Indian-Americans Love Hollywood and the Oscars!
Indians love cinema, drama, music and they also love gold so it goes without saying that they deeply love the majestic golden man who symbolizes the best that world cinema can offer and which every film artiste dreams of one day taking home – Oscar!
It’s now the eve of the Academy Awards and everyone is caught up in Oscar celebrations – either big ones close to the power people in Hollywood or smaller, intimate ones celebrating their own personal links to the Oscars.
New Yorkers Gitesh and Rohi Pandya of Box Office Guru Media threw an Oscar Toast at the Sundaram Tagore Gallery in Chelsea to mark the 25th anniversary of their film business and the big news of Gitesh being selected as a lifetime member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. You realize the awesomeness of this when you see, as Variety pointed out, Jessica Alba, Lily Gladstone, Greta Lee, Catherine O’Hara, and S.S. Rajamouli, director of “RRR,” are among the 487 artists and executives invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this year. Last year, the Academy invited 398 new members, including Taylor Swift, Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan, nominee Austin Butler and “RRR” stars Ram Charan and NTR Jr.
So this is a true American success story for the couple – who both being the children of immigrants, Gitesh from India and Rohi from Pakistan – would have been expected by their parents two decades ago to have fallen into more traditional jobs, instead of being privileged to cast their votes for the Oscars!
As Rohi recalls, “We both grew up in New Jersey and were always fascinated by movies, Gitesh more the numbers side of the industry and even worked in a video rental store in his teens while I liked the storytelling, the visuals, the way they could transport you to another world.”
But like many immigrant kids, they also considered more traditional career paths at different points. There was a time they thought about law, journalism, and even teaching. However, they persisted and even dared to dream of South Asian faces and desi stories on the American screen.
Gitesh was one of the producers on the noted Indian-American film American Desi in 2001 (directed by Gitesh’s brother Piyush Dinker Pandya). This proved a voice for the young first generation of Indian-Americans and helped create an artistic community of young actors and directors with the dream of one day making it to Hollywood.
Gitesh and Rohi managed to find their niche in the entertainment business, co-founding Box Office Guru Media which handles the marketing South Asian films in North America and recently completed 25 years. Gitesh has been analyzing the box-office numbers since the 80’s and truly understands what makes films succeed. He is indeed the guru of box-office numbers who is a wiz at crunching these numbers of failure and success.
Films that Box Office Guru Media was hired to market include Monsoon Wedding, Bend It Like Beckham, Slumdog Millionaire, The Namesake, Dangal, Pathaan, and Monkey Man. They also represented the well-loved Harold & Kumar and Marigold Hotel franchises.
Some of the many stars Gitesh and Rohi have worked with during the New York promotions include some very big names – Priyanka Chopra, Dev Patel, Mira Nair, Dame Judi Dench, Malala, Kumail Nanjiani, Ray Romano, Amitabh Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan, Shah Rukh Khan and Angelina Jolie.
“Getting attention in the US for South Asian films can be very challenging since mainstream media tends to gravitate towards bigger Hollywood projects,” says Gitesh. “It’s been a pleasure to watch the growing interest in these types of films over the decades.”
So, on the eve of Oscars, the Pandyas and Box-Office Guru, co-hosted by Beesham A. Seecharan, a longtime champion of the arts, threw a bash for over 50 film industry diehards and media to celebrate cinema with wine and Indian snacks. There have been many South Asian thrills at the Academy Awards every year, be it the success of RRR or the Oscars for AR Rahman, and each year one hopes for more successes.
Gitesh recalls the heady time when one of the little-known films they were promoting ended up winning eight Oscars – the film was ‘Slumdog Millionaire’! As they continue to bring in South Asian films, there is always excitement that one of them will be the big one. This year the film Santosh was the UK’s nomination for the Oscar and was on the shortlist for best film.
As Rohi says, films are in their blood: “A great film can challenge perspectives, evoke deep emotions, or simply offer an escape. We love how a single scene, a line of dialogue, or even just a look between characters can stay with someone for years. It’s the power to connect with people on such a profound level that makes cinema so thrilling to us.”
Now, That’s an Oscar toast we can all drink to!
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