Tula Goenka teaches film production and multimedia storytelling at Syracuse University, NY. A few years ago Goenka started a first-of-its-kind Bollywood internship program for under graduate students. As part of the internship program students spent time in Bombay or Mumbai, the entertainment capital of India and home to Bollywood film industry. Some students went on… Continue Reading
Justin Tipping directed and co-wrote Kicks, a coming-of-age film set in the San Francisco Bay area. The film revolves around a young teenager Brandon (Jahking Guillory), who dreams of owning a trendy pair of sneakers or kicks. He owns an old and frayed pair of sneakers, while all his friends sport brand new, funky shoes. And… Continue Reading
We are celebrating California’s wine month with a series of audio, video and blog posts. In the San Francisco Bay area we are surrounded by wineries and vineyards from Sonoma, Napa, Livermore to the wineries of Santa Clara county. Santa Clara Valley is home to the oldest wine growing region in California. Tucked away in Silicon… Continue Reading
We sat down to talk with Master Sommelier Richard Dean of San Francisco’s Taj Campton Place. There are less than 240 Master Sommeliers in the world. He was the youngest in the world and the second American to become a Master Sommelier in the world. He became a Master Sommelier about 40 years ago when California was not… Continue Reading
Nachiketa Yakkundi is a musician and an engineer, who has the rare distinction of being associated with the same Silicon Valley company for over 2 decades. Music is his central passion and we talk to him to find out what propelled him to study engineering and put his music on the back-burner? Yakkundi studied with Pandit… Continue Reading
Morris From America is a coming-of-age film about a young American teen in Germany. The movie is told from a 13-year old boy’s perspective and how he tries to fit in with his German school mates and falls in love with an older teenager. The film screened at this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival… Continue Reading
Meet Ken Florance, Vice President of Content Delivery at Netflix. We sat down to speak with him about how we get to binge watch all those pictures and shows from Netflix. How do they do that? As a kid Florance was more interested in literature, philosophy and music. How did he segue and chart this… Continue Reading
Karavalli is your ticket to taste the wonderful cuisine of Southwestern coastal region of India. Chef Naren Thimmaiah of Karavalli at Taj Gateway in Bangalore takes us through a quick culinary tour of this region that is a rich tapestry of different communities. Each community has a rich repertoire of dishes that use a wonderful… Continue Reading
Nachiketa Yakkundi is an engineer in Silicon Valley. When he has not tethered to a computer, Yakkundi spends all his spare time pursuing his passion for Hindustani music, North Indian traditional classical music. He teaches music at Rajguru Sangeet Vidyaniketan school of music. He frequently collaborates with Naatak, a SIlicon Valley-based theatre group. In this short… Continue Reading
Ken Florance is Vice President of Content Delivery at Netflix. Growing up in Washington DC area Florance was a big fan of The Grateful Dead, an iconic San Francisco Bay area band. He and his then girlfriend, now wife, traveled more than 10,000 miles to attend the concerts of their favorite band. Stay tuned for… Continue Reading
Matt Ross is a filmmaker, writer and actor, who is well-known for his role as Gavin Belson, CEO of Hooli in HBO’s Silicon Valley. We sat down with Ross to speak about Captain Fantastic that he wrote and directed. We wondered about the title of the film. How did he come up with Captain Fantastic?… Continue Reading
Dr. James Schamus is a filmmaker, award-winning writer and a teacher at Columbia University. After writing, producing and distributing films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain, Dallas Cowboys Club, Milk and Lost in Translation, Dr. Schamus makes his debut in feature films with Indignation. He wrote and directed the film that is based on… Continue Reading
Rasika Kumar is an engineer at Google and an Associate Director at Abhinaya Dance Company of Silicon Valley. We were curious to find out her story and how she came to combine her twin passions – science and dance and pursue them with equal dedication. Kumar grew up in a home surrounded by science, dance… Continue Reading
Filmmakers Morgan Neville & Caitrin Rogers talk about the making of their film Music of Strangers:Yo-Yo Ma & The Silk Road Road Enesemble. We caught up with Neville and Rogers during the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival where their documentary was screened. On the surface the film appears to be about Yo-Yo Ma and his quest… Continue Reading
Today marks the 77th birthday of Rahul Dev Burman (27 June 1939 – 4 January 1994), an influential and iconic Bollywood music director. RD or Pancham as he was known forever changed the musical landscape of Bollywood film music. RD chased new music and introduced it in Indian films, specifically Bollywood films points out Prof Greg Booth. Besides… Continue Reading
Pico Iyer is an author and essayist, who divides his time between Japan and the US. We caught up with him in 2015 in San Francisco and spoke to him on a wide variety of topics ranging from how he defines his writing to his love for film, sports, American pop culture, the peristence of… Continue Reading
Cascada de Flores is a San Francisco Bay area based music group that plays music from Mexico, Cuba and Latin America. The group was founded by Arwen Lawrence and Jorge Liceaga. We caught up with the group to find out about their work and music. They also performed a repertoire of songs. Lawrence is on vocals and… Continue Reading
The 59th San Francisco International Film Festival is underway from now till May 5, 2016. With over 170 films showing at the festival it is always a challenge to figure out what films to watch and invariably you end up missing some really good films. That is my constant dilemma during film festivals, but the important thing is… Continue Reading
Prince is gone. Earlier today Prince (57) the musician was found dead in his home in Paisley Park.Minnesota. His death was confirmed by his publicist, but the cause of his death remains unknown. He reportedly fell sick last week and was hospitalized, and got well and returned to his home in Minnesota according to LA Times.… Continue Reading
The 59th San Francisco International Film Festival starts today and continues till May 5, 2016. We sat down to speak with Rachel Rosen, director of programming at San Francisco Film Society to find out about the highlights of this year’s festival. The opening night film today is director Whit Stillman’s sharply funny film LOVE & FRIENDSHIP with… Continue Reading
Bollywood live concerts are back in a big way this year in San Francisco Bay area. And kicking off the season was a live concert by Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani or Vishal-Shekhar on Sunday, April 17, 2016 at San Jose’s Civic Center. The musical duo ended their whirlwind tour of the US with their final… Continue Reading
April is Jazz Appreciation Month. Hot music or jazz traces its roots to New Orleans in Louisiana. It was in New Orleans that Bardu Ali or Bardou Ali or Bahadur Ali was born in 1906 to an African-American mother and a father who came from India. Interestingly, Ali’s father Moksad Ali is believed to have… Continue Reading
Twitter turns 10 today. And in 10 years Twitter has changed our world and how we connect, communicate and share with people around the world. And in 10 years Twitter’s journey has been a roller coaster ride where it went from a scrappy startup to a public company. Here is a quick history of Twitter… Continue Reading
The motley crew from HBO’s Silicon Valley is back. The popular series premieres on April 24, 2016. Mike Judge and his crew have brilliantly captured the essence of Silicon Valley’s startup culture with its warts and all. HBO’s Silicon Valley gives you a sense of what it takes to do a startup in Silicon Valley.… Continue Reading
Oscar nominated director Lenny Abrahamson’s film Room has got 4 Oscar nominations. They are for best director, film, best female actress and best adapted screenplay. That the film scored 4 Oscar nominations may come as a surprise to some, but not to those who have seen the film. We recorded this interview with Abrahamson in San… Continue Reading
The San Jose Jazz Winter Fest starts on Feb 25th and runs all the way through March 8, 2016. And this year they have a great line-up of singers, who will perform in downtown San Jose and in Palo Alto. I think this is the first time San Jose Jazz is spreading its wings and reaching to… Continue Reading
Indian filmmaker Prashant Nair’s award-winning film Umrika will screen at San Francisco’s CAAMFEST. The film premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award. Umrika generated a lot of buzz after it premiered at Sundance. Umrika is a humorous film about a young man’s journey from Punjab, India to Umrika, or America.… Continue Reading
My 5 best vegetarian foods to eat in Bangalore are: filter coffee, idli, dosa,vada and coconut water. Technically speaking coffee and coconut water probably qualify as drinks. Now that I have shared the list let me share why they made it to my 5 best vegetarian foods to eat in Bangalore. Every year on my annual… Continue Reading
Coorg or Kodagu is a stunningly beautiful and verdant place in the Southern state of Karnataka, India. Driving through Coorg’s rolling grasslands, misty mountains and thick forests studded with coffee and pepper plantations is a wonderful experience. Of course, you need to overlook the potholes dotting the road as you make your way through… Continue Reading
Fitoor is a new Bollywood film starring Aditya Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif and Tabu (who acted in Mira Nair’s The Namesake). Abhishek Kapoor of Kai Po Che and Rock On is the director of Fitoor, which is an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel The Great Expectations. Tabu plays the role of Miss Havisham and Kapur I guess plays the role… Continue Reading
The Kamla Show 