Don't Write What You Can't Defend

Mumbai-born journalist and president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Meher Tatna, shares her viewing list with Serena Menon.

- Serena Menon

The Golden Globes, the “bolder”, “no-holds-barred” version of the Academy Awards, are a TRP riot. They give us an annual opportunity to watch America’s top satirists—be it Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, Ricky Gervais, Jimmy Fallon or Seth Meyers—roast film royalty, and with them, equally, the host NGO, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). But few are familiar with what the HFPA really does. Apart from lauding the best to come out of the entertainment industry, its focus lies on promoting the arts by offering scholarships to institutions that foster them around the world. Did you know, for instance, that the HFPA has given over $30 million (over ₹200 crore) to about 63 other global non-profits, to date? More recently, at the Cannes Film Festival 2018, it awarded $5,00,000 (₹3.4 crore) to The Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation.