MISTAKEN IDENTITY: Sikhs in America" Welcomes UK VP & Associate Producer Rani Singh, Star OF TVs EastEnders"

Gala Global Media Event In London 13 April 2004 premiere screening in Hollywood, LA (USA) on 23 September 2003 From New York to London ... across the Atlantic A Celebration of Cultural Diversity on Jeffersons Birthday - 13 April 2004

(PRWEB) January 10, 2004 --Actress, Journalist/Reporter, Ms Rani Singh joins the Board of Advisors for screenings of MISTAKEN IDENTITY: Sikhs in America" as part of the global media event" in the United Kingdom premiering in April 2004.

Renowned for her role as one of the first South Asian lead female actresses in EastEnders", Rani Singh was appointed Vice President and Associate Producer for the London and Birmingham screenings -- where she will face the British and multicultural media (print/radio & TV) to promote Mistaken Identity" and the need for tolerance and understanding of British Sikh neighbors.

This is another bow to her bonnet of recent successes after being chosen in July 2003 to become Ambassador of the Gingerbread, the leading support organization for solo parent families in the England and Wales, founded in1970, and funded by the Home Office Family Policy Unit. She was selected Ambassador due to the unmatched diversity of her media profile and is considered to be a leading contemporary role model because of her personal courage and skilful ability to stretch her boundaries, both professionally and personally.

Ms Rani Singh has stated: "As parents, we are responsible for shaping the next generation of adults, and I believe our parenting abilities are based on our history, environment, culture, personality and circumstances. There are few organizations supporting one-parent families in the UK, so Gingerbread's work is invaluable. As I have a special interest in Britains parents and children, and those all over the world, which I have been able to explore through my reporting in conflict zones. Therefore, the Gingerbread mission resonates deeply with me and I am honored to be their first Ambassador."

With the title of Associate Produce for the United Kingdom, Rani feels MISTAKEN IDENTITY: Sikhs in America" takes filmgoers into the realm of multicultural diversity. Winner of three first prize awards for documentary at American Film Festivals, this is the first film focusing on Sikhs living in America for over 100 years and it also celebrates cultural diversity after 9/11".

Not too many people around the world are aware, that American Sikhs who arrived in California in the mid 1880s, today own large farmlands on the west coast as gentlemen farmers. After the Attack on America, Sikhs were the first to be racially profiled, verbally abused, assaulted, and five days later shot and killed -- the first casualty was Sardar Balbir Singh Sodhi, simply because Sikhs wear turbans and beards for religious reasons. This reaction was due to ignorance and fear. Sikhs were mistaken for relatives of Binladin as his turbaned bearded face beamed on televisions across the country and via satellite worldwide -- as the hated leader of terrorism".

The film was initiated by Amanda Gesine, a 22-year old student from Georgetown University who felt the story must be told. At a candle light vigilance where over hundreds of turbaned Sikhs at Central Park in New York had gathered five days after 9/11, she asked whether they were Arabs ? Then, she convinced Vinanti Sarkar, the film director to focus on the Sikhs instead of the South Asian story of the World Trade Center tragedy. She never had a Sikh friend in school and college, and she found that no one - in her crowd at school, college or social friends and relatives, knew anything about Sikhs. For her, it became very important to be part of this film project, and discover her American Sikh neighbors".

Recalling her own career path, Rani become a news journalist which led her to report for the BBC, where she was trained as an elite war zone correspondent by SAS soldiers. On the BBC's request she reported extensively from the frontline in Kashmir where her news from Kashmir were hailed as the most unbiased the BBC has ever produced. Following training with the BBC, she produced a full length 40-minute documentary with Mark Tully about the swords of Guru Gobind Singh in India, called The Lord, the Sword and the Guru". Later, as a journalist for the Guardian" and Observer", she reported on foreign news including families and children affected by the Italian mafia and orphaned children in Kashmir. Commissioned to write four children's books, she penned 'The Indian Story Book' which was selected for 'Book of the Year' by The National Book Trust. She was also the finalist for News Journalism of the Year" in Ethnic Multicultural Media Awards (EMMA's) and Women of Courage Award in Washington.

Her successful entry into television had started with the writing and presenting of children's series for the BBC, ITV and Channel Four, and included Playschool and Rainbow. Then, for three years, Rani starred in the most popular TV soap opera, EastEnders", as shopkeeper Sufia Karim, whose life experiences she portrayed, as she acted in the longest serving Asian character and the most famous female Asian face in Britain, which gave her celebrity status. She was also appointed the series' Asian adviser, bringing to the soap an authentic Asian perspective and reality, winning an Asian film Academy Award for her role in EastEnders, having received a special appreciation award for journalism earlier.

Her acting career has expanded after she was presented Channel Four's first ever children's series, a multi-cultural program called Everybody Here, and she continued to star in several children's series, including the hit children's thriller Running Scared". She appears in starring roles within a variety of primetime TV series, including the comedy Romance, Romance," starring opposite Saeed Jaffrey, a winning television role, opposite Art Malik, and A Private Enterprise starring alongside the famous Salmaan Peerzada. Next, it was her voice dubbed in the Hindi version of the highly popular international puppet series of Thunderbirds" representing Lady Penelope.

She has come a long way as the daughter of a diplomat and a solo parent of two children, living in London.