Hollywood Hindu to do

(L-R) Richard Schiff, CCH Pounder attend a Diwali celebration dinner at Tanzore on October 30, 2011 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Elevation/PictureGroup) Richard Schiff and Topher Grace explain Diwali to each other. Steven Bochco and Eric Garcetti Chitra and Ashok Amritraj, Chris and Jamie McGurk party at Tanzore. Bridging Mumbai and Los Angeles, Ashok Amritraj hosted a Diwali party Sunday night at Beverly Hills' Tanzore Restaurant that came pretty close to a traditional Indian event (but without the fireworks). The Hyde Park principal has been hosting the fete for several years now and said it had expanded from a small event in his house to include family, friends and colleagues. "It's now become an industry thing," Amritraj said. "To explain Diwali to Hollywood is not easy," he continued, "but I think a lot of them have been coming over the years so they understand that it's a special family and friends festival and the festival of lights and how important it is to Indian culture." Amritraj turned to a couple of white guys to explain the reason for his party. Variety's Tim Gray said the Hindu holiday was "known as the Festival of Light, which I think refers to inner light." And Steven Bochco said he looked up Diwali on the Internet and found that "it is not the title of a Pixar movie," among other things. Contact Shalini Dore at shali.dore@variety.com