Mindy Kaling and Bela Bajaria Among The Hollywood Reporter’s 100 Powerful Women in Entertainment
- The list focuses on executives, filmmakers, showrunners, producers and actors who “ramped up output" while “still laboring through the pandemic.”
Mindy Kaling and Bela Bajaria are among ‘100 Women in Entertainment Power,’ the second edition of this year’s list compiled by The Hollywood Reporter which “focuses on the execs, filmmakers, showrunners, producers and actors who made moves in a year unlike any other.” Explaining its rationale behind this edition of the “annualish” list, THR says the women of the entertainment industry “worked doubly hard in 2021, ramping up output while still laboring through the pandemic so it’s only fair they be celebrated twice.”
Bela Bajaria is the head of Global TV, Netflix. THR says that “with the world as her remit, Bajaria has successfully transformed Netflix into a powerful global TV network.” Some of her credits include “Squid Game” (Korea), “Lupin” (France), and “Who Killed Sara?” among others, which she has rolled out for the streaming service’s 214 million subscribers.
THR says that “since shifting her focus from actress-writer to writer-actress,” Mindy Kaling “has become something of a hit machine.” She is finding a new niche with a younger audience with Netflix comedy “Never Have I Ever,” or HBO Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls.” The actor, producer and writer drew on her own childhood experiences for “Never Have I Ever.” The multihyphenate’s empire is further expanding to include two upcoming series at HBO Max – “The Sex Lives of College Girls” and the animated “Velma,” whose titular character she also will voice. Kaling was last seen on the big screen in “Late Night” (2019) as Molly Patel. She is also penning “Legally Blonde 3” (with Dan Goor) for Reese Witherspoon.
The first edition of the 2021 list, released in May also included Priya Swaminathan, the co-head of Higher Ground Productions, the former first family’s Hollywood enterprise, along with former first lady Michelle Obama and Tonia Davis.