AMERICAN DESI NOMINATED FOR AMMYS
Film Gets Three Nominations

The groundbreaking feature film "American Desi," from writer/director Piyush Dinker Pandya, has picked up three nominations including Best Independent Feature Film for the Eighth Annual Ammy Awards hosted by A Magazine.

Stars Deep Katdare and Purva Bedi have been selected for nominations in the Best Movie Actor and Best Movie Actress categories, respectively. As the nation's leading Asian American publication, A Magazine hosts its annual awards gala to recognize excellence among Asians and Asian Americans in movies and television.

Among the dozens of films nominated, only the Oscar-winning Chinese blockbuster "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" received more nods than "American Desi" with a total of four.

Katdare has been nominated along with stars such as Jet Li ("Kiss of the Dragon") and Chow Yun-Fat ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") while Bedi joins fellow nominees like Lucy Liu ("Charlie's Angels") and Michelle Yeoh ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon").

The film, which has now opened in the UK, is particularly aimed at the youth market, and deals with second generation Asians who are born and brought up in the US and have to juggle between American and Indian culture. The main character (Deep Katdare) enters college hoping to get away from the whole desi scene, until he finds out that his room mates are as Indian as you can get! Noticing that he is not proud of his own culture, the roommates take Deep on a hilarious journey of self discovery, with several Bollywood clichés along the way.

Movie fans can show their support for "American Desi" by voting for the film and its stars online at: http://www.AmmyAwards.com/vote.html

Fans can also vote by mailing in the official ballot found in the August/September issue of A Magazine which is available at newsstands and major bookstores.

The deadline for voting is September 1. Winners will be announced at the 2001 Ammy Awards, which will take place at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles on November 10.

WRITTEN BY ROBEEL HAQ