Priyanka Chopra and Mindy Kaling, along with Paramount Pictures, hosted a South Asian pre-Oscars 2023 party in Los Angeles on Thursday to celebrate the achievements of all nominees at the Academy Awards this year.
The pre-Oscars party saw thousands of Pakistani stars in attendance including the Joyland team Saim Sadiq, Alina Khan, Apoorva Guru Chara, along with actress Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, activist Malala and her husband Asser Malik, singer Ali Sethi, model-director Riz Ahmed and others.
Asser posted a picture on his Instagram Story from the party showing the “Pakistani gang” which included Tan France, Maheen Khan, Rasti Farooq, Ali Junejo too.
Sharmeen got a little Mrs. Amazing See you again at the party where the photos were taken actors Zenobia Shroff and Saagar Sheikh.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker also released a video of Ali singing his world-famous song, Pasoori, to please the crowd. In a video, Alina could be seen dancing to a Punjabi number while everyone cheered for the Chan Kithan crooner
Ali also posted pictures with Saim, Sharmeen and Alina from the party.
Taking to the photo-sharing app, Sharmeen called the night “an emotion” and recalled her first time at the Academy Awards in 2012 and how far South Asians have come since then. “It was an emotional night for a lot of us in LA. In 2012, when I was at the Oscars, there were three South Asians!” he wrote.
“Ten years later, more than 100 of us came together to celebrate South Asians in cinemas, and among us were many Pakistanis. I watched Saim on stage and gave a speech about Joyland. Malala spoke about her support for cinema and Ali Sethi brought down the house Pasoori. And I will proudly say that she is the only South Asian with two Academy Awards, there was so much love for that achievement!” Sharmeen exclaimed.
“This is our time and we have arrived!” he concluded.
Priyanka, talk to Entertainment Tonight, he expressed his pride in seeing his peers from South Asia reach such heights and represent their stories on the world stage. He also talked about his desire to see South Asian stories as a “norm” in cinema and not an “exclusion.”
“I’m very grateful that we had the ability to not only come back, but to do it in an amazing way. I mean, here’s the sign. And to be able to look around me, and see my friends and my friends who have been pushing and hitting the road for years, and to be able to have some time to themselves, I’m like, cry ,” he said.
Priyanka revealed that the night was all about the nominees. The films selected at this year’s ceremony include RRR, Turn Red, Everything Breathes, The Whispering Elephant and Everything everywhere at once.
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