Guyanese organizes Bollywood event
By Vishnu Bisram in Bombay
Stabroek News
April 11, 2004
Guyanese-American Neil Prashad organized one of the largest events in Bollywood last Monday evening for the launching of a film-production company with the virtual Who's Who in the Indian entertainment industry in attendance.
The new company involves two prominent international movie makers, Mira Nair of award-winning Monsoon Wedding fame and Balaji Rao, a business tycoon and film financier.
Prashad himself was honoured for his significant contributions to the entertainment industry and the Caribbean-Indian diaspora.
Prashad is currently vice-president of Bala Entertainment International, a film-production company. He divides his time between Bombay and Hollywood and occasionally visits New York where his siblings are based.
His father Ramesh Prashad who hails from La Grange, West Bank Demerara is a popular New York-based pundit.
Bala Entertainment teamed up with Mirabai Films to start a new company called International Bhenji Brigade (IBB) which will create independent Asian cinema for the global marketplace.
Bhenji, meaning "not-so-hip sister", refers to the resourceful women on Nair's film crew whom she teasingly calls her "International Bhenji Brigade". IBB celebrates these women and embraces all filmmakers, men and women, who embody their independent spirit. "If we don't tell our stories, nobody else will," Nair said to reporters at the launching.
IBB will have offices in New York and Bombay and Prashad will be a key figure in its operations. According to him, IBB is looking to produce three or more films on Indians or Indian- diaspora communities, such as Guyanese Indians over the next three years.
According to Prashad, the films will be related to Mirabai's commitment to tell stories, including those of immigrants like Guyanese, who are rarely seen or heard. He said he is pushing for Guyanese talent to be exposed in the films and is already working on a project to train Guyanese and other Caribbean artistes in acting.