The Salon Reveals South Asian Mentorship Program’s 2022 Class
EXCLUSIVE: The Salon South Asian Mentorship Program revealed its Class of 2022, led by Disney’s Reena Singh, Hillman Grad’s Rishi Rajani, WME agent Bash Naran, actor/writer Nik Dodani, and actor/producer Vinny Chhibber.
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The Salon is a forum for South Asian artists and executives in entertainment to connect and collaborate, share resources, facilitate mentorship, drive public advocacy, and disburse grants. Its mission is to accelerate the creative development of South Asian American television and film through community organizing and empowerment.
This year’s writing mentees are Sabeeh Jameel and Jyotsna Suresh. The directing mentees are Aqsa Altaf and Kajal Patel. The executive leadership & production mentees are Satinder Chhokar, Shivani Doraiswami, Anisha Joshi, Priyanka Kapoor, Ashley Mathew, and Maansi Sunkara.
Their mentors include Nikki Menon (Vice President of TV/Film Development, Family Owned Entertainment), Anu Valia (Writer/Director, Never Have I Ever, Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens), Meera Menon (Writer/Director, Farah Goes Bang, Ms. Marvel), Ameet Shukla (Head of Content, One Community), Rishi Rajani (CEO, Hillman Grad Productions), Bash Naran (Agent, WME), Randeep Katari (Animation Executive), Sanjay Sharma (Founder/ CEO, Marginal MediaWorks, Inc.), Rohit Kumar (Writer/Producer, Cruel Summer, 13 Reasons Why), and Munis Rashid (Writer/Producer, The Night Agent).
The mentees will work closely with their respective mentors over the course of one year to identify areas of growth, discuss career strategy, access opportunities, and most importantly, build community. Mentees will also have exclusive access to panels with industry professionals and other educational programming curated by The Salon.
“Our first class of mentees reinforced our belief that building deep connections with one another is the key to our community’s success,” said The Salon’s co-founders Nik Dodani, Bash Naran, and Vinny Chhibber in a statement. “This is an industry based on relationships, and our goal with this program is to continue growing the pool of talent that the market can connect with.”
Many of last year’s participants have been making strides in their careers since the conclusion of the program, including Nardeep Khurmi, whose directorial debut Land of Gold premiered at this year’s TriBeCa Film Festival; Apoorva Guru Charan who produced Joyland, the winner of this year’s Cannes Film Festival Queer Palm; and writer/actor Kausar Mohammad, who was just cast as Fast Track in The Flash.
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