Celebrating Asian Excellence

The stars came out to kick off the Oscars with a bang

Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Anjula Acharia co-hosted the second annual South Asian Excellence at the Oscars Party on the Thursday before the Oscars at the Paramount Studios Lot in Hollywood. The event honored the 2023 Oscar nominees and various shortlisted filmmakers, including Guneet Monga and Kartiki Gonsalves, who won for Best Documentary Short Film for Elephant Whisperers, Ram Charan and NTR Jr, who won for the Best Song for “Naatu Naatu” from RRR, and many more.

Chopra Jonas gave a brief speech introducing the nominated filmmakers, in which she became emotional remarking how incredibly proud she was seeing a room full of South Asian creative artists and having the chance to celebrate their achievements. She then invited each filmmaker to the stage to recognize their accomplishments and for each to give a short speech.

The party was the hottest ticket in town and limited to only the A-list celebrities from TV, film, fashion, music, and comedy. Co-chairs of the event included Malala Yousafzai, Mindy Kaling, Aziz Ansari, Vanity Fair ’s Radhika Jones, and 2022 Oscar winners Joseph Patel and Shruti Ganguly. —Sujata Murthy