In 2014 The Aerogram interviewed a range of people working in diverse fields — film, art, fashion, photography, writing, YouTube comedy and more. Catch up with some of these fascinating conversations by checking out the list below. Special thanks to our dedicated contributors for helping to make these interviews possible. And don’t miss Kavita Das’s interview with Mosum Momaya, the curator of the Smithsonian’s “Beyond Bollywood” exhibition — the interview is included in our lineup for the most popular posts of 2014.
Director Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad Returns to His Roots with New Thriller Jinn
Growing up in a South Asian Muslim family in Detroit, filmmaker Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad (It’s a Mismatch and Alliance) used to hear folklore about jinns — supernatural creatures with roots in Islamic and Arab folklore. Ahmad says those stories helped inspire the plot of his new thriller Jinn. (Full interview by Priya Arora.)
Yoni Ki Baat: A Vagina Monologues-Inspired Celebration of South Asian Women
Vandana Makker from South Asian Sisters spoke with The Aerogram to discuss what the 10-year anniversary means for the South Asian community and how the organization was able to use inspiration from The Vagina Monologues to mirror the experiences of South Asian women. (Full interview by Monica Luhar.)
BuzzFeed Goes Desi: A Chat with Rega Jha and Scott Lamb
To find out more about BuzzFeed India, we talked with BuzzFeed’s VP of International, Scott Lamb, and BuzzFeed India Editor Rega Jha. While Jha should be a familiar name for readers of The Aerogram given that her articles and tweets have often made it to this site, Lamb is known for, among other things, being the man responsible for creating the Disaster Girl meme.(Full interview by Aby Sam Thomas.)
Superwoman Lilly Singh Keeps It Real For Her Fans
Lilly Singh says she was using the nickname “Superwoman” long before her popular YouTube series based on the character — a post-collegiate, mid-twenties South Asian Canadian who lives at home with her garrulous Punjabi parents — took off. Despite the bravado that a nickname like “Superwoman” projects, Singh says that for years, she was struggling. Trying her hand at sketch comedy on YouTube was initially an effort to beat back her depression. (Full interview by Nishat Kurwa.)
*Pardon My Hindi AKA Chiraag Bhakta Talks #WhitePeopleDoingYoga
Twelve years ago, artist and designer Chiraag Bhakta began producing a series of nostalgic Bollywoodesque prints under the name *Pardon My Hindi. When Bhakta, a graduate of Connecticut’s Hartford Art School, moved to NYC, he joined the city’s burgeoning street art scene by posting up wheatpastes and stickers of his vivid prints in public locations. These days the artist’s work has been featured in museum exhibits on both sides of the nation. (Full interview by Kishwer Vikaas.)
Bangle Banger: An Interview With Style Blogger Anjana Raj
Born in India, raised in Alabama and Kansas, and based in Chicago, Anjana Raj’s background is a confluence of differences, much like the diverse clothing featured on her blog. Launched in March 2014, Bangle Banger is a diasporic Desi style blog that took the Internet by storm with its fearless and creative blend of fashion. (Full interview by Nina Bhattacharya.)
The New Wave Of Indian Art Cinema: Anand Gandhi and Ship of Theseus
Anand Gandhi’s film Ship of Theseus has been lauded both by critics and international audiences alike. There was buzz over the possibility of it being India’s official entry to the Oscars (it was not). I sat down with him to talk about his movement from being a writer for one of India’s most popular soap operas to a director of a radically new cinema… (Full interview by Janaki Challa.)
Experimenting with the Mainstream: Indie Actor Arjun Mathur
Arjun Mathur is an unlikely candidate for a Bollywood hero. The son of a globetrotting hotelier, with no familial connections to filmdom, and somewhat unconventional looks in a business filled with sharp-featured, buffed up, heavily polished star children, Mathur still dreamed of becoming a star. “I wanted to be Anil Kapoor, mustache and everything. Like in the films where he was being all cool and studly.” (Full interview by Pulkit Datta.)
Love Your Dads: Q&A With Rad Brown Dads’ Ahmed Ali Akbar
Rad Brown Dads may inspire you to dust off the family photo albums and think about your dad in a different way. In this interview with The Aerogram, the site’s founder tells us more about himself, his dad, and his loving tribute to “the rad brown dads who are often forgotten or villainized in the search for identity.” (Full interview by Pavani Yalamanchili.)
Going Global with Ghosh: A Chat With Bobby Ghosh, Quartz’s Managing Editor
With Bobby Ghosh being one of the most familiar — and recognizable — South Asian faces in American journalism today, The Aerogram was only too glad to get a few minutes to chat with the former international editor of Time. Ghosh talked with us over the phone about his jump from Time to Quartz, the changing face of journalism, and more. (Full interview by Aby Sam Thomas.)
Preserving the Memory of the Partition: The 1947 Partition Archive
Since she started the project in 2011, Guneeta Singh Bhalla and her team of volunteers have been able to record more than 1000 stories of survivors of the Partition, with more than 150 of these tales now available to be seen and read on the website. The Aerogram spoke with Bhalla to find out her own reasons for starting this project, and figure out why preserving the memory of the Partition remains important in today’s world. (Full interview by Aby Sam Thomas.)
Photographer Ismail Ferdous On Documenting the Rana Plaza Factory Collapse
…When Ferdous agreed to discuss his photography with me, the only explanation that he could offer for the dissonance was that photography is not only his way of documenting his country’s tragedies, but also of coping with them. In this interview for The Aerogram he discusses the experience of photographing the collapse and a protest he helped to arrange during New York Fashion Week. (Full interview by Hannah Harris Green.)
‘Million Dollar Arm’: Crowd-Pleasing Sports Film Needs More Rinku & Dinesh Please
Like any other child of the nineties, I was raised on Disney’s underdog sports films like The Mighty Ducks, The Big Green, and Cool Runnings (“Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme!”). Million Dollar Arm fits neatly into this genre with one notable difference: the baseball players are from India. In this video interview for the Aerogram, the film’s costars Madhur Mittal and Suraj Sharma discuss their preparation for the film and what they hope the audience will take from it. (Full interview by Veena Hampapur.)
15 Minutes with Mr. Hyphen Candidate Sanjay Makhijani
Five transformative Asian American men representing six transformative community organizations competed for the coveted crown of Mr. Hyphen 2014. The fundraiser allows nonprofit Hyphen to publish its award-winning print magazine. The Aerogram interviews high school teacher and Gandhi Community Camp Counselor Sanjay Makhijani. (Full interview by Kishwer Vikaas.)
Fashion Designer Tina Tandon: ‘Women Like What Other Women Can’t Have’
Meet Tina Tandon, a premier fashion designer making waves by dressing up stars like Padma Lakshmi, Janina Gavankar, and Royal Pains’ Reshma Shetty. The Aerogram caught up with her to learn about her work, which trend she finds utterly unattractive, and how she truly feels about knockoffs. (Full interview by Ashley Kooblall.)
Writer Ankur Thakkar Tells a Bollywood-Inspired Story Through Twitter
Ankur Thakkar did something writers on Twitter do all the time — he told a short story. The difference? This Chicagoan did it through the medium of Bollywood — using a series of screenshots to share a narrative as part of #TwitterFiction, a five-day virtual storytelling celebration held entirely on Twitter. The Aerogram reached out to Thakkar to ask him about the project. (Full interview by Kishwer Vikaas.)
Hey Mister, That’s My Sister: The Pushpa Project on Gendercide
Los Angeles-based hip hop artist, poet and activist Satnam Narang is doing his part to help end gendercide in India, specifically the declining child sex ratio happening as a result of female foeticide and infanticide. Narang released The Pushpa Project, named after his mother, to raise awareness of gendercide in India. (Full interview by Pavani Yalamanchili.)
New Project Aims to Be a Crowd-Sourced Visual History of Indian Jewelry
“It’s amazing how such small objects can contain so many emotions, memories and aspirations of the person possessing them,” says Puja Bhargava Kamath of the Indian Jewellery Project. We talked to Kamath about discovering the stories behind the jewels and her quest to document India’s jewelry heritage. (Full interview by Priyanka Sacheti.)
This Burka is Built for Two: Q&A with Taz Ahmed on #MuslimVDay
Love, laughter and snark go together in Tanzila “Taz” Ahmed’s Muslim Valentine cards. The art and messages on the cards put a lighthearted spin on Islamophobic perceptions of Muslims and perceptions within the Muslim community about women. Taz tells how the #MuslimVDay card series first came about and offers insight into her creative process and inspirations. (Full interview by Pavani Yalamanchili.)
The Time Machine Author Nikesh Shukla on Food and Grief
The 34 pages Shukla penned are an ode to his mother, whose death awakened a new, sharper hunger in the author and his family members. Together, they sought to recreate her recipes one by one. Shukla’s attempts at recalling his mother’s recipes — of memorializing her as a person — are documented in The Time Machine. (Full interview by Kishwer Vikaas.)
A Conversation With Ritesh Batra, Director of The Lunchbox
The Lunchbox isn’t a glossy story about glamorous people — instead it’s a subtly elegant story of two lost souls — a middle-aged civil servant preparing for early retirement (Irrfan Khan) and a housewife struggling to save her marriage (the wonderful Nimrat Kaur) who are brought together completely by chance. Director Ritesh Batra chats about the The Lunchbox. (Full interview by Lakshmi Gandhi.)
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