Diner Banter Premiere Screening with live Q&A
Event Details:
Date: Tuesday, March 16th
Time: 11am PT / 2pm ET
Duration: 1 hr
Location on the Festival Map: ‘The Hall’
Grab your lunch and join us for a 5 episode screening + live Q&A of Diner Banter with powerhouses Gayatri Bahl, Melanie Chandra, Surina Jindal, Reema Sampat
About Diner Banter
Diner Banter, A bite-sized 100% improvised series.
Four friends meet up at their favorite diner to laugh and commiserate about everything—and we mean EVERYTHING—except for the major world events changing their lives as they know it.
The 5 episodes in the premiere:
British Tiger Princess
You Don't Ovulate for 28 Days
Body Odor
Never Have I Ever...
I Was Only Dripping a Little
Credits
Created by and Starring Gayatri Bahl, Melanie Chandra, Surina Jindal and Reema Sampat
Directed, Edited & Produced by Gayatri Bahl
Cinematography : Ronnie Bhardwaj
Original Score / Sound Design : Rushi Vakil
Production Design : Huda Haqqani
Sound Recording : Alistair Farrant
Story Producer : Melanie Chandra
Developmental Producer : Surina Jindal
Consulting Writer : Timothy Cooper
Color : Damon Beirne
Styling : Liya Thachil
Makeup : Jasmine Rahman
Makeup :Arfana Jasar & Jasmine Rahman
Hair : Natalie Restrepo
Titles & Graphic Design : Reema Sampat
Camera Assistant : Daniel Rodriguez
Production Assistant & BTS Photographer : Anuj Goyal
Production Assistant : Rohan Sheth
Production Assistant : Shreya Maha
Sound Programming : Shubham Raval
Audio Production : Aaditaal Music Project
Subtitles : Saga Translations
Equipment & Studio Location : Youtube Space
Special Thanks : Timothy Cooper, Ankush Jindal
Gayatri Bahl (Director, Editor & Producer)
Gayatri Patel Bahl is an actress, dancer, filmmaker, and former tech creative.
Performing for over 25 years, Gayatri has appeared in Martin Scorsese’s Vinyl (HBO), Law & Order SVU, Mr. Robot, Showtime’s The Loudest Voice, NBC’s New Amsterdam, and Yash Raj's Rishta.com (Netflix).
Gayatri’s desire to live an inspired life has led her on an exhilarating journey through Bollywood as the lead of the Hindi Film "Let's Dance"; from founding Textured, a web development company, to co-founding Leblum, a Techstars NYC 16′ company; to writing, directing and starring in the award-winning TINA, which has been to over 30 film festivals worldwide and finally to co-creating Diner Banter, a bite-sized 100% improvised series.
Gayatri, who has been featured in Elle Magazine’s Movement Series, has been dancing all her life. In India, Gayatri trained in dance with Saroj Khan & Vijayshree Choudhary. In NYC she now trains with Parul Shah and learns rhythm from Pandit Guru Devyang Vakil. With Sa Dance Company, she has performed at Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theatre, Lincoln Center and NYC’s SummerStage.
She currently resides in New York City with her husband and their infant son. Follow her at @gayatribahl.
Melanie Chandra (Co-creator & Story Producer)
Melanie is an award winning actress and producer passionate about bringing more empathy to this world through her work. In line with that mission, she uses her platforms both on-screen and behind the camera to share powerful and diverse stories about women and minorities. She is best known for her work as Malaya Pineda on CBS’s CODE BLACK and Fareeda on HBO's THE BRINK.
As a producer, she is the co-creator of several different projects, spanning digital, stage, and television. Two of her television projects are currently in development with major studios. One, centered around an Indian American tech CEO in NYC and her immigrant mother, is being developed at HBO alongside Reese Witherspoon's production company, Hello Sunshine.
Born in Illinois, Melanie graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering while studying improvisational comedy on the side. Post-graduation, she landed a high-profile corporate job, which she eventually quit to pursue her childhood dream of acting.
Melanie is the co-founder of the not-for-profit Hospital for Hope India, which provides health care services to under-served villagers in rural India. She also holds a 2nd-degree black belt in Karate and is a trained pianist. She currently resides in New York City with her husband and their two young daughters.
Follow her at @melaniechandra.
Surina Jindal (Co-creator & Developmental Producer)
Surina is an actress, (Succession, Outsourced, 90201), award-winning producer, & public speaking coach.
She is a creator on ‘Surina & Mel’ which is currently in development with a major studio.
While living in India, Surina developed a sitcom for Netflix India and produced and directed an audio show for Audible. Her short ‘Lemon,’ starring Jennifer Westfeldt, Noah Bean, and Jenn Lyon, premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, played on United Airlines and Amazon Prime, where it won an award for "Most Watched Shorts On Amazon." Surina is also an IFP Screen Forward Labs Fellow.
Surina is trained in improv and sketch comedy at UCB, the Groundlings, and was a member of a nationally ranked improv troupe for 5 years. She's worked alongside Daniel Radcliffe, Gloria Steinem, Eve Ensler, Chris Moore, Penn Badgley and James Franco.
She’s currently heading up development at Aristocrat Studios, a sports and entertainment media company. Her latest project ‘The Giants’ a sumo wrestling documentary is set to release this summer on the global streamer Rakuten. Follow her at @surinajindal.
Reema Sampat (Co-creator)
Reema Sampat is a Indian-American actress originally hailing from Houston, TX. She is best known for portraying ‘Shruti Chambal’ on seasons 6 and 7 of “Orange is the New Black” (Netflix), the show’s first South Asian inmate.
Other credits include “Shades of Blue” (NBC), Marvel’s “Jessica Jones” (Netflix), Kurt. (starring Matthew Lawrence), The Pretenders (dir. James Franco; starring Jane Levy), Blood Surf (starring Lorelei Linklater), I Am Michael (Sundance FF 2015 - starring James Franco & Zachary Quinto), Reclaim (starring John Cusack) and the new pilot “Surina & Mel.”
In addition to acting, Reema is a producer and philanthropist - she actively advocates for better representation in the arts and also helped establish the Save a Gato organization in Puerto Rico.
Reema currently lives in New York City with her husband, their 2 daughters, and their many, many cats.
Follow her at @reemasampat
About The South Asian Film Fest of America
Showcasing diversity, creativity and a multi hyphenated identity, the South Asian Film Festival of America (#southasianfilmfest) is an international screening and awards platform for South Asians to showcase their films and digital work. We're a culture-impact film festival for the new generation of South Asian creatives to share their experiences and narratives through feature films, short films, web-series, and music videos with global audiences. We welcome stories from and inclusive of individuals with South Asian heritage, the diaspora, immigrants, and from the sub-continent itself.
**This event is included in the following tickets:
Diner Banter Premiere [Film Festival Screening]