Kavi Raz
History
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kavi Raz is an Indian-born British actor, writer, director and producer. Born in Punjab, Raz left India at a young age for the United Kingdom, where he grew up. He acquired national prominence as an exceptional hockey player in the Midlands.
He attended university in the San Francisco Bay area. Raz was a founder and artistic director of The Wandering Players Theater Company. The Company staged several World and US premieres of plays from India. Western audiences were exposed to the works of Rabindranath Tagore for the first time, in addition to plays like Sakharam Binder and Shakuntala. This was the first professional South Asian theatre company in the USA.
In the mid-seventies, Raz arrived in Hollywood: a career as an actor was unheard of at a time when roles for South Asian actors in Hollywood television shows and films were limited. Raz had been quoted: “People, especially friends and relatives scoffed at the idea of my becoming an actor. They thought it was a passing fancy and would soon be over. But no, I had a dream and take what it may I journeyed on to make my dream a reality.”
He became the first ever South Asian actor to be signed on as a regular in a major TV series, St Elsewhere. He was a cast member for the first two seasons of the medical drama, and after being let go continued to appear on a recurring basis.
Raz has appeared in over 200 plays, TV shows and films, including guest appearances on The A-Team, M*A*S*H and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
In 1978, Raz founded the production company, K.R. Films Hollywood. Its debut, Lehren - a television weekly variety series for the Asian audience - was shown throughout the United States and Canada. In 1988, K.R. Studios was built in Granada Hills. Housing several buildings including the main studio, it has state-of-art equipment for film and television productions, as well as a multi-track recording facility for post production and recording needs. The studio is now home to many award winning producers, writers and directors engaged in the production of commercials, TV programmes, music videos and films.
Raz began his career as a filmmaker with The Gold Bracelet, a movie about a Sikh man faced with the realities of post-9/11.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Kavi Raz, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Writer
The Black Prince follows the story of the last Sikh Maharaja — the son of the powerful ruler Ranjit Singh — who was placed on the throne at the age of five, after the death of his father. In 1849, the young prince was removed from the throne and eventually sent off to England. His attempts to return to India and reclaim his kingdom were subsequently thwarted by the British.
Director
The Black Prince follows the story of the last Sikh Maharaja — the son of the powerful ruler Ranjit Singh — who was placed on the throne at the age of five, after the death of his father. In 1849, the young prince was removed from the throne and eventually sent off to England. His attempts to return to India and reclaim his kingdom were subsequently thwarted by the British.
Beggar
The Black Prince follows the story of the last Sikh Maharaja — the son of the powerful ruler Ranjit Singh — who was placed on the throne at the age of five, after the death of his father. In 1849, the young prince was removed from the throne and eventually sent off to England. His attempts to return to India and reclaim his kingdom were subsequently thwarted by the British.
Mr. Mehta
When an American woman takes an impromptu journey to Mumbai too get away from her overbearing mother, she befriends an Indian woman striving to balance her family's culture with modern day demands. What ensues is an ethnic and generational mash-up that will leave audiences enthralled at the calamity of old-school traditions and contemporary lifestyle.
Ranjit Singh - Ranveer's Father
Neo-Nazis and bigoted police oppress and target vulnerable Sikhs & Asians in post 9-11 America.
Arjun Singh
When tragedy strikes on 9/11, Arjun Singh (Kavi Raz) and his family -- devout Sikhs who emigrated from India to the suburbs of Los Angeles -- suddenly find themselves as targets of prejudice and discrimination. Trying to distance themselves from terrorists, they explain to once-friendly neighbors how their Sikh culture is nothing like Muslim extremism, but their words largely fall on deaf and suspicious ears. Archana Puran Singh co-stars.
Producer
When tragedy strikes on 9/11, Arjun Singh (Kavi Raz) and his family -- devout Sikhs who emigrated from India to the suburbs of Los Angeles -- suddenly find themselves as targets of prejudice and discrimination. Trying to distance themselves from terrorists, they explain to once-friendly neighbors how their Sikh culture is nothing like Muslim extremism, but their words largely fall on deaf and suspicious ears. Archana Puran Singh co-stars.
Writer
When tragedy strikes on 9/11, Arjun Singh (Kavi Raz) and his family -- devout Sikhs who emigrated from India to the suburbs of Los Angeles -- suddenly find themselves as targets of prejudice and discrimination. Trying to distance themselves from terrorists, they explain to once-friendly neighbors how their Sikh culture is nothing like Muslim extremism, but their words largely fall on deaf and suspicious ears. Archana Puran Singh co-stars.
Director
When tragedy strikes on 9/11, Arjun Singh (Kavi Raz) and his family -- devout Sikhs who emigrated from India to the suburbs of Los Angeles -- suddenly find themselves as targets of prejudice and discrimination. Trying to distance themselves from terrorists, they explain to once-friendly neighbors how their Sikh culture is nothing like Muslim extremism, but their words largely fall on deaf and suspicious ears. Archana Puran Singh co-stars.
Ali
Soon after he lands in America, Ali, a Muslim man from Pakistan, begins his search for his estranged wife, Nadia. On his journey, Ali meets with Teppei, a Japanese traveller hitchhiking his way across America, and Sarah, a local trailer park girl, who help him in his search. The three travellers succeed in finding Nadia, who, to Ali’s dismay, is living a new life in Phoenix with another man. Ali spends the rest of his stay in America with Teppei and Sarah, anxiously wondering where his life is leading. In the brief time they are together, the three companions commit to helping one another. Ali, Teppei and Sarah begin a new journey, to find their own individual identities and in the process they find each other. Big River is a road movie, a tale about the borderless realm of friendship and its ability to transcend culture.
"What's life without a dream?" Starting from the premise "What's life without a dream", STORM in the AFTERNOON tells the story of four people caught at the crossroads of changing social and cultural mores. The ethos of an ethnic immigrant identity is examined against the backdrop of the mythical "American melting pot."
Cabbie #2
Siblings Ethan and Hallie O'Fallon plot to get their divorced parents back together in time for Christmas.
Steve Masterton
Dr. Louis Creed's family moves into the country house of their dreams and discover a pet cemetery at the back of their property. The cursed burial ground deep in the woods brings the dead back to life -- with "minor" problems. At first, only the family's cat makes the return trip, but an accident forces a heartbroken father to contemplate the unthinkable.
"Shooter," aka Matt Thompson aka Gruwald is a photographer in 1967 Saigon, Vietnam. Working out of a news agency for a major magazine, Thompson gets involved in the lives of the soldiers he meets and "shoots." There's Ngoc, the Vietnamese photo lab tech; Klause, a German photographer swiping Buddhas; Rene, a French photographer who carries an AK-47; Stork, Matt's superstitious roommate who is also a photographer; Rizzo, the irascible editor; Lan, an American-educated Vietnamese reporter and Tracey an embassy worker who is Matt's former flame.
Prof. Dewan Godbothe
A young girl leaves for Nepal with her parents and brother. She is unhappy to leave her home at first, but soon isn't when she meets a handome young man. The story unfolds into a romantic and daring quest in search of the "Invisible City."
Yassir
A squad of Libyan terrorists infiltrate the city of Kokomo, Indiana, with the goal of car bombing a nuclear power plant. While attempting to escape local law enforcement, a massive car chase ensues, terrorizing the entire town before the terrorists end up at the local high school and take the detention class hostage. Will they escape? Will the crafty delinquents foil their plans? Will Chuck Connors step more than two feet away from his car? Watch and find out!
Mr. Singh
The "slippery" comedy is about 2 easy-living young men. They decide to make sex films. This adventurous enterprise could be a little complicated but nothing will deter them.
Falafel Stand Worker
The made-for-TV film stars Jack Warden, Lou Diamond Phillips and Stan Shaw as three patients in a Los Angeles-area mental institution. Dressed as the Three Wise Men for a Christmas pageant, the trio is suddenly struck with the delusion that they are really their Biblical counterparts on a quest to find the Baby Jesus. As TV cameras grind away, the three ersatz Kings surreptitiously ride out of the gates of the asylum—on camels—and into the mean streets of LA. As the story draws to its conclusion, the three escapees find themselves providing a Christmas miracle (but not in the form of rap) for a group of homeless people on the outskirts of the city.
Saman Kadassi
Terrorists launch an attack against the USA. Their first strike is by a suicide squad that detonates a truckload of explosives at an army base in Washington DC. FBI probes indicate that the attack is by Arab terrorists led by Iranians. Subsequent attacks are via airplanes exploded in mid-air, crowded restaurants, and an attack on a mall. Administration cabinet heads push the President to retaliate. The director of the FBI believes that there may be more to the story than the investigation has revealed and the Secretary of Defense is the only other person urging caution.
Dr. Honrada
A married couple from Poland emigrates to the U.S.,. but things don't turn out as well as they had imaged. The husband's business fails, while his wife's career really takes off. The husband, unable to cope with the pressures of his failed business, his failing marriage and the adjustments necessary to live in a completely different society, begins to take out his frustrations on his wife.
Dr. Ramesh Kapoor
An accident occurs in an ultra-secret government biological weapons laboratory spreading a sinister bacteria.
