Award-winning actor and musician Samrat Chakrabarti scores another trifecta starring in three short films at the Tribeca Cinemas – Rehana Mirza’s Zameer & Preeti: A Love Story on Friday, May 6, and Soham Mehta’s Fatakra and Shiva Bajpai's Raju on Saturday, May, 7, as part of the 11th Annual New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF).

Last year, Chakrabarti’s talents were on display in three films at the Festival. He created the score for Sundaram Tagor’s documentary The Poetics of Color: Natvar Bhavsar, and had roles in Claire McCarthy’s The Waiting City opposite Radha Mitchell and Joel Edgerton, and in Ajay Naidu’s Ashes.

The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF), presented by the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC), is the oldest and most prestigious Indian film festival in the country. NYIFF continues through May, 8, 2011 and tickets are available online at http://www.iaac.us/nyiff2011/

Friday, May 6, 2011, Tribeca Theater 1, 3:30pm
Chakrabarti plays a Muslim groom about to wed a Hindu bride in New Jersey in Rehana Mirza’s Zameer & Preeti: A Love Story. When the groom gets a case of cold feet, will the wedding become just another case of religious conflict? Buy Tickets

Actor Ajay Naidu’s directorial debut Ashes screens during the 6th Annual Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival on  Sunday, May 15 at 5:30pm, at the Regent Square Theater, 1035 S. Braddock Ave in Edgewood, PA.  Faran Tahir, Samrat Chakrabarti, Firdous Bamji, Heather Burns, Maurice Carr and Piper Perabo are also featured in the Ashes cast.

The 6th Annual Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival, presented by the

The 2011 National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC, which runs from March 26-April 10 commemorates the 99th anniversary of the gift of the cherry blossom trees and the enduring friendship between the United States and Japan. This year’s festival features three spectacular weekends and daily events highlighting traditional and contemporary Japanese arts and culture, natural beauty, and community spirit.

The National Cherry Blossom Festival is sponsoring a fundraising event called Stand with Japan at the Washington Monument on March 24, 2011. Meet at the Sylvan Theater, 15th Street & Independence Avenue, SW at 6:30pm and join others who are gathering to reflect and participate in the walk around the Tidal Basin, where the cherry blossom trees, gifted to Washington, DC from Tokyo in 1912, have stood the test of time for 99 years. The relationship with Japan is at the heart of the Festival, and the evening of hope and perseverance occurs before the 16-day celebration begins on Saturday, March 26. All donations will go directly to the American Red Cross and their Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund.

A ful list of Festival participants and partners holding events to benefit the fund can be found at www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org

Hotline: (877) 44-BLOOM