Ashanti OMkar

We’ve now past our thrilling Silver Jubilee where everyone from Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan and Vikram were interviewed, to specials with Comedian Vivek, Singer Naresh Iyer, Sound Engineer H Sridhar and Actor Prasanna of Anjathey! Keep supporting, listeners! Mail us at southside@desihits.com

- It’s the only Southern targeted show in the mainstream - covering music, movies, culture of Goa, Karnataka, South India, Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius and those from the diaspora - I also cover countries like South Africa, Australia etc - where ever the 1/2 Billion South Indians worldwide or those who speak Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Tulu, Sinhalese reside.
The show is on www.desihits.com - 5-10 million hits per month - it has garnered a lot of press coverage for innovation.

- I play an eclectic variety of music (Hip Hop, R&B, Alternative, Rock, Roots, Remixes, Classical Raga insights) and interviews stemming from Southern South Asia and it’s diaspora - everything from film music and AR Rahman, to the likes of talented artistes like Anoushka Shankar (1/2 Bengali 1/2 Tamil), M.I.A (British Tamil), Anusha (Welsh 1/2 Mauritian 1/2 Tamil Sri Lankan), Sona Family (Kazz their female lead is British Tamil) Shruti Haasan (Indian Tamil), Bobby Moon (American Malayalee), Nivla (American Malayalee), Hema Nair (British Malayalee now in US), Ashanthi (Sri Lankan Sinhalese), Iraj (Sri Lankan Sinhalese), Ranidu (SriLankan Sinhalese), Delon (American Sinhalese), Dushyanthi (American Tamil), Shakti (American Tamil), Ranjini (American Kannada), The Leano (British Tamil), Sujeeth G (British Tamil), Shanti (Australian Tamil), Devan (American Tamil), Dialekt (British Sinhalese), Nachithira (Dr Burn & Emcee Jesz) & Yogi B (Malaysian Tamil), Rosh & Dan (British Sinhalese and English), Zambezi Funk with Blaaze (African American Tamil), Nandita Dias (Canadian Kannada), Sasi the Don (Malaysian Tamil), Nishi (American Malayalee), Satsangi (British Malayalee), Kavi (British Tamil), Jayasri (Austrian Tamil), Ahalya (British Tamil), Shyam Raj (Singaporean Tamil), Shine (Norwegian Tamil), Krishan (Sri Lankan Tamil), Dinesh & Gajan (Sri Lankan Tamil), Dushyanth (Sri Lankan Sinhalese), Ras Ceylon (American Sinhalese), Heaven’s Heathens (British Sinhalese), Ambika (British Kannada), Abi (British Tamil), Loven (British Tamil), Angela (British Tamil), Karthik Ragunathan (British 1/2 Tamil 1/2 Hindi), Shakthi (American Tamil), Karen David (Canadian 1/2 Tamil 1/2 Khasi), KLG Squad (Malaysian Tamil Chinese), The Sunpilots (Australian Tamil), My Vitriol (British Sri Lankan), Rudra (Indian Tamil), Battle (British Sinhalese), Twisted Trees (British Tamil), Jayou (Australian Tamil), Monk Brother (Australian Sri Lankan), Nalika (British Sinhalese) and many more talents.

- My show in itself gets a huge number of hits a week (email me to find out figures) - it is streamed online and can be played at any time with just one click - back episodes are available too and they go under the Bollywood channel. You can subscribe via Itunes.

- It is on the internet and reaches over 68 countries

- Desi Hits has offices in New York, California and London

- Desi Hits has the only Asian Apple itunes store and the show is a podcast on there too

- Tamil movies have been making waves in the recent years, where UK and European multiplexes and those in US have been showing figures and box office takings to be in Top 20, e.g. Pokkiri into Number 19 and Sivaji which got to Number 9 in 2007. The UK also shows Telugu movies in the cinemas and recently. Eros, one of the world’s biggest distributors bought out Ayngaran, the biggest Tamil distributor and companies like Ad Labs and UTV have also been distributing Tamil films.

- Many of the technical gurus in India hail from the South, e.g. AR Rahman, Ilayaraja, PC Sreeram, Ravi K Chandran, Rajeev Menon, Mani Ratnam. This show is to pay tribute to all of them and also showcase all those of the Southern heritage, those who have worked in the South and those from the North who have worked in the South - e.g. Southern director Ram Gopal Verma and my recent interviewee, Nisha Kothari - she debuted in Tamil with Madhavan in Jay Jay. Other examples of interviewees are Celina Jaitley, who made waves in the Telugu scene, Amrita Arora who is 1/2 Malayalee, Ateesh Randev from Sambar Salsa which has a Southern storyline and had worked in a Tamil movie called Nenjil jil jil when they shot it in the UK. Also, the crossover of actors/actresses from the South in the North - e.g. Vyjayanthimala Bali, Hema Malini, Sri Devi, Aishwarya Rai, Shilpa and Shamita Shetty, Sunil Shetty, Vidya Balan, Isha Koppikar, Deepika Padukone, Padma Lakshmi. Also, Devan, Vikku Vinayakaram’s son, Uma Shankar who did a live Ghatam session of Sutthi sutthi from Padayappa etc. Also, Welsh Asian singer, whose playlisted on MTV Base - Anusha! Pirashanna, Britians’s Prince of Percussion from Anoushka Shankar and Karsh Kale’s album (Breathing under water), also gave us some beats to reckon with!

Listen to the show SOUTH SIDE on:

www.desihits.com