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Bela Bajaria, 44, president of NBC’s Universal Television, received the award for being The Most Inspiring Woman of the Year at the March of Dimes fifth annual Celebration of Babies luncheon Dec. 4, that attracted Hollywood’s rising stars including Mindy Kaling. Actress Jessica Alba and Dr. Michele Hakakha were also honored at the event held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles.
Kaling, who attributes the success of her show, The Mindy Project, to Bajaria, presented the award to the honoree who has helmed the leading NBC television production house since earlier this year and is considered the highest-ranking Indian-American executive in Hollywood.
“I so often get to go on TV and do interviews about my cast, and the writers of the show, but I don’t get to talk about the person who helped make it all possible — and talk about her contributions as the head of a studio and somebody who’s been championing my career,” Kaling told Variety magazine.
While presenting the award Kaling said she had known Bajaria since 2008 “at a meeting of the Indian mafia that secretly runs Hollywood,” drawing laughs from the audience of high profile producers and directors as well as those with special stories about their special needs babies. Kaling, whose show was canceled earlier this year on NBC, can now be watched on Hulu.com. According to Glamour magazine, Kaling hopped a plane from New York City after taping Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show, to make it on time for the Los Angeles event.
“I go to a lot of charitable events, but this one was so important to me for two reasons,” Kaling is quoted saying in Glamour. “(1) Because Bela is so instrumental to my career and (2) because I really do adore March of Dimes and what they stand for.”
Bajaria is responsible for bringing some of the most popular sitcoms on television including Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Parks and Rec, as well as “Bates Motel” for A&E, and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.”
She told Glamour, “to be honored for being an exec and a dedicated mom and someone who does community things is rewarding. Those are the three most important aspects of my life!” Bajaria told The Hollywood Reporter she thought it was important for kids to “see a mom who goes to work, who’s passionate about her work and that’s important, but is involved in a lot of different charities, but is also at home, at a soccer game, and hanging out playing Monopoly. I think it’s important to see that all of those things are possible.”
Also present at the event was Archie Panjabi of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Good Wife.
March of Dimes is among the most well-known non-profits in the U.S. working to improve the health of mothers and babies.
Bajaria was promoted to president of NBC’s Universal Television from vice president this June. She served as executive vice president since 2011. According to media reports, she was promoted in recognition of her success in revitalizing NBC’s production operation, beefing up its creative roster, and delivering new shows. She was with CBS before moving to NBC and is seen as a “Rising Star” at NBC Universal.
“Bela has done an incredible job of starting a studio from scratch three years ago and launching a series of hits on programming services ranging from NBC and Fox to A&E and Netflix,” NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt is quoted saying in media reports when announcing her promotion this June.
Bajaria’ s parents originally hailed from the Kutch region but also lived in east Africa and moved to England in 1970. Bajaria was born in London where her parents ran a grocery store according to a 2012 report in The Hollywood Reporter. The parents moved back to Africa for 2 years before deciding to emigrate to the U.S. when Bajaria was 8. In Palos Verdes, her parents owned several car washes. In a 2012 interview, Bajaria talks about her parents being involved in the Indian community, and the pressure to become a doctor or engineer. But she said they supported her when she told them she wanted to go into the entertainment business. “It was like, ‘Are you going to be a doctor or engineer?’ My response was, ‘How about neither?’ This Indian girl was going into entertainment! And my parents were too happy to be in America not to support me,” she said.
A graduate in communications California State in Long Beach, and running a non-profit for disabled children in Third World countries, Bajaria landed a job at CBS.
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