Weinstein’s desi investments

At the Bride and Prejudice premiere in New York, movie mogul Harvey Weinstein came out to introduce Gurinder Chadha. He sounded humble in front of the part desi, part industry audience, nothing like the enfant terrible of movie industry lore. Weinstein’s made a large bet both on desis personally and on desi culture becoming part of Americana:

Films. At Miramax, Weinstein backed Chadha’s Bride and Prejudice, a category-crosser which could not have been an easy pitch. He’s always been comfortable with foreign films:

… Weinstein [had] time-tested strategies for turning such relatively inexpensive pictures as The Piano or Cinema Paradiso into Oscar-season hits… [and picking] the rare foreign picture that can capture both praise and ticket sales in the United States. Miramax won a best foreign film Oscar with Pelle the Conquerer, from Denmark, in 1989, and the next year received two acting awards and several nominations, including best picture, for My Left Foot, from Ireland. [Link]

The Sun Tzu of Oscar warfare, Harvey Weinstein practically invented the modern awards campaign… like setting up political-style phone banks for his young aides to badger motion picture academy voters at home. [Link]

He and girlfriend Georgina Chapman played bit parts in Chadha’s movie.

Books. Weinstein’s post-Miramax book imprint published Padma Lakshmi’s second cookbook, Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet:

Padma was traveling around the room making people taste her chocolate soup… “One taste,” she insisted of Harvey Weinstein, as he backed away with his hands up (he recently lost 55 pounds). “O.K., O.K.,” he finally said, allowing Padma to spoon-feed him. “… We’re doing a campaign and an event and you should buy a fucking table.”

Weinstein smiled. “I will buy a fucking table…” [Link]

Fashion. Weinstein acquired struggling fashion label Halston and is working with its British Asian CEO:

Halston’s new C.E.O. Bonnie Takhar has laid out her plans for the brand’s launch… Halston was acquired by Harvey Weinstein and Hilco… Takhar is Indian — she may want a store in her home country. And she’s also the one who initiated the… deal with… the man responsible for bringing Jimmy Choo to India, Mohan Murjani. [Link]

Halston died in 1990, and the label was relaunched in 1997; since then, designers Randolph Duke, Kevan Hall, Craig Natiello, Piyawat Pattanapuckdee and Bradley Bayou have passed through its doors. The brand was bought by the The Weinstein Co. and Hilco Consumer Capital LLC last March from Neema Clothing Ltd. and its owner, James J. Ammeen. Harvey Weinstein’s involvement has made this one of the most anticipated comebacks in fashion. [Link]

Besides Deepak Chopra, does anyone else in the cultural sphere come close to this level of investment in desiana?