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Agarwal, an Indian born metals commodities trader and investor, hosted the wedding of his daughter Vinita to Muqit Teja at the San Clemente Palace Hotel and Resort.

According to weddingsutra.com, a huge team of coordinators and specialists from Mumbai and Delhi were flown down to conceptualise the grand affair, which included logistics and hospitality teams. Decor tycoon Sumant Jayakrishnan was in charge of the ambiance. The festivities were captured by ace photographers Badal and Raja Jain, while well-known chefs from India took care of the Indian cuisine.

This is not the first time an international artist has performed at an Indian wedding. International popstar Akon also performed at the wedding reception of Mumbai socialites Kajal Fabiani and Gaurav Assomull in Monte Carlo in March this year.

Bollywood is of course, not far behind. From Shah Rukh Khan and Malaika Arora to Neha Dhupia and Minissha Lamba, stars have often been seen performing at the weddings of business tycoons and politicians.

Congress leader Kanwar Singh Tanwar’s son’s marriage in Delhi, for instance, saw a slew of Bollywood stars taking to the stage. These included King Khan, Neha Dhupia, Zarine Khan and Minissha Lamba.

In 2004, ace businessman Laxmi Mittal’s daughter’s wedding saw Shah Rukh, Juhi Chawla, Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukherjee dancing to tunes choreographed by Farah Khan. Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai also set the stage on fire with high-energy performances.

Mittal’s brother Pramod, celebrated his birthday in a lavish bash in Central London. Sajid Khan hosted the event, Shah Rukh played James Bond, while Bipasha Basu, Celina Jaitley and Dia Mirza were also part of the celebrations.

The week-long mega-wedding of the two sons of Sahara business group chief Subrota Roy in 2004 was also a star-studded affair featuring stars such as Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya. The guests were entertained by a music group flown in from London and dances choreographed by a top Bollywood dance director.

Industrialist Pradeep Dhoot’s son Saurabh’s marriage to Radhika Singhal was also full of celebrities such as Bipasha, Malaika and King Khan. Katrina Kaif also gave a dance performance at the wedding [Courtsey HT]

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The global icon received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music at a ceremony at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre yesterday. (Tuesday, 7 September).

The honorary degree was presented by the School of Sport, Performing Arts and Leisure in recognition of his considerable contribution to popular music.

At the ceremony, Gurdas said: “This is an emotional moment for me. I accept this honour on behalf of the millions of fans and listeners of my music across the world. I would like to thank everybody here today and especially the people of Wolverhampton, who have shown me so much love and respect over the years.”

Dean of the School of Sport, Performing Arts and Leisure, John Pymm, said: “The University is absolutely delighted that Gurdas Maan has made time in his very busy international touring schedule to receive an honorary doctorate.  Gurdas’ contribution to music is immense and he is a real inspiration for our students.”

With a career spanning over 25 years, Gurdas Maan has become the most prolific and recognisable Punjabi singer in the world today. He has produced over 30 albums and written over 200 songs. He has played a major role in promoting Asian culture at an international level, and his songs portray real life issues and appeal to people of all ages and backgrounds.

 His ability to sing, write his own lyrics and perform on stage has made him one of the most versatile and successful artists ever. He has toured the globe, performing in the USA, Canada, Middle East, New Zealand, Hong Kong, UK, Italy, Greece, Denmark, France, Norway and Australia. His stage shows are packed with energy, and his music, whilst infused with eastern and western flavours, remains quintessentially Punjabi.

On other fronts, Gurdas Maan has also starred in blockbuster Bollywood films and has received numerous awards, including the Jury’s Award, presented to him by the President of India in 2005.

Gurdas Maan is one of an exclusive handful of Indian artists who has consistently filled the largest and most prestigious venues in the UK, including the Wembley Arena, NEC (LG Arena) and will perform for the first time in the Royal Albert Hall in 2011.

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Ik Kudi Punjab Di

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Radha Mitchell at the premiere of The Waiting City in Sydney

By Ashok Kumar

The DENDY cinema auditorium in Circular Quay dazzled under the shine of Aussie stars Radha Mitchell and Joel Edgerton where the Sydney premiere of their new film The Waiting City on last Monday night. The Claire McCarthy-directed film was shot entirely in Calcutta for six weeks, thereby reversing the trend of Bollywood films being shot in Australia. The film is set for release in cinema halls on 15 July

Claire, who wrote and directed the film, said after visiting Mother Teresa’s home in Calcutta (now Kolkata) three times, she thought of making a film there and, hence, The Waiting City.

“My personal experiences working in orphanages and within some of the poorest parts of India and also my experiences of making other films within this context, have offered me access into this rarely seen and unique world. Increasingly globalisation, the accessibility of travel, the high proportion of infertility of women in Australia in their late thirties and our fascination as a culture with exoticism has all been motivating factors to inspire this story.”

The Waiting City, Produced by Jamie Ashok Hilton, is a tale of Ben and Fiona, a childless couple, who travel from Australia to India to adopt a little girl, Lakshmi. On a mythological level, Fiona and Ben’s “soul awakening”; their dreams, fantasies and hero’s journey, take the audience into a parallel narrative universe. Ben and Fiona are forced to delve both into the shadow lands of self and into a realm of mystery, dreams and spirits in order to achieve their hearts desire.

Claire, Joel, Radha and Jamie at the Premiere of TheWaiting City

What they discover on their rollercoaster ride to parenthood scares them, shocks them, liberates them and forces them into a state of true catharsis – independently and as a couple. This is hopefully what distinguishes this film from a nice, polite, realist drama about a middle-class couple from Australia who try to adopt a third world baby and come up against insurmountable odds. In a brief pinpoint in time, we see a portrait of a marriage and a love story that has epic, mystic and psychological dimensions.

The Waiting City is an emotional, visually compelling and timely story that also has broad audience appeal.  Radha Mitchell and Joel Edgerton, both wonderful actors, have brought an incredible authenticity, fearlessness and humanity to their roles. I am very proud of the many and varied contributions to the film from all of the wonderful cast.

On a personal and professional level, The Waiting City augments my fascination with the alchemy of poetic, humanist, psychological drama. My on-going collaboration with producer Jamie Hilton, the strength of our top class assembled creative and technical team and the generous commitments from our investors hopefully has ensured that The Waiting City is a startling and original project that will launch careers and offer a dynamic new direction for Australian cinema.

Radha Rani Mitchell told a waiting battery of newsmen and lens men that filming the film was anything but glamorous, with the entire six-week shoot in Calcutta.

“As much as I love India it is one of the more challenging places in terms of pollution and other aspects … but it can be inspiring,” she said.

“I had diarrhoea so that was an environmental element that had an impact and helped to break us down a bit.”

Joel Edgerton escaped the unpleasant side-effect. “I must have a stomach of steel,” he said. But in the movie, it was he who gets diarrhoea and Radha takes care of him.

Nasib Singh playing Dhol at the after party near Dendy Cinema

All the stars posed liberally for the lens people both at The Red Carpet and later at the after party where the famous Punjab drum player Nasib Singh made quite a few feet to tap to his beats. Among the others who walked the Red Carpet include Producer of the film James Ashok Hilton, former Premier Bob Carr and his wife, Arts MinisterVirginia Judge and Claire’s husband and cameraman Denson Baker.

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Story telling is an age old art of communication.  Then there were play, theatre and finally films. In the present day world, we face new challenges every day.  There were three-hour plays and some had duration of two hours depending on the actors’ and writers’ abilities. Now the new challenge is to tell you story in just 10 minutes. Hence, it is called Short + Sweet.

Alex Broun is a specialist in this form of playwriting and has acted, produced and directed several Short + Sweet plays. Recently, the Abhinay School of performing Arts’ organised a work shop and Alex conducted the training for several budding playwrights at the Hurstville Civic Centre. They all had the talent and Alex helped them discover it.

Alex opened the workshop with his commanding words “My aim is to inspire you to write and inform you about some of the tools how to start”. He progressed maintaining his authority and said “why should you write a ten minute play – this is the fastest growing performance around the world’. He also stated that all of you have the opportunity to have your play performed in theatre. He continued “I write because I want to tell my stories and I want my stories get told” and urged “try to write a 10 minute play-just give it a go. Tell your story”.

 He freely shared the techniques and traits of writing, challenging his mesmerised students “turn off your inner critique, stop this negative voice- create something interesting to watch”

Alex created a stimulating environment for the audience which was in awe and frantically taking notes, taking it all in. It was so exciting to be taught the skills by this passionate world renowned celebrity that the participants could not hold their ideas anymore and shared freely what they would like to see on stage and are unsure how it will work. Alex advised “piece of theatre is a sheer act of imagination-you are telling your story, imagine something and take the audience on a journey. There was so much more in his words of wisdom that for three hours he kept his listeners spell bound.

It was an amazing experience to see that the budding writers hungry for knowledge floated some very exciting ideas and opened up a new world for Alex himself. He was touched to see that this diverse culture has so much to offer, a different perspective and so many life stories to tell. These ideas opened a new field, a new dimension for him and he was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the ideas the novice and potential writers brought to the workshop.

 Alex immediately spotted the potential; so many stories and life experiences bubbling inside these enthused participants, ready to be told on stage, will make a very interesting theatre experience. Sharing these ideas will not only enhance the appreciation of the diverse cultures but also opens a new dimension for the  theatrical world by injecting new viewpoints from the Indian, Asian and other ethnic backgrounds..

 He encouraged the inspired the group to get on with writing and offered that Abhinay school will organise their scripts to be played out on stage with experienced actors. He further emphasised that these script writers can in fact direct these actors and see how their script plays out on stage. They then take it a step further and go back and rewrite and fine tune their script. He then took it to extra mile and said they have a chance that their script may be picked up for the Short & Sweet, the biggest ten minute play festival in the world. What an offer; an offer too good to refuse, dream come true for any script writer.

 Abhinay School of Performing Arts President Aishveryaa Nidhi, a well known theatre personality and the only Indian actor to have won the nomination for Best Actress in 2009 Short + Sweet drama festival, has done a great job in connecting Indian and other ethnic playwrights and drama lovers to main stream theatre.

Ms. Nidhi has revealed that the workshop participant’s work would be staged live in August at a venue to be decided later. To those who missed the workshop, August shows would be a great opportunity and inspiration to explore their hidden talent.

For more information log on to www.abhinay.com.au or contact Aishverya Nidhi on 0488 200 222 for future workshops and to watch the plays.

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Today we see several events related to Bollywood or mainly Bollywood based. Time has come now to look beyond Bollywood. In Sydney there is heaps of talent in the form of actors, directors and writers. And, we have an opportunity coming up on 6th June 2010 whereby an ordinary or hobby writer can emerge a prolific script witer or may even be writing a script for a Bollywood film.

Abhnay School of Performing Arts is conducting a Play-writing workshop for the aspiring Indian writers with world renowned Playwright, Producer, Director and Actor Alex Broun at Hurstville Entertainment Centre from 09.00 hrs to 1300 hrs.

Abhinay School of Performing Arts enables students to explore their creativity and learn essential acting skills. We will help you nurture and refine your creativity. Under the tutorship of accomplished theatre personality Aishveryaa Nidhi, you’ll learn the different nuances of acting, from analysing the script to improvisation and dialogue delivery. You’ll also get training in diction and body language.

Abhinay School of Performing Arts also invites experts (veteran actors and directors) from Australia and abroad to share their experiences and industry skills with the students, and sometimes develop ambitious theatre from scratch. As part of Abhinay Theatre, we’ve had workshops with eminent theatre director Arvind Gaur (of Asmita Theatre, New Delhi) and Dinesh Khanna (professor of acting at National School of Drama, New Delhi

Aishveryaa Nidhi is a Sydney-based actor and filmmaker. In 2009, she was nominated for the Best Actress Award in Short+Sweet Sydney (the biggest festival of 10-minute plays in the world), for her powerful performance in Mandragora, written by David Sharpe and directed by Lisa Eismen.

She is the Associate Producer of the 2006 Hollywood mystery- drama Beyond Life. More recently, she has co-directed the Aussie-Bollywood flick Flight to Bollywood.

Aish is also actively involved in popularising Indian theatre in Australia and New Zealand. As the Artistic Director of Sydney-based group, Abhinay Theatre, Aish has produced and acted in immensely popular theatre productions, such as Gandhari (solo performance), Kuntiputra Karna and Hamare Padosi.

 The Indian Sub-continent Times talked to Alex Broun about why the aspiring Indian writers should join the workshop and how the workshop could be beneficial for them.

The IST: The Ethinic Indian writers are wary of what subject to write on— since Short + Sweet audience is mainly Aussie. In other words how would the cultural gap fill in
 
AB: Australia is a very multi-cultural society and that is reflected in the audience of Short+Sweet – as anybody who comes along to Short+Sweet would discover. The Short+Sweet audience is by no means “anglo-celtic”. It is made up of Indian Australians, Chinese Australians, Japanese Australians, Lebanese Australians. Whatever ethnic origins you can think of they will be represented both on stage at Short+Sweet and in the audience. So Ethnic Indian writers shouldn’t worry about the audience. Just write a play on whatever subject you want to write it on and if it’s a good play the audience will enjoy it.
 
The IST: What subject would you suggest that would be appropriate for the Short+Sweet audience
 
AB: Write a play on any subject you like in any style you like. That’s the great thing about Short+Sweet. We present over 150 plays each year in Sydney so we’re looking for plays of all styles and subjects. The only restriction is the play must be ten minutes or less. Apart from that write whatever you like. For example if anyone wanted to approach us at Short+Sweet with a work drawing on the rich cultural heritage of India we would be delighted to have it. Someone just needs to come up with the script.
 
The IST :  How many Indians writers, actors and directors are active in Short & Sweet?
 
 AB: Some of our most talented artists in Short+Sweet are of Indian heritage. There is Uma Kali-Shakti, who is wonderfully talented Fijian-Indian actor, writer and director and we also have an Indian director – Sadashivam Rao, whose brilliant production of Rain and Ruin was one of our gala finalists in Sydney this year. There was also the very talented young writer and director Rajiv Rajendra who travelled over from Singapore to direct a play at Short+Sweet in Sydney this year, also the actress Karina Bracken and of course Aishveryaa Nidhi, one of our most talented actors, who was nominated for Best Actress for the entire festival last year. These are just a few of the wonderful artists of Indian origin who contribute to the Short+Sweet community.
 
The Artistic Director of Short+Sweet International, Mark Cleary, also travelled to India recently to explore the possibilities of launching Short+Sweet India – so look out for more news of that.
 
The IST : What makes a gripping and captivating script 
 
AB: The five criteria that we feel make up a good script at Short+Sweet are Character, Story, Dialogue, Dramatic Tension/Humour and Theatricality. But the secret to a really good ten minute play is a great middle. Something needs to happen around the four to six minute mark that both raises the stakes and accelerates the action. It’s like the car’s been cruising along at sixty and suddenly it accelerates to one hundred. The play speeds towards a thrilling but inevitable conclusion. If you get that right the audience will get so caught up in the characters and story they will forget they are even watching a play.”
 
The IST : What is expected of the workshop and where the participants will go from here
 
AB: The main aim of the workshop is to Inspire people to write a ten minute play and then Inform them with the tools to do it. At the course writers will learn about how to write a ten minute play and we hope that then they will go away and write a play that can then go on to be produced at Short+Sweet and other theatre festivals around the globe. Local Ethnic Communities can also form their own theatre companies and present work but again it all start with someone writing the play first. You can enter a play to Short+Sweet now as well. Just go to – http://www.shortandsweet.org/shortsweet-theatre/submit-script 
 
The IST: Also, would appreciate if you would like to give any message for the Indian budding writers
 
AB: The message I would give to budding Indian writers is write. Just write. You’ll never know what you can come up with unless you try. Begin now. Join a theatre group, write a play, take an acting class – get involved. Do my playwrighting course! If you want to be involved in the industry then get involved at whatever level you can. There’s very little chance you’re going to be discovered sitting in your lounge room. Get out and do something and who knows what might happen. Also read the plays available on my website – www.alexbroun.com – where you can read, download and even perform my work for free. If you are interested in reading some ten minute plays – that’s a good place to start.

For details of the workshop interested writers may contact Aishveryaa Nidhi, President of Abhinay Theatre on 0488200222 or visit www.abhinay.com.au email abhinay.schoolofperformingarts@gmail.com

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The film was shot entirely in Australia and mostly in Sydney. Other actors in the film include Gulshan Grover, Aman and Kanwaljit Singh.

In his speech, Aaryan said “the movie is special for me” as it had brought luck to him. His father, veteran actor and politician Raj Babbar dissuaded him to do a Punjabi film so early in his career but somehow Aaryan felt the director Pankaj Batra was full of passion about the strong script and wanted to go ahead. He said after Virsa he had landed so many other projects and now he is very busy. Virsa, he said is very close to his heart since it happened when he had no work at all and now he is most sought after.

To a question, given the tension in Indo-Pak relations, this movie deals with two families from India and Pakistan, he said the beauty of the film is that there is no mention of animosity or tension between the two nations. It’s all about friendship and love between the people of the two countries, he said.

Asked about the role his father played in Insaaf ka Tarazoo, Aaryan quipped you will see many such insaaf ka  tarazoo in this film.

The effort must not stop; come what may (“silsila jaari rahe” as the former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee once said). There may be borders and barriers in the way, there may be barricades and boulders in the hearts and minds of some people in India and Pakistan, but any effort to bring the people of the two unfortunate countries together, to have a meeting of minds and building of bonds and relations that will last forever must be encouraged, specially brave, courageous efforts made by a group of young and talented men and women from both countries, an effort led by a renowned cancer specialist Dr. Amanullah Khan, the presenter of “Virsa”, One World Entertainment, man who loves life, who loves poetry, who loves cinema and waits for the day when the leaders and people of both countries put their “Wize Mindz” together and stand shoulder to shoulder and meet heart to heart to break all shackles and stand firm as one people in one world.

 There is a constant gallant effort being made on all fronts- and may they all succeed. The making of a Punjabi film, “Virsa” by some of the best talents from both India and Pakistan is one of them. Team India is led by three young men, Vikram Khakhar and his partners, Aman Mahajan (his name means Peace),Yash Desai  and Dinesh Maghudia.Team Australia  is led by Yash Desai with Sanjay Patel and Vishal.   Team Pakistan is led by Dr. Amanullah Khan and the well known music director, producer and composer from Pakistan, Jawad Ahmad, actor Naumaan Ijaz (best known in India for his work in the most talked about Pakistani theatre and cultural circles in recent times) and the leading lady of the film Mehreen Raheal. The leading Indian actors who are playing all the prominent roles are Aarya Babbar and Gulshan Grover who are working in a Punjabi film for the first time, together with Kanwaljit Singh, Aman Dhaliwal and Aparna Sharma. And besides these prominent names there are a number of technicians and experts not only from both India and Pakistan but also from Australia and USA who have joined hands in making the film. Line Produced by Filmology Which  included Paresh Lulla and Yash Desai.

 The film, “Virsa” is one of the first Punjabi films which has almost entirely been shot in Australia (before the ongoing ugly attacks being made on Indians by Australians and when Australians went out of their way to help the team of “Virsa” with all the support in the making of the film any where in Australia with all the facilities needed and all the financial support the team needed to shoot their film without thinking of the budget or making any compromises)

 The idea of making “Virsa” on a ambitious scale and with the kind of passion to give Punjabi audiences the kind of film they had never seen before first took shape in the minds of the young group headed by Vikram Khakhar. They wanted to make a film which would be very different from all the films made in Punjabi so far. Says Vikram, one of the major “Wize Mindz”, we were a group of young people brimming with all kinds of ideas. We could have made a film like any other Punjabi film or go in for some thing very different, some thing to keep in the race many other young people are running, God bless them all. But, we wanted to make a film that would reach out and send a very strong message without any preaching or sermonizing. We put our minds together and planned to make a film which would be a blend of all the elements of entertainment and with a dash of enlightenment. We decided that we would not make any compromises and yet keep with the changing trends of filmmaking in all the major filmmaking countries in the world. We also decided to have the best when it came to both human and technical excellence and what the film has finally shaped up to be is a result of our hard work and honesty to make a film that could face the competition and the challenges of the different kinds of films being made all over. We are now waiting for the final judgment which is always the judgment of the people”.

 The film is a modern film in every way but makes an all out effort to excel in every field. We have a capable director (Pankaj Batra), a music director (Jawad Ahmad), the singers (Rahat Fateh Ali Khan), Jawad Ahmad himself , Krishna and Richa Sharma)  and the cinematographer (R.A.Krishnaa, also known as Krishnaa Ramannan who has recently done the cinematography of “Quick Gun Murugan” and all the major films made by the Maans, Gurdass Maan and Manjeet Maan, the latest being “Sukhmani-hope of life”, due for release on February 12. The subject of the film, the music, the true to life performances and the way the soul, heart and mind of the film has been captured on celluloid gives a very genuine feeling of seeing the majestic and mesmerizing mountains calling all the time, waiting for their people to return home, to come back to where they belong, back to their roots.

 The film was shot in Australia because it was the need of the script and the authorities gave the unit all the co-operation the unit needed and so did the people. “I am shocked to think that these are the very people who are now attacking Indians and harming them for reasons which neither me nor any one else can understand,’ Vikram says.

 “Virsa” is a courageous effort to make Punjabis aware of their traditions, their customs, their values and the pride of their Punjabiyat. It is a major effort to make people come alive to their basic foundation, it is an effort to enlighten, to enrich, to elevate and even an attempt to make every heart churn, every soul stir and every mind work in a “wize” way to find their way back home which is like no other place in the world. It is also a major effort at building Indo-Pak relation which because of certain vested interests is being assaulted all the time and causing wounds which are not being healed and which if not treated soon will fester and turn into gangrene. “Virsa” is also an attempt to heal those wounds at a time when there are many others who are fighting their own “wars’ to bring about peace. “Virsa” is wholesome entertainment with a major mission, to wake up people, to make them proud of their heritage and to make themselves proud of what they are, one brave attempt which needs the maximum encouragement by every Indian, Pakistani and every human being in a world threatened by various kinds of known and unknown enemies. “Virsa” is a beautiful attempt to save love and peace among human beings which is shockingly going out of our world. “Virsa” is a way to save the world if it has to be saved.

 The ever so energetic Vikram Khakhar says this is only the beginning for Wize Mindz. The company plans to make a number of ambitious films for which it has already signed directors who have made a name for themselves and are negotiating with various artists. The aim is to keep going and keeping with the times because that is the only way to survive and succeed in a world where competition is the challenge and success the only thing that matters.

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3. Legendary Film maker B R Chopra passes away

On January 15, 2010, Sydney Girl Sanghmitra made a quiet entry into Bollywood with the release of “Bhavnao Ko Samjho” in which she plays the lead role. The film has also entered Guinness Book of records for featuring 51 stand-up comedians. The story of the film revolves around Suman (Sanghmitra) who is the doting grand-daughter of a wealthy businessman and heiress to his property.

Sanghmitra has been appreciated by the critics for her scintillating performance in the movie and seems to have crossed the first hurdle in her journey to stardom. Her next film, Idiot Box is also due to be released soon in which she plays a pivotal role.

Sanghmitra’s journey into the tinsel world began at the tender age of eight when her mother spotted the talent in her and sent her to attend a National School of Drama’s summer workshop in New Delhi. This was followed by a telefilms “Papa kho gaye” and two documentaries on AIDS awareness that were sponsored by the Australian High Commission in New Delhi and shown on the SBS channel on World AIDS day a few years ago. She also acted in several TV serials notably among them being “Kahan Se Kahan Tak” directed by renowned film director and veteran Lekh Tandon (Professor and Amrapali). She also hosted over 50 educational programmes for the NCERT on the Doordarshan for schools apart from dubbing for a few TV serials.

Thereafter, upon moving to Sydney with her parents in 2000, Sanghmitra did not let her talent die and began giving dance performances in school and social functions where she would often get standing ovation and several prizes. She acted in several plays for the Abhinay Theatre and other groups. Sanghmitra also hosted TV programmes for Curry Culture on Channel 31.

Sanghmitra is also a trained ramp model and organized first-ever ramp modelling contest and pageant in Sydney in 2003 which was followed by Mr. India Australia 2003, a pageant for the Indian youth of Sydney.

But the fire in her to hit the stardom never doused in spite of being far away from the Bollywood town. As soon as she finished her studies in Sydney, Sanghmitra could not wait to make a dash into the land of her dreams.

Back in Mumbai, Sanghmitra’s journey has not been different from any other newcomer. She had to start from a scratch. Auditions after auditions, she braved lewd remarks and lurid advances of some producers to make a humble beginning by doing a Punjabi music album and few serials. It was during one of the auditions at Anurag Kashyap’s studio that she was offered a small but significant role in Aamir and she grabbed it with both hands.

This was followed by another small but central role in ‘Idiot Box’ in which she makes all characters dance to her tune. Sanghmitra said in an interview recently to an Indian movie magazine about her role that “Idiot box” is a brilliant intellectual comedy. The script and concept of the film are fresh and a much needed break from the traditional “running around trying to find a treasure chest” comedies. Sunando (the director of the film) ventured a completely undiscovered concept and it was impossible to say no (For the role).

This was followed by some TV serials Haadsa (Zee TV), CID (on Sony), Kash-ma-kash Zindagi Ki (Doordarshan), Zindagi ke Rang (Pragya channel). Utilising her modelling talent, Sanghmitra is the brand ambassador of “Nikhaar” Fashion House in Bandra in Mumbai.

Sanghmitra loves challenges and is undeterred by the various auditions she does almost every day. She is determined to keep exploring with the hope that she might soon land a challenging role that would bracket her into the category of ‘fine actors’.

She is a fighter and never likes to lose or left behind. She was in the year IV when the school headmistress chose her own relative for a dance drama ignoring the more talented Sanghmitra; she barged into her office and demanded the reason for dropping her. Taken aback by the determination and courage of the little girl, the headmistress had no choice but to include her in the dance troupe. Even in the making of the films, Sanghmitra had stood her grounds on many an occasion and not allowed any compromise with the situation.

Sanghmitra is not alone in her journey to stardom. She enjoys the solid support of her family with her especially, her mother, who has made a lot of sacrifices right from the beginning to see her daughter’s dreams come true.

Related posts:

1. Sydney Girl Sanghmitra grabs first lead role in ‘Bhavnao ko Samjho’
2. “Idiot Box” an intellectual comedy: Sanghmitra
3. Legendary Film maker B R Chopra passes away