By Ada Tseng
APA speaks with the gorgeous and charismatic Pooja Kumar, actress and host of "Movies for the ImaginAsian."
Pooja Kumar may be a familiar face to you, especially if you're living in New York, say, near 63rd and Broadway. Yep, that's her on the huge billboard, acting as the face of Bombay Dreams, AR Rahman's smash hit on Broadway. Pooja, a former Miss India USA and an impressive emerging actress in her own right (she recently took home the SAG Emerging Actor Award for her role in 2004's Flavors for her role as Rachna), has taken on a new gig: co-host of Movies for the ImaginAsian, the show on ImaginAsian TV that introduces exciting movies from Asia. Together with Jackson Loo, the dynamic duo put a context behind the films for people who might not be familiar with the programming, entertaining us with their charm and flair and educating us with cool and interesting facts about the movies at the same time.
Born in St. Louis, Pooja was selected as one of the 10 finalists from among the 40,000 participants, in the Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited Talent competition, where she was given the opportunity to be launched into feature films. She currently has 4 films under her belt: Kaadhal Rojave, Little Magician 3D, as well as this year's Flavors and Night of Henna-- which is coming out soon and will be the first Pakistani film released in North America. In addition, Pooja is also a trained dancer, a writer for Movies for the ImaginAsian and one of the supervisors of programming for ImaginAsian TV. What can't this girl do? She is passionate about making change, articulate about her ideas, and just a fun, fabulous person to talk to. Watch out, here she comes!
APA: Hello Pooja. So tell me, how did you first get involved with ImaginAsian TV?
Pooja Kumar: Actually one of the senior vice presidents, Anil Srivatsa [SVP of Affiliate Sales & Operations] and I actually hosted a couple shows together, and we've known each other for a while, so he approached me and said we're doing this project. "There's this new television network coming together, and would you be interested?" and told me what it's about. And at first I said, "Is this another one of those things that you're doing?" not taking him seriously, and then I actually met Mike [Michael Hong, CEO] and he pretty much sold me on it, so I've been working for them a little over a year. It's amazing to see it go from seven employees to over 50.
APA: So you host the show Movies for ImaginAsian.
PK: Yes, we've shot about 19 episodes already. We introduce Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Hindi films in kind of a cool and funky way, and introduce it to second and third generation Asians who might not have seen some of the Asian programming before. I'm sure some of them have and some of them haven't. So, we know already that parents will probably be watching it, so we wanted to introduce it to Asians that are born and brought up like Jackson and myself, who have the mentality of an American. So we reenact some of the scenes from the movies, we dress up in costumes, so it's actually pretty funny. You can see both of us trying to be like some of the Asian actors, and then we introduce different facts about Bollywood films or Korean films, if there's a commonality in them, and of course, we just make it fun for the viewer to watch.
APA: That sounds really fun. So how would you describe your style? How is the chemistry between you two, and how do you guys play off each other?
PK: Well Jackson is a very energetic, very intelligent person, so both of us get along pretty well. We hit it off from the get-go when we auditioned together. The producers saw how we were interacting, the great chemistry. He's really down-to-earth and such a talented actor and singer as well. We have an openness about doing different things to make the show better. So if he's funny, I feed off of his humor and it works out well.
Yeah, did you see the preview online? [http://www.iatv.tv/movies/ ] We're joking, but in a way that we don't want to offend the filmmakers or actors in the movie.
APA: What are some of your favorite movies that you've gotten to showcase?
PK: One movie I really liked was a Bollywood film called Aurat Aurat Aurat. It was a woman-oriented film and there aren't a lot of films that show the woman as being strong, but in this film, she's the one who takes care of everything. So, that was inspiration to see that. There's another Korean film, Seasons in the Sun. It's these kids who are orphans and they live in a church and the church takes care of them. A priest comes from uptown, and he used to be a big soccer player, so he teaches them how to play soccer and gives them the inspiration, that if you work hard, you can do whatever you want in your life. So I really liked Seasons in the Sun a lot.
I really like the Korean films because they are very global-esque in nature. I think anyone in the world who sees a Korean film will be able to identify with something that's going on in there. They're very real issues that are happening today, and I'm really enjoying those, because I never used to watch a lot of Korean films. I'm learning a lot about films and even a lot about Bollywood that I didn't know, and have been learning.
APA: Haven't you actually acted in Bollywood?
PK: I actually did a film over there, it's a Tamil film. It's not in Hindi, so it's not in Bollywood. There's about 37 different dialects and each of the dialects have their own industry. So in South India, I did a film, and it did pretty well, but they wrote the dialogue phonetically in English because I couldn't speak the language. In the end, they had someone who dubbed it. So for a while, I was saying my dialogue, so I was basically talking gibberish, which was a little challenging, especially with the close-ups and the intense scenes. And nine of the songs I actually had to dance to. I wore like 17 different costumes.
APA: That sounds funny. You VJ'ed at Channel V as well. [Pooja hosted a Countdown show for Channel V in Bumbai and introduced Hindi films.] How would you compare the hosting thing with the acting thing?
PK: I enjoy both of them, but definitely film is what I love to do, because the less you act, the more you can actually portray the character. In theater and even hosting, you need to be a little bit animated, but what's interesting about film is that you have to decrease your animation. It's challenging to get the emotion or the experience across when you're not able to do any of the other things you have to internally express.
APA: Congratulations on receiving the SAG Emerging Actor Award for Flavors.
PK: Yeah that was exciting to get. It's actually releasing next week all over India all over the metropolitan cities, so they're there for October 23rd. Flavors is an ensemble film--four different stories revolving around one restaurant. It's an Indo-American film, and it was directed by two first-time directors, Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK. It was interesting working with two directors, cause one would say "Action!"and the other would say "Cut!" It was interesting to listen to both of their feedback, when you do a scene and they explain it to you, how one starts a sentence and the other ends it. And they're not even brothers or anything. They used to be software engineers, and now they're filmmakers, and it's interesting cause the script is based on people they have met in their life.
So basically all of these stories revolve around this one restaurant and we all know each other. It's a nice comedy for everyone to see.
APA: And you're the face of Bombay Dreams?
PK: Yea, I have a huge billboard on 63rd and Broadway, which is really exciting, because any days that I feel crappy about myself, I just go there and I feel better.
APA: [laughs] Like, "Look, I'm 50 feet tall! Everyone can stare at me."
PK: [laughs] Exactly, exactly. No, it's just great to see foundations on Broadway, something that we would have never thought 10 years ago, even five years ago. So it's really great to be part of something that's going to make a difference. And to be part of it, I feel really proud.
APA: Can we talk about your background? You grew up in St. Louis?
PK: Yes, I was born and bred up in St. Louis; I went to school there at Washington University, and in between then I went to India, lived in India for a year and a half. After I graduated, I moved to NY without a job or a place to live, like every other artist, and yeah, just started from there, and now I live in NY and I'm based out of here. My parents were very supportive, extremely supportive of all of the decisions that I've made, and I probably wouldn't have been able to do any of them without them, so yeah, my mom introduced me to a lot of the arts. So I thank her for helping me out and being supportive
APA: Did you always want to go into the arts and/or the entertainment industry? Cause you studied political science and finance, right?
PK: You know I always did plays in schools while growing up, but never thought of it as a profession until I graduated from college, and then I said, "You know what, I gotta try it out and see what happens."
APA: So you're also a supervisor of programming at ImaginAsian TV. How did you guys go about choosing the types of programming you wanted?
PK: Well, I have a checklist. First, is this interesting? That's the main thing. Am I engaged? Will this be interesting to a non-Asian person or be interesting to an Asian person? And then there's a number of things we look into; obviously quality, the production value, that it's something that's different, that hasn't been seen in North America before. That's really important to me. Because I think it's important for what our goal is here to introduce these programs to people who haven't seen Asian programming before. So there's a number of things. And then I consult with two of three people, the other members of the team and see what we think. It's not easy because you have to go through them, and it's not just if it's good or bad. We also think about how if we edit or cut, maybe we can make it more interesting. So I look at it at a number of different levels.
APA: When you were growing up, what was your exposure to either South Asian or Asian culture and entertainment?
PK: Well, my parents took us to India every year, and during the summertime I'd spend 3 months over there. So I was definitely engrossed in Indian culture, and then I went to school with a lot of Asians as well. We had a good mix, plus being in St. Louis, you're basically around a lot of Caucasians, but we did have Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean people. So I did get exposure by going to school, but more so on the South Asian front. We would go every year. It would always be part of our heritage, as far as going to our The Holy Festival or the Diwali Festival, which are the big festivals of the year. So I think going there helped me a lot as far as giving a good balance, as far as "Yeah you're Indian, but you're American too." You have to balance it, you don't have a choice, so just be natural with that, because at least you have something else. Some people don't even have that. So, you can look at it that way.
My parents went to Catholic schools in India, so as far as their exposure to everything, they were very modern, so when they came here 32 years ago, of course they had their Indian values and they do try and instill those in us, but they have a great understanding and understand what we go through. And I think my god, my parents came here when they were 20, 21 without any parental support, and worked their way up because they didn't have a choice. So as far as the exposure, they wanted us to do everything and take advantage. So that was what's great about them, that they're so open to be doing anything.
APA: So how do you perceive how either Indian or Asian Americans in general are being depicted in the entertainment industry today?
PK: I would say in the last five years there has been a significant change. 10 years ago you might not have even seen an Indian person on TV. Now at least you have two of them on mainstream shows. ER [Parminder Nagra] and Crossing Jordan [Ravi Kapoor]. And, as far as East Asians are concerned, we've got Lucy Liu, we've got Ming-Na. Really talented ladies that are coming out. And I think it's going to take a little bit more time for them to be totally depicted as regular people. You're talking thousands and thousands of years thinking in a certain way and to change that in a couple years is not going to happen. But the fact that it's already happening and we're having these different kinds of people on TV, I think it's great. And I think it is changing, we're not having the Chinese guy as the delivery boy anymore or the Indian guy who always has the accent. It's there, but it's not there all the time.
It's slowly improving and I think North America is one of those places where it's a melting pot and they're going to have to accept it. So I think second generation or third generation have a huge duty if not responsibility to change that and make a difference. If you have the power, why not? What's the worst that could happen? They could say no, but so what? You have to persevere.
APA: Who are your role models in this industry?
PK: In terms of actresses, definitely Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, Susan Surandon. They're women where you don't even look at what they look like, they give this performance and it's mind-blowing. Businesswoman, I definitely look up to Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart. They're positive role models that have worked their way up who didn't have parents that had a lot of money and gave it all to them to do it. Do I have to add any males for the role models?
APA: You don't have to, but if you would like to...no, actually, just leave them out. No one really cares.
PK: They're already a non-specimen. [laughs] [kidding]
APA: So what direction or vision do you have for the future of ImaginAsian Television?
PK: I think what we all see here is great Asian programming for parents, for our generation, for kids, as well as for American people to watch. There's so much talent in Asia, so much talent in Asian people, and I think this is a great avenue and a great way for people to showcase their talent. It a place where, if there's a second-generation Asian filmmaker who has nowhere to go, he'd come to us! We can show it in our theater, we can show it on our network. And there's not many places that you could do that.
APA: Yea, I'm really excited about it.
PK: Yeah! It's just a great place for people to just come together and do something. And eventually I think we'll get into our own original programming. Eventually, that's a long term thing. But in 20 years, I see all of us sitting on the couch and watching this channel. And inviting other people over, and they're the ones who are going to be talking about it.
Links for Pooja Kumar:
www.iatv.tv/movies (http: //www.iatv.tv/movies)
http://www.flavorsthemovie.com/ (http: //www.flavorsthemovie.com/)
http://www.nightofhenna.com/ (http: //www.nightofhenna.com/)
Published: Friday, October 15, 2004
