak, Galen; leading South Asian
literary agent
Sharmeen Obaid, award-winning documentary filmmaker for Discovery Channel and other major U.S. networks
Purvi Shah, executive director, Sakhi for South Asian Women

 

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