Raising the profile of South Asian writers since 2007
As a qualified accountant you came into writing later in life. Tell us more about how and why you decided to become a writer? My journey from accountant to writer began back in the autumn of 2013. I was thirty-nine at the time, hurtling towards forty and I had the hope that maybe there might …
How important was it for you to set your series in Bradford? It was important to set the series in Bradford, my home town. It is a city with amazing history – a hundred years ago the richest city in Europe. It is a city steeped in glory from the industrial boom days but over …
Tell us more about the inspiration behind your short story in Love across a broken map? Reshma: I am fascinated by the cult of celebrity and the extent to which one can identify with and pine for the gilded life of such a celebrity. My story, ‘Soul Sisters’, takes this obsession to its extreme end. …
Tell us about your debut novel, Where the River Parts? Where the River Parts follows a Hindu Muslim couple caught up in the traumatic Partition of India and Pakistan. They are separated during the process, and don’t see each other for the next fifty years. It is only half a decade later, as both India …
Following a stellar reception at the biennial Shubbak festival, politically provocative play Love, Bombs & Apples embarks on a tour of the UK this summer. Comic and poignant, Love, Bombs & Apples is the latest play from award winning playwright Hassan Abdulrazzak (Baghdad Wedding, The Prophet). Using comedy as a vehicle to bravely tackle problems …
Alchemy, Southbank Centre’s festival celebrating the cultural connections between South Asia and the UK, returns for a seventh year (20-30 May 2016), exploring the region’s art, artists, politics and society as a whole. Over the last six years, Alchemy has grown to become the largest festival of South Asian culture outside the subcontinent and presents …
‘Clocks 1888: the greener’ is a ground-breaking new opera set inside a magical world of Clocks in the year 1888. At the heart of the story is ‘the greener’ – a term that was used at the time for a newly arrived foreign immigrant. This is a powerful love story featuring a critically acclaimed cast including …
Q. Tell us more about the story behind Wipers. Wipers is the story of four soldiers at the first battle of Ypres in WW1, mainly focusing on the untold stories of the vast number of South Asian soldiers that were involved in the battle. It’s set in a barn off the front-line where these four …
BBC Three’s anticipated factual-based drama Murdered By My Father, due to air online today (March 29, 2016), has brought together an exciting cast of British-Asian acting talent from the film, television and online world. Inspired by real events, Murdered By My Father is directed by multi-award-winning director Bruce Goodison and written by new screenwriter Vinay …
Theatre Royal Stratford East presents The House of In Between, the untold story of the Hijra. The House of In Between follows the lives of a Hijra clan, a family trying to make their way through modern India, while maintaining their culture, traditions, beliefs and values. Written by Sevan K. Greene and directed by Pooja …