Filmmaker Alex Winter talks about his new film “Deep Web: The Untold Story of Bitcoin And The Silk Road,” that premieres on EPIX on Sunday, May 31, 2015. The film looks at Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, his arrest and the charges filed against him. The film also looks at drug war, fourth… Continue Reading
Post cards. Remember getting those colorful post cards from your family and friends when they visited a new place or city? As a kid I used to collect these post cards, and pester folks to send them to me. Sometimes, a Kindly neighbor would give me their old post cards that their “foreign” friends sent them. Somewhere… Continue Reading
There is a fascinating exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Art that features 9 artists of Indian origin called “Postdate: Photography and Inherited Art in India,” This is the first time such an exhibit has been put together that looks at how modern Indian artists look back and interpret their inherited history in India.… Continue Reading
Director Shira Piven’s new film “Welcome To Me,” made me laugh and also made me a bit sad. We caught up with her at the San Francisco International Film Festival, where her film was shown. In this interview we spoke to Piven about how she came to direct this film, Kristen Wiig and the… Continue Reading
Alex Winter’s new documentary “Deep Web: The Untold Story of BitCoin & The Silk Road,” screened at the San Francisco International Film Festival, which is where we caught up with him to talk about the film. The film is about Ross Ulbicht, Silk Road, an underground market place, the war on drugs and privacy. Ulbricht… Continue Reading
Meet Anshuman Bapna of MyGola.com. Bapna and Prateek Sharma founded their startup in Bangalore in 2009. They raised a seed round and Series A and pivoted a couple of times. Here is how Bapna describes the pivots: Arguably, travel planning is one of the top worst ideas entrepreneurs can think of. In our quest to crack that impossible… Continue Reading
Today is the opening night of the longest running film festival in the Americas – San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF). The festival runs from today through May 7, 2015 and is studded with a wonderful array of films, guests and talks. We sat down to speak with Noah Cowan of San Francisco Film Society… Continue Reading
San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) is gearing up to host the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 23 – May 7, 2015). This is the longest running film festival in the Americas points out Noah Cowan, Executive Director of SFFS. What is different about this year’s festival I asked Cowan. The actual festival itself won’t… Continue Reading
Meet Hollywood actor and TV star Tiya Sircar. We caught up with her at this year’s Cinequest film festival in Silicon Valley. She was here for the world premiere of her new film “Miss India America.” A couple of years ago Sircar spent time in Silicon Valley filming for “The Internship.” Naturally one of the… Continue Reading
“Kinky and cofounding,” is how this film is described. “It is obscene” says Isabella Rossellini in the the video clip embedded at the end of this post. It is a “fun romp,” says Noah Cowan, Executive Director of San Francisco Film Society. Now, don’t jump to conclusions. This “kinky and confounding” and “fun romp” is a… Continue Reading
Over 100 years ago a small group of Punjabis from British India made their way to the west coast of America in search of a better life. Many of them eventually moved to Yuba City in California, where they became successful farmers.Because of legal barriers the early settlers from India were not allowed to marry… Continue Reading
Martin (Marty) Cooper made the first phone call from a cell on April 3, 1973 in New York. And he made the first mobile or cell call to Joel Engel of Bell Labs, whose team was working on a similar project. Do you want to guess how heavy that first mobile phone was? It was 2.5… Continue Reading
Meet Manan Mehta, co-founder of Unshackled, a new angel fund based in Palo Alto. Started in 2014 the company has raised $4.4 million, and they plan to invest their money, effort and time in helping entrepreneurs, especially immigrant entrepreneurs realize their dream of doing a startup. Many immigrant workers are tied to their H1B or “work”… Continue Reading
Art and films – that is what we are talking about with our guests in our upcoming interviews. Sherill Ingalls of San Jose Museum of Art talks about their current exhibit “Postdate: Photography and Inherited History in India” that features 9 contemporary artists from India. Actors Tiya Sircar and Kosha Patel talk about their new… Continue Reading
Meet Lawrence Kasdan – writer, director and producer. He co-wrote the screenplay for George Lucas’s “Star Wars” trilogy, He worked with JJ Abrams on the latest Star Wars film “The Force Awakens,” that releases in December 2015. Kasdan was honored with a Maverick Spirit Award at the recent Cinequest Film Festival, which is where… Continue Reading
“Miss India America” had its world premiere at the recently concluded Cinequest film festival in Silicon Valley. This humorous film examines the notion of ambition and the lengths to which we go to achieve our dreams. The film and the cast members got standing ovation from the audience. We spoke with Meera Simhan and Ravi Kapoor, the husband… Continue Reading
Shonali Bose’s “Margarita With A Straw,” is the centerpiece of this year’s Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) Festival at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre on March 15, 2015. We spoke to Bose about “Margarita With A Straw,” a coming-of-age film, which she describes as a deeply personal film. The story is about a differently abled person’s… Continue Reading
Victor Levin’s directorial debut “5 to 7” was the closing night film at Cinequest last evening. Anton Yelchin plays the lead in the film. Here is a highlight of our interview with Levin and Yelchin. We have a longer interview coming up with them. The film stars Bérénice Marlohe (who played the Bond girl in “Skyfall”), Olivia Thirlby, Glenn Close, Lambert Wilson and Frank… Continue Reading
What is behind the symbolism of India-US relationship? President Obama became the first American President to visit India twice. What are the business opportunities for American business in India beyond IT and technology? What are the business opportunities for California and the states on the west coast? We sat down to speak with Ambassador Venkatesan… Continue Reading
Actor Omi Vaidya’s film “For Here or To Go?” will have its world premiere at Silicon Valley’s Cinequest Film Festival this evening. We caught up with the actor last night at Cinequest to talk about his new film, working in Bollywood and his future plans. “For Here or To Go?” captures the angst and uncertainties of… Continue Reading
For 25 years Kathleen Powell and Halfdan Hussey, co-founders of Cinequest Film Festival have worked hard to bring this unique festival that combines films and technology under one roof in the heart of Silicon Valley. Besides well-known filmmakers and actors, the festival features emerging artists and filmmakers and shines a strong spotlight on the contributions of youth… Continue Reading
Damien Chazelle’s film “Whiplash” won 3 Academy Awards this weekend at the 87th Academy Award for best supporting actor, editing and sound mixing. Chazelle wrote and directed the film. “Whiplash,” is an intense film centered around two ambitious musician – a 19 year old drummer (Miles Teller) and his draconian music instructor (JK Simmons). This tightly… Continue Reading
British actor Eddie Redmayne plays the famous scientist Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything.” The film takes you into the personal life Hawking and his time as a graduate student at Cambridge where he met his future wife Jane Wilde. It was around this time that Hawking got his diagnosis about the motor neutron disease.… Continue Reading
Lisa Fruchtman is an Academy Award winning editor (The Right Stuff) and a filmmaker. In Part-2 of our conversation we talk with Fruchtman on how she got started as an editor. What seduced her to continue her career as an editor at at time when there were barely any women editors in the film industry. This… Continue Reading
Shonali Bose’s award-winning film “Margarita With A Straw,” has received praise ever since it was first shown at The Toronto Film Festival in 2014. The film is loosely based on her cousin Malini’s story. This coming-of-age film stars Kalki Koechlin, Revathy, Sayani Gupta, and Hussain Dalal. We caught up with Shonali in San Francisco and in… Continue Reading
In a few weeks time we will get to see the second season of HBO’s “Silicon Valley.” When the show debuted last year I was a bit skeptical and unsure if I wanted to watch it. But, this was a Mike Judge show and I thoroughly enjoyed his film “Office Space.” I tuned into the… Continue Reading
Meet David Rai, who is a third generation Punjabi-Hispanic farmer from Yuba City in California. Rai’s grandfather Bishan Gill Singh came to America over 100 years ago and married Ernestine Zuniga, a Hispanic. Their daughter Mary married Lal Singh Rai, who came from Punjab to America before World War 2. Rai along with his sister Leela… Continue Reading
Today is Pongal, a harvest festival celebrated in South India. In other parts of India the festival has different names: Sankranti, Lohri or Bihu. The underlying idea is the same – it is like the American Thanksgiving festival points out Dr. Geeta Vasudevan in the video interview below. Families get together, cook special dishes for… Continue Reading
2014 was an interesting year, where we got to meet and interview guests from the world of technology, films, culture and politics in Silicon Valley. You can watch all the interviews on our YouTube channel and subscribe to it. Every Thursday and Saturday mornings, you will find new videos on our YouTube channel. 2014 was also the year… Continue Reading
Award winning actor Timothy Spall has a new film releasing later this year. “Mr. Turner” is directed by British filmmaker Mike Leigh and is about the legendary British artist JMW Turner. Spall won the best actor award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for essaying the role of Turner. Spall was in San Francisco recently to talk… Continue Reading
The Kamla Show 