Preity Zinta photobombs Jr NTR's pic with Mindy Kaling at pre-Oscars party; Priyanka Chopra poses with Malala Yousafzai

The second annual South Asian Excellence at the Oscars event took place on March 9, where celebs such as Priyanka Chopra, Mindy Kaling, Nick Jonas, Preity Zinta, Jacqueline Fernandez and others gathered at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles to honour nominees from the likes of RRR, All That Breathes and The Elephant Whisperers. On Friday, Mindy took to Instagram to share photos of herself with other celebs from the 'special event'. In one of the pictures, she posed with Telugu actor Jr NTR as Preity photobombed their picture. Also read: Priyanka Chopra dazzles in white at pre-Oscars event with Nick Jonas, celebrates 'South Asian Excellence'. See pics

The pre-Oscars bash was hosted by Priyanka Chopra and celebrity manager-entrepreneur Anjula Acharia, with co-chairs Malala Yousafzai, Mindy Kaling, Kumail Nanjiani, Kal Penn, Aziz Ansari, Bela Bajaria, Radhika Jones, Joseph Patel, Shruti Ganguly, and Anita Chatterjee. The celebs graced the red carpet for the event, with many of them dressed by designers Falguni and Shane Peacock.

Sharing images from the pre-Oscars event, Mindy wrote in her caption, "Last night I was honoured to co-host a celebration of South Asian Oscar nominees. Met so many new friends and hugged old ones, and was inspired by the talent all around me. Falguni and Shane Peacock designed the most spectacular saree for me and @sethicouture loaned me basically all the diamonds in the world. Thank you to Priyanka Chopra and Anjula Acharia for organising such a special event. Also love when @asekar95 is my date and we get to do the most Indian thing ever and order Taco Bell after." Actor Ike Barinholtz commented on her post, "Did Jr NTR ask about me? Would he want to possibly be friends with me?"

Preity also posed with the guests including Jr NTR and Jacqueline Fernandez, and shared the pictures on Instagram. She wrote in her caption, "A big congratulations to all the Oscar Nominees I met last night. Crossing my fingers for all of you guys... Thank you @priyankachopra and @anjula_acharia for bringing the artistic community from South Asia together and for celebrating each other's achievements. It was such a fun evening.

Priyanka Chopra also posed with Malala Yousafzai, the youngest-ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, at the event. The social activist is an executive producer of Joshua Seftel’s Stranger at the Gate, a nominee for the best documentary short Oscar. Priyanka was quoted by The Hollywood Reporter as saying at the red carpet, “These are people whose shoulders we stand on to be able to create this. These are all the guys that are hustling and demanding representation when no one was giving into them. And today we look around at this room and say ‘this is their moment.'”

The 95th Academy Awards will be held on March 12 (March 13 in India) at Los Angeles' Dolly Theatre. This year, three Indian films are competing for the coveted awards. RRR's song Naatu Naatu is nominated for Best Original Song, Shaunak Sen's All That Breathes has been nominated for Best Documentary Feature Film and Guneet Monga's The Elephant Whisperers for Best Documentary Short.