AMERICAN HASI (Hindi for "American laughter") is a feature documentary following part-time Indian-American comedian Tushar Singh and his number one fan—his mom—on a 35-day comedy tour across six cities in India as he hits stages with dark, self-deprecating, often risqué stand-up material. Born and raised “the chubby brown kid” in Alabama with deeply traditional Hindu parents set Tushar up for a life of always feeling out of place. After losing his job in LA, Tushar decides he’s had enough of his double life—working a mundane daytime job and doing comedy at night—and decides to embark on the tour, clinging to hopes that he can fast track his way to a full-time comedy career in an emerging scene where audiences will “get him” better than Americans. Along the way he gets life-changing advice from veteran comics Bill Burr, Russell Peters, and Vir Das, and attempts to reconcile his career goals and creative identity with his family’s sacrifices and conservative upbringing. AMERICAN HASI is a funny and delightfully awkward story that captures the struggles of the brave few who try to make a living out of their creative passion.
Laura Asherman is a documentary filmmaker and the owner of a small video production company called Forage Films. With an innate interest in human resiliency and personal identity, Laura is driven to create character-driven stories that serve to foster awareness and positive social change. Her largely self-taught filmmaking style combines verité, experimental, and expository styles of the non-fiction genre. Laura first decided that she wanted to become a documentary filmmaker as a teenager in Massachusetts during her first summer job at a local public access television station. At Emory University, Laura received a Bachelor of Arts in Storytelling, an interdisciplinary degree she crafted with the intention of building her skills as filmmaker. After graduating, Laura hit the ground running, completing her first documentary feature, Maramaso, a year after finishing school. Maramaso went on to compete in film festivals in three continents. In 2014 Laura founded Forage Films, for which she creates both documentaries and branded content for clients like Spanx, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Southwest Airlines. Currently Laura is in the midst of two short documentaries and a feature. As a human and an artist, Laura challenges herself to see the world beyond a black and white perspective and invites her viewers to do the same.
