|  | MORE ABOUT ME..... I am a senior writer with a large English-language newspaper, "The Hindu". It has a daily circulation of about one million copies, and is published from 12 Indian cities, including New Delhi and Madras (now renamed Chennai). The paper's headquarters is in Madras, where I am based. I have been with "The Hindu" for 22 years, and have been writing editorials, comments, analyses and features on a wide range of subjects, such as cinema, theatre, literature, history, archaeology, environment, wildlife, health, children and other socio-economic issues. I travel widely both within the country and outside on a variety of journalistic assignments. I have done spot reporting, and interviews with organizations, including UNESCO in Paris, The Sorbonne University also in Paris, The Globe Theatre in London, The Belgium Centre For Comic Strip Art in Brussels and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Museum. I have met and written about personalities such as Arundhati Roy, Dame Barbara Cartland, Satyajit Ray, Lars Von Trier, Ken Loach, Mike Leigh, Jane Campion, Paul Cox, Gregory Peck, Sidney Poitier, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Zubin Mehta, John Galliano (Christian Dior), Karl Lagerfeld (Chanel), Pierre Cardin and several Indian politicians among others. I have been regularly covering international movie festivals at Cannes (2006 was my 13th year there), Venice, Berlin, Montreal, Tokyo, Fukuoka, Dubai and in India since 1990. Documentaries, shorts and children's cinema are also among my interests. I served on the international critics jury at the 52nd Melbourne International Film Festival in July 2003 and at the 6th and 7th Deauville Asian Film Festivals in March 2004 and March 2005, and on the main international jury of the International Film Festival of India in New Delhi during October 2003 and the Pune International Film Festival in January 2005. I have also been on the jury for the National and State movie awards in India. Was a member of the National Book Jury in New Delhi as well. In August 2001, I was invited by the Japanese Foreign Ministry to study contemporary Japanese cinema. It was a six-month fellowship, and I met about 50 directors, actors and actresses. I was based in Tokyo, and travelled around Japan writing stories on Japanese cinema, society and culture for "The Hindu". I am now writing a book on modern Japanese cinema. |
