DESIWOOD Presents Screening Of Multiple Award Winning Film "Karma Calling" By Sarba Das

Online, March 30, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Somerset, NJ - April 2nd , 2011, Desiwood presents screening of "Karma Calling" Starring: Samrat Chakrabarti, Darshan Jariwala, The OUTSOURCE stars Parvesh Cheena and Rizwan Manji, Kavi Ladnier, Tony Sirico, Barnali Das, Gargi Mukherjee, Poorna Jagannathan, Debargo Sanyal

Desiwood's presentation screening of "KARMA CALLING" begins at 6:00pm and is open to the public at no charge but the guest must RSVP due limited seating. The ceremony and the screening of the film will be held at TP Entertainment Studio 1553 Rt. 27 Somerset, NJ 08873 from 5:30pm to 8:30pm.

Desiwood is proud to honor, Prominent South Asian Personality in entertainment & media industry with "South Asian Entertainment & Media Pioneer Award" and Honorary Desiwood Membership. to Raju Sethi, (AVS Television Network), Sarba Das (Renowned Filmmaker) and Nisha Mathur (Actress & Television Host) for their selfless contributions and services to brining the South Asian television entertainment to the mainstream with his continuous efforts.

Sarba Das, received her B.A. in Philosophy and Film Studies from Yale University and an M.F.A. in directing from N.Y.U.'s Tisch School of the Arts. While making shorts at film school, she was the recipient of the Helena Rubenstein Scholarship, the Willard T. Johnson Scholarship and the Academy Foundation Internship Grant.

In 2009 her feature directorial debut, Karma Calling premiered at the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival to sold out audiences. The critically-acclaimed film is currently touring on the festival circuit picking up Best Feature Film Awards at the New Jersey International Film Festival and the Philadelphia Film Festival in addition to an Audience Award at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. The screenplay for Karma Calling was the 2006 recipient of the prestigious Richard Vague Production Grant.

She has made several short films including Passage, an all-Indian production shot in the eastern state of Orissa. Her latest short film Mausi: or how an old lady finds her way back to India was featured at the Telluride Film Festival's Filmmakers of Tomorrow program and was distributed by Canal+. Sarba has also worked in development at HBO Films and as a marketing consultant for Picturehouse (Pan's Labyrinth) and Roadside Attractions (Super Size Me). Since 2008, Sarba began working as a director/producer for unscripted series for major networks like ABC, NBC VH1, MTV, SYFY. She recently produced two seasons of ABC's Emmy- award winning series Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Because of her work on Food Revolution, Sarba was tapped by Emmy award winning producers Craig Armstrong and Rick Ringbakk to direct the documentary Sugar Free which begins production in September 2011.

Sarba is an alumna of talent development programs Project: Involve, Director's Lab and FastTrack, and was named a Film Independent (FIND) Fellow. Sarba has been a student of Indian classical dance (Odissi style) for almost 25 years and has performed in India, the US, and Canada. Fluent in Oriya, French, and Polish, Sarba is an avid student of Vedic.

Raju Sethi (Founder of AVS TV) Creative man extraordinaire and the genius behind the most successful and No. 1 South Asian entertainment television program in North America, Raju is as passionate about the show today as he was 21 years ago. His motivation has always been to produce a show comparable to Hollywood standards. The best part is that Raju has always been able to keep track of the 'forever generation Asian'. Few know that Raju was also the core team to launch TV Asia in the US with Amitabh Bachchan, almost 10 years back! Raju has also understood that the new South Asian generation has little or no time for 24 hour channels. The show caters to both 1st & 2nd generation Asians. So AVS is packed every week, with something happening every second of the show! It's a tough call, ensuring that Raju is at the AVS headquarters all days and most nights, producing the No. 1 South Asian Entertainment television show, week after week.

Nisha Mathur (Actress, Model & Television Host) was one of the first presenters on AVS, with a life time membership to the fountain of Youth. Who could ever believe that behind that soft face lies a tigress, yearning for adventure? Top of the mountain? On a Ferris wheel? The middle of a snow storm? The top of a moving train? And Las Vegas too!! You name the place and Nisha has been there with the AVS camera! What's next Nisha? The Rockies??

Apart from achieving the impossible in terms of being at shoot locales, Nisha is also the softer side of AVS, bringing with her a certain charming elusiveness to the otherwise action-packed, something - happening - every - minute South Asian entertainment show!

For more information, contact: Hyder Bilgrami (908)720-2717, Board Secretary, Ritesh Parikh (732)742-6621 and Director of Sales and Marketing, Anurag Jain (732)429- 4651.

About DESIWOOD:
Desiwood's mission is to provide a platform for South Asian performance artist from various syndicates such as theater, films, television, music, dance and media who can gather to inspire, nurture, challenge, educate, empower and network with each other to excel in their profession.

Desiwood Executive Committee