Harish Saluja

Cohost, Music From India

Harish Saluja, co-host of "Music From India" is a filmmaker, painter, film festival director, engineer, publisher, writer, radio host and music aficionado. Originally from Punjab, India, he received a degree in engineering from IIT, Kharagpur but always had a strong love of the visual arts, music and filmmaking.

"Music From India" is among the longest running Indian music radio program in the country.

Harish came to the United States in 1971 and settled in Pittsburgh as an assistant editor in a company publishing two technical journals. In 1972 he was asked to host 'Music From India", a new radio program on DUQ developed by the India Association of Pittsburgh. He became the regular host and expanded the program to its current two-hour format dedicated to the music of the Indian subcontinent, ranging from popular Hindi film scores to Indian classical music.

During his publishing career, Harish continued his artistic pursuits. His abstract paintings have been exhibited in the United States and Europe. They are inspired by music and the colors, emotions and textures of the Indian ragas--a Sanskrit word meaning both color and tone.

Over the years, Harish also pursued his love of filmmaking. He was associate producer of Tony Buba's No Pets, was executive producer of the feature film Dog Eat Dog. He has acted in various commercials and in the Walt Disney film Money for Nothing. He attended the "Directing the Actor" workshop at the Sundance Institute in Utah. His film company, New Ray Films, was established in 1995.

In 1995 he began work as both producer and director on "The Journey", his feature film. The film was shot in the Pittsburgh area over a three week period and was released in 1997, "The Journey" is a cross-cultural comedy/drama. It was screened in over 20 film festivals around the world. It won Best Film awards in Florida and Cleveland film festivals. The film stars Roshan Seth and Saeed Jaffrey, two of India's most distinguished actors working outside India. After ten years, "The Journey" reunited them in film since their work together in "My Beautiful Launderette" and "Gandhi". The DUQ studios had the honor of serving as a location in the film with the Saeed Jaffrey character playing a radio host at DUQ. The film was shown around the world and then on TV (Independent Film Channel). Harish is presently developing two more films.

In 2006 Harish launched Silk Screen an arts and cultural exchange program in Pittsburgh. Its main even is a very successful international Film Festival. Silk Screen endeavors to bring various art forms (including dance, music, and visual arts) from Asia to Pittsburgh on a year-long basis.

"Music From India" is one of DUQ's longest running programs and the only Indian music program in the tri-state region. Both hosts bring a unique artistic perspective to the program and many listeners may not realize that both hosts, Dr. Vijay Bahl and Harish Saluja, have completely volunteered their time and personal music collections--more than 2,000 record albums, compact discs and tapes.