THE HIT BRIGADE: (from top) Rohit Batra with Alicia Fusting and Saurin Shah on the sets of Yogita; Mira Nair (left) with Pamela Singh; Ismail Merchant

"We thought it was time for a change and that we get our voices and stories up on the big screen." Gitish Pandya, producer, American Desi

If there is such a thing as "filmi" genes, Indian Americans possess them by the bucketload. During 2001, the million-strong population of Indians in the US proved its undying love for Hindi cinema, lining up at theatres to see the latest offerings from Bollywood and turning out in droves for the live shows of Hindi stars and musicians.

But 2001 also saw an interesting development: the increasing growth on American soil of homegrown desi talent in films and theatre. The success of icons like Ismail Merchant, Mira Nair, Ashok Amritraj and M. Night Shyamalan-claimed as their own by both Indians and Indian-Americans- surely motivated them.

Nair bagged the top prize at the Venice Film Festival for Monsoon Wedding, which has also been nominated for the Golden Globe. Her other film, Hysterical Blindness, starring Uma Thurman, will run on the HBO channel. Merchant completed The Mystic Masseur, released The Golden Bowl and is working on several projects, including Le Divorce, based on a novel by Diane Johnson, and Merci Dr Ray.

It was also the year that Shyamalan, whose last two films made $900 million worldwide, signed Mel Gibson for his upcoming film Signs. Ashok Amritraj produced four movies: Antitrust, What's the Worst Thing That Could Happen, Original Sin, and Bandits. All four opened in the Top 10.

Jag Mundra's Bawandar generated buzz at several film festivals, winning bagfuls of awards including the Best Picture/Audience Choice at the San Jose Film Festival and Special Jury Award at Houston; Jay Chandrasekhar, whose Super Troopers premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, featured among the topmost talented directors named in Variety magazine.

CLICK FLICK: Krutin (left) and Naju Patel

And to close the year, Yugo Sako and Krishna Shah's animated film The Prince of Light, based on the Ramayana, became one of nine contenders for the newly instituted Oscar category of feature- length animations. Voting by a 100-member screening committee willdecide the three nominees to be announced in February.

While an animated Prince Ram may bag an Oscar, many young Indian-American actors surfaced in Hollywood films in the year gone by: Aasif Mandvi bagged the lead in Merchant Ivory Production's film adaptation of V.S. Naipaul's The Mystic Masseur, and also starred in a 15-minute film adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's short story A Temporary Matter from the Pulitzer prize-winning Interpreter of Maladies.

Rahul Khanna will be seen playing an Indian dotcom millionaire caught between conflicting values in Deepa Mehta's new film. He also co-stars in The Palace Thief with Kevin Kline, and in 3 A.M. with Sarita Chowdhry. Ayesha Dharker bagged roles in both The Mystic Masseur and Star Wars III, while Jimi Mistry and Ajay Naidu will be seen in The Guru of Sex, co-produced by Shekhar Kapur.

THE RACE: The cast and crew of the cross-cultural comedy American Desi

"I wanted to break out of the box. I wanted to purposely create stereotypes and then break them." Aasif Mandvi, actor, scriptwriter

South Asian actors seem to be all over the TV screen. Ravi Kapoor, Meera Simhan, Anjul Nigam, Rhona Mitra, Purva Bedi, Deep Katdare, Kal Penn, Namrata Cooper, Firdaus Bamji, and Ajay Mehta were all on American television, from soaps to prime time dramas like ER, The Agency, NYPD Blues and Law and Order.

One of the happy success stories of Indian-American independent filmmaking was the crosscultural comedy American Desi. Although it played in only 38 theatres, the film, starring Purva Bedi and Deep Katdare, went on to gross more than many other high-profile independent films like The Million Dollar Hotel, starring Mel Gibson. Says its producer Gitish Pandya, "Hollywood makes an endless amount of movies about teens and young adults, but they all seem to have the same faces and situations. We thought it was time for a change and that we finally get our voices and stories up on the big screen."

The year 2001 also saw the opening of Krutin Patel's ABCD in 38 theatres nationwide. It won critical acclaim for its searing look at immigrant life. The film, which showed at the London Film Festival in 2000, won the Gold Special Jury Award for Excellence in Filmmaking at the Houston International Film Festival.

Several other young filmmakers debuted their work: American Chai by Anurag Mehta won the Audience Award for Best Feature Film at the Slamdance Festival while Wings of Hope bagged the Best Screenplay Award at the Rhode Island International Film Festival and the Best Picture Award at the Cinevue International Film Festival.

The year saw an explosion of small independent films like A Pocketful of Dreams by Kuldip Singh Kasuri, an immigration lawyer. In Los Angeles, Kavi Raz is working on Do Kinare, a Hindi TV serial and Arati Misro is producing Badger, a short film directed by Raji Ojhar. Where's the Party Yaar? is a new comedy by first-time film producer and party promoter Sunil Thakkar of Music Masala in Houston and music video director Benny Mathews. It stars New York actor Sunil Malhotra. Rohit Karan Batra, a 22-year-old filmmaker, is making Yogita.

Indian-American writers are studying filmmaking, creative writing and screenwriting in American universities, and producing material about the Indian experience in an attempt to bring their own stories to film, television and theatre.

Young Indians are writing scripts not only for film but also for theatre. As Aasif Mandvi, whose one-man show Sakina's Restaurant won two Obie awards, observes, "Having been boxed in by the industry, my response was to write something that would break me out of that box. I wanted to purposely create stereotypes and then break them." He is currently writing a screenplay about a young South Asian man who dreams of being a French chef.

Many young writers and actors are coming together in non-profit theatre groups to create roles and material for themselves. Actors Rizwan Manji and Purva Bedi have co-founded Disha, while Geeta Citygirl is the director of yet another upcoming theatre group called SALAAM! (South Asian League of Artists in America).

As Bollywood films, TV serials and stars travel to the US, it's worth noting that a modest reverse journey is beginning: American Desi, with its gaggle of young Indian-American stars, showed at the International Film Festival of India in Mumbai. And Aasif Mandvi, who took Sakina's Restaurant to the UK last year, hopes to take it to India in the future. It's all in the genes. ?