Meet was held at American University in DC.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: 3 Idiots star Omi Vaidya was one of the chief guests at the 2014 South Asian Arts Festival (SAAF), held at the American University, here.
Joining Vaidya as the event’s main guests was Dr. Indira Somani, Assistant Professor in the Department of Media, Journalism and Film at Howard University. Both Vaidya and Somani took part in discussions about how their careers took off, the trials and tribulations of being in the fields of media and entertainment, and encouraged the assembled students to take risks and follow their dreams.
Vaidya talked about his long-burning desire to become an actor, which is a difficult field for Indian Americans to break into due to family pressures. While most parents prefer their children to go into more secure lines of work – medicine, business, engineering, and so on – Vaidya had the good fortune of receiving tremendous support from his parents.
Vaidya explained that his mother was an aspiring Bollywood actress early in her life, but was unable to pursue that dream due to her family forbidding it. She married Vaidya’s father, a doctor, and the two allowed their son to pursue that acting passion of his.
The gamble paid off, as Vaidya not only had a crucial role in one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films of all-time, but also featured on the hit NBC sitcom “The Office,†and has popped up in other Bollywood productions like Dil Toh Bachha Hai Ji and Desi Boyz.
Somani is a native of Illinois, and decided to take up journalism as her career. She explained that it wasn’t easy to do so, as entry-level jobs in the industry are often in small markets and pay paltry salaries. Despite holding a master’s degree from Northwestern University, her first job only paid $17,000. Her father wouldn’t speak to her for a long time when she pursued a Masters in Journalism course.
SAAF was created as a “platform to generate discussions about artistic expression of the South Asian and Diasporic identities across borders,†according to its website. It aims to showcase art in various mediums, including film, fine arts, drama, music, dance, literature, and poetry.