Simone Ashley to Arooj Aftab: Five South Asian Women Who Recently Made Headlines

Famous South Asian Women: The media that was biased towards Eurocentric features are now becoming diverse which has opened up avenues for People of Colour, a blanket term used for non-Caucasian persons, in Hollywood to thrive. Over the past few years women of South Asian descent have created ripples with celebrated actors like late Irrfan Khan and others featuring in Hollywood films.

From India’s leading actors Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra to new gen actors Geraldine Viswanathan, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, the representation of South Asian faces is indicator of the long-time pending change coming about. There’s still a long way to go! Nonetheless, we can let loose and celebrate a little for many more South Asian women are out there who are hitting the headlines for their contribution.

Here are five famous South Asian women who recently made headlines:

Falguni Shah

Better known as her stage name Falu, the New York-based singer won the Grammys 2022 in the Best Children's Album category for her album A Colourful World. The singer has formerly worked with well-known artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Wyclef Jean, Philip Glass, Ricky Martin, Blues Traveler and AR Rahman. Shah had been nominated for Grammys in the same category earlier in 2018 as well for his album Falu's Bazaar. The singer is reportedly trained in Jaipur traditional music and Banaras style Thumri.

Falguni Shah (Reuters)

Arooj Aftab

Arooj Aftab became the first female Pakistani singer to win a Grammy Award as she won the award for her song Mohabbat in The Best Global Music Performance. Celebrating her win, she wrote in her Instagram caption, "Oh my gosh. I am so proud of this moment personally, but also for the industry itself… tonight we celebrated music as a collective, unapologetically making what we want to make in all its genre-less limitless crossover glory." The singer has produced three albums so far including Bird Under Water, Siren Islands and Vulture Prince. The Saudi Arabia-Pakistan raised singer emerged victorious against popular singers like Olivia Rodrigo, FINNEAS, the Kid LAROI and Saweetie making her name among them.

Arooj Aftab at Grammys (Grammy)

Simone Ashley

Bridgerton fame Simone Ashley recently made headlines with her role of Kate Sharma in the second season of the period-drama series. Ashley was widely loved by the audience as the over-protective and striking older sister Kate. Simone Ashwini Pillai adopted the screen name Simone Ashley and has also featured in the popular Netflix drama series Sex Education. She made her debut in 2016 with the show Wolfblood while she bagged the role of a lead cast much later in Bridgerton Season 2.

Simone Ashley

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Charithra Chandran

Along with Simone Ashley, Charithra Chandran was the other addition to the lead cast of Bridgerton Season 2. Together, they made the much-loved pair of the Sharma sisters as Chandran was cast as the younger sister Edwina Sharma in the series. Her character was a hopeless romantic and soft-spoken, yet equally intriguing to the audience. Speaking to Daily Mail, Chandran earlier revealed the pressure of representing her community saying, "I do feel the pressure of representing my community, and for the show being a success. But no one is putting that on me. It's entirely self-inflicted."

Charithra Chandran

Kalpana Kotagal

Joe Biden has nominated Indian-origin female attorney Kalpana Kotagal for the key administration position in the US government. Kotagal is nominated for the post of Commissioner on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Daughter of immigrants, she is a partner at Cohen Milstein film and also served as the co-chair of the Hiring and Diversity Committee in the firm. Kotagal is among the first South Asian women in the plaintiffs’ bar to become a law partner.

Kalpana Kotgal