New York City's South Asian Cultural Guide

Bollywood.NYC

We don't list everything. That's the point.

Issue No. 013 · May 28, 2026

Editor's Note

Tonight in Brooklyn. This Saturday, Barzakh. June 20, Newark. All of it is worth your time.

The New York Indian Film Festival opens this Thursday, May 28, with a pre-festival gala: a 4K restoration of Sholay at full theatrical scale. Sholay was released in 1975. It ran continuously in Mumbai for five years. It is one of the highest-grossing Indian films ever made and one of the most quoted. Seeing it restored, in a cinema, in New York, in 2026 — that is a specific and unrepeatable experience. That is where we would start.

Friday, May 29 is the problem. In the best possible sense. NYIFF opening night is that evening — BAFTA-winning Manipuri film Boong. Russell Peters is at NJPAC in Newark. Bahauddin Dagar performs a full concert at The DiMenna Center. Khayal Manthan with Brooklyn Raga Massive is at Barzakh. Brown Noise Comedy is at Grove 34 in Astoria at 9:30pm. Five South Asian cultural events on one Friday. This newsletter will not tell you which one to choose. We will tell you to choose now, because at least two of these will be harder to get into by the end of this week.

Before all of that: this weekend. Saturday and Sunday, Smorgasburg Williamsburg and Prospect Park host the AAPI Festival of Tea — free, outdoor, two Brooklyn locations, vendors including Kolkata Chai Co. And Tuesday night, Quadrature plays City Winery — sitar, trumpet, drums, and bass, from Brooklyn Raga Massive sessions to Warner Music Group. These are not the same thing. They are both worth your time.

Satyajit Ray, in the Words section below. He said something about this city, this audience, and what a film festival actually means when it lands here.

— The Editors, Bollywood.NYC

This Week

Tonight, May 28: Abhik Mukherjee & Ravi Venugopalan at The Green Room PLG — two shows, 6:30pm and 8pm. Saturday, May 30: Minaxi: Mehfil-e-Barzakh at Barzakh Café, 8pm. Sunday, May 31: Gandhar Deshpande at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 5pm. June 20: Zarna Garg at NJPAC. Book now.

The Edit
01
Editor's Pick Stand-Up

Zarna Garg: Million Dollar Excuses

Saturday, June 20 · 7 PM · Prudential Hall, NJPAC, Newark

Zarna Garg is a former lawyer, mother of three, NYT bestselling author, Variety's "10 Comics to Watch," and the winner of Kevin Hart's Lyft Comics competition. She started stand-up in 2019 — on a whim, at an open mic her daughter forced her into — and has been filling increasingly large rooms ever since. She opened for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler for two years. She has specials on Amazon Prime and Hulu. She is the most visible South Asian female comedian working right now.

Just one percent of stand-up comedians in the United States are South Asian. Thirty-eight percent are women. Zarna Garg is both, filling a 2,800-seat room in Newark as part of the North to Shore festival. June 20. Worth the Trip.

30 minutes on NJ Transit from Penn Station. Book now — this will fill.

Tickets — Ticketmaster
02
Classical Tonight

Abhik Mukherjee & Ravi Venugopalan — The Green Room PLG

Tonight, May 28 · 6:30–7:30 PM & 8–9 PM · The Green Room PLG, 408 Rogers Ave, Brooklyn

Abhik Mukherjee is a sitar player in the Etawah-Imdadkhani gharana — a founding member of Brooklyn Raga Massive and academic director of Chhandayan, one of the premier South Asian music institutions in New York. He has performed at the MLK Memorial inauguration alongside Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin. Tonight he plays two one-hour sets at The Green Room in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens — an intimate space, two sittings, two chances to be in a small room with serious music.

If you are free tonight and in the borough, this is the decision.

Tickets — Viewcy
03
Music

Minaxi: Mehfil-e-Barzakh — Barzakh Café

Saturday, May 30 · 8–10:30 PM · Barzakh Café, 147 Utica Ave, Brooklyn

Minaxi is Shrenik Ganatra and Liam Christian — shoegaze, psych, rock, and Indian classical, made in Brooklyn by a Mumbai-born multi-instrumentalist who named the band after his mother. Albums: Khwab, Lazuleen, and most recently Z of A. The Mehfil-e-Barzakh format shapes every performance toward something devotional: not a concert, a gathering. Saturday night at Barzakh.

Tickets — Viewcy
Coming Soon — Worth a Look
Sun, May 31

An Evening with Gandhar Deshpande — Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Gandhar Deshpande — billed as "the rising star of Hindustani vocal" — performs at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan USA, 305 7th Ave, 17th Floor, Manhattan. Sunday May 31, 5–7:30pm (doors 4:30pm). Presented by Sneh Arts Foundation, which has been bringing classical musicians to BVB with consistency and seriousness. A Sunday afternoon before June begins.

Tickets — Viewcy
Thu, Jun 4

Sound of Light — Radhika Vekaria, Upper Manhattan

Grammy-nominated UK/East African–Indian artist Radhika Vekaria performs Sound of Light — an immersive devotional concert held in a secret church venue in Upper Manhattan, revealed only upon booking. Her 2025 album Warriors of Light has been presented at the GRAMMY Museum, SXSW, Harvard, and Morehead Planetarium. Produced by Solenya. Thursday June 4, 7:30–9:30pm, doors 7pm. Ages 16+. No refunds. This is the final East Coast stop of her tour.

Tickets — Eventbrite
Sat, Jun 6

The Barman Brothers: An Evening with Tabla & Srikhol — BVB

Gopal and Madhusudan Barman perform tabla and srikhol — a clay drum primarily associated with Bengali Vaishnavite devotional music — at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan USA, Saturday June 6, 7–9:30pm. Presented by Sneh Arts Foundation. The pairing of tabla and srikhol is uncommon; the srikhol's roots in kirtan give this concert a different quality than a conventional percussion program.

Tickets — Viewcy
Fri, Jun 12

Poetry Mehfil — Inside Voice x Kavita Collective at Barzakh

A poetry mehfil at Barzakh Café, presented by Inside Voice and Kavita Collective — Friday June 12, 6–8pm. Barzakh in mehfil format for spoken word and poetry is a natural progression of the programming the venue has been building all spring. Two hours. The kind of room where language lands differently than it does on a page.

Tickets — Viewcy

Words

"American women taught me that I have a right to use my voice, and they taught me that I have a right to my opinions."

Zarna Garg — comedian, writer, November 2025

She said it at The Daily Beast's Power 100 luncheon in New York. She also said there is no one in her profile in the whole world who does what she does — that one percent of stand-up comedians in the United States are South Asian, and thirty-eight percent are women, and she is both. She started at an open mic in 2019, on a dare from her daughter. In June she plays Prudential Hall. The quote is not modest. It is not supposed to be.

Know someone who should be reading this? The list grows one good recommendation at a time.

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ICYMI — The City Around You

The summer calendar is filling. DJ Rekha's Basement Bhangra Beyond at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park on July 18 — free, with Jaz Dhami, Mitika Kanwar, and Babbulicious. India Day Parade on Madison Avenue August 16 — free, the largest Indian Independence Day celebration outside of India. Ammy Virk at Nassau Coliseum August 8, his first-ever New York show. Sonu Nigam at Nassau September 13. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan at Nassau October 3. NYC South Asian Comedy Festival by Laughing Lassi, October 16–18. The list is paying attention so you don't have to.

Be Part of It

If you have something worth saying,
we will help you say it louder.

Bollywood.NYC proudly supports South Asian comedians and women-run businesses. These are not afterthoughts — they are priorities. If you're a comic building an audience, a founder running something with purpose, or an organizer putting on something this community needs to know about, write to us at contact@bollywood.nyc. We read every one.

We're especially looking for:

  • Comedy shows and stand-up showcases
  • Women-led businesses, brands, and events
  • Cultural performances and live music
  • Panels, professional mixers, and community gatherings
  • Anything that feels intentional, not just loud

We don't feature everything. But when we do, we mean it — and so does our audience.