THA LIFESTYLE
| FEATURED PROFILES
THA FEATURED PROFILE
ASHANTI
OMKAR
Ashanti Omkar is an award winning London based
multi-media persona, whose work in the publishing,
TV and radio world has gained her a huge fanbase
the world over. She is the Bollywood and Indian cinema editor for UK’s leading cinema chain, Cineworld
cinemas and is Bollywood expert for BBC London
and BBC West Midlands, while also being an ethnic
culture commentator at the prestigious Monocle
Magazine Radio.
Raised primarily in Europe and Africa with Tamil
heritage, she is a Croydon Music prize winning Carnatic (South Indian Classical Music) vocalist and she
comes from a stellar corporate background, working at places like Credit Suisse, Pepsi, Oracle, O2,
Hilton Group, and then transitioning into the British
media scene in 2003. She communicates with over
50,000 supporters across her social media networks, from Instagram and Facebook, to Twitter,
LinkedIn, Myspace, Google + and Tumblr. She also
runs her own social media consultancy firm, Omkari
consultancy.
She has interviewed the likes of double Grammy
and double Oscar winner AR Rahman, Aamir Khan,
Mani Ratnam, Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan,
Hrithik Roshan, Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor; Tamil
cinema icons like Sridevi, Raadhika Sarathkumar,
Khushboo Sundar, Vikram, Dhanush, Arya, Simbu,
W: AshantiOmkar.com
Follow @AshantiOmkar
facebook.com/ashantiomkar
facebook.com/omkariconsultancy
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Jiiva, Shriya Sharan, Madhavan; musicians like Hariharan, Shankar Mahadevan, Jay Sean, Akon, John
Legend et al,
Her relaxed interview style has had many a top
Bollywood actresses like Aishwarya Rai Bachchan,
Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif and Sonam Kapoor speak openly
to her, for publications and websites the world
over. She was responsible for Kolaveri Di, the viral
phenomenon from the film Moondru (3) having
its first British radio play on BBC London and has
since spoken about Tamil and South Indian cinema
and its emergence in the worldwide and British box
office on many platforms, most recently, The FT.
Ashanti is also seen on stage regularly, compèring,
curating, and leading Q&A’s at places like the London Mela (as co-curator of the Classical Stage),
The O2, BAFTA and the South Bank Centre. She
compered dancer and actress Shobana and singer
P Unnikrishnan at the London International Arts
Festival in 2013. She has also worked with top Tamil
stars like Kamal Haasan and Ilayaraja, for their
2013 show at The O2, she met with Superstar Rajinikanth in London in 2012, and is a consultant with
the London Indian Film Festival, which is Europe’s
largest independent cinema festival, affiliated with
the BFI and the BAFTA.
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