Over 3 days, in a New Jersey small town, five Indian-Americans and one Jewish Indophile participate in the first DESI IDOL, a Bollywood-style singing contest sponsored by a pork millionaire. These six people are pitted against each other in a singing and dancing extravaganza which will last 72 hours, presided over by the wily contest promoter, a man with a strong preference for Gipsy Kings music. The director: "I feel that this movie reflects my beliefs and my concerns. As we cross-pollinate our cultures across the world, and concurrently deal with the fear of the "other," issues of belonging, of defining "home," of national self-image, find themselves on the top of my mind".

Sceneggiatura / Screenplay Anuvab Pal & Manish Acharya
Fotografia (colore) / Photography (colour) Arvind Kannabiran
Montaggio / Editing Christopher Dillon
Musica / Music Michael Cohen, Samrat Chakrabarti
Suono / Sound Nakul Kamte, Baylon Fonseca
Coreografia / Choreography Farah Pavri
Interpreti / Cast Shabana Azmi, Ajay Naidu, Ayesha Dharker, Seema Rahmani
Costumi / Costumes Rabiah Troncelliti, Gauri Mehta
Trucco / Make-up Virginia Holmes, Jean Na-Kyum
Produzione / Production Manish Acharya
Anno di produzione / Year of production 2007
Durata / Running time 88’
Formato / Format 35mm

Manish Acharya

Writer and director, Manish Acharya has degrees in Film Directing from NYU, Physics and Industrial Relations and is founder of a software company. He won various awards from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Film Program. He directed three short films: Partner (2001), which won multiple awards for acting and editing, and the Carl Lerner Award for a Film with Social Significance, The driver (2000) and Little woman (1999). Loins of Punjab Presents, his first full-length feature film, won 2007 the Best Graduate Feature Film Award from the NYU Faculty and the Dennis Riese Award. Currently, he lives and works between Mumbai and New York.