Alarmel Valli is a leading Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer, acclaimed internationally for her ability to turn traditional grammar into subtle, deeply internalized, personal dance poetry. Her dance has been described as uncompromisingly classical but, at the same time, an undeniable language of self-expression. Among her numerous awards are the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan, the Chevalier of Arts and Letters Award from the French Government, the Grande Medaille de la Ville de Paris, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and the Kalaimamani from the Tamil Nadu Government.
Ali Al Muqri is a Yemeni novelist and poet. Since 1997, he has been the editor of Al-Hikma, a literary publication of the Yemeni Writer’s Association. He has also headed a literary journal called Ghaiman since it was established in 2007. His first novel Black Taste, Black Smell, is the first contemporary Yemeni book about Akhdam, a marginalized Yemeni group discriminated against, due to their dark skin. His latest novel, The Handsome Jew is set in 17th century Yemen and addresses the issue of tolerance of other religions and social classes. He was long listed for the Arabic Booker in 2010.
Aman Sethi is currently the Chhattisgarh correspondent of The Hindu. A Free Man, his first book published by Random House, India has been described as wry, humorous and insightful. In this compelling account of the life of an itinerant labourer, Sethi brings the protagonist vividly alive and illuminates the lives of countless others like him. It is an unforgettable portrait of an invisible man in his invisible city.
Angela Saini is an award-winning journalist based in London, whose work focuses on science, technology, and its impact on society. Her writings have been published in New Scientist, Science and Wired, and she’s a regular reporter on BBC radio science shows including Click and Health Check. She is the author of Geek Nation, a story of a journey through India, to find out whether the country is set to become the world’s next scientific superpower. She was shortlisted for the Best Feature Award from the Association of British Science Writers in 2010 and named European Junior Science Writer of the Year by the Euro Science Foundation in 2009.
“Anjum Rajabali wrote his first film Drohkaal in 1992, in collaboration with director Govind Nihalani. Subsequently, he has written five more films, including Ghulam and The Legend of Bhagat Singh. He has designed a one-year course in Screenplay Writing at FTII. He has been a script doctor and consultant to several well-known films, like Khakee, Gangaajal and Apaharan. He is widely acclaimed for scripting Rajneeti and Aakarshan.“
ANUJA CHAUHAN writes bestselling novels (seven so far), which sometimes feature war, cricket, murder, and Lok Sabha elections, and always feature romance and humour. All of them have been optioned by major film studios. She also works in advertising and is best known for her work on Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Kurkure. She writes a fortnightly column for The Week magazine. She lives outside Bengaluru with her husband Niret Alva. They have three grown-up children and a varying number of dogs and cats.
“Anushka Ravishankar is an iconic children’s writer. She has written over 15 books of verse, fiction and non-fiction. many of which have been published internationally. A majority of these are nonsense or absurd verse, a genre she is particularly attached to Some of her books are I Like Cats, Elephants Never Forget, The Tenth Rasa: An Anthology of Indian Non-sense and Wish You Were Here. Apart from children’s books, she also writes plays for both children and adults and has many international awards to her credit. “
“Arunava Sinha is a translator of classic and contemporary Bengali fiction. His latest published translations are The Chieftain’s Daughter by Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay and Three Women by Rabindranath Tagore. His earlier translations include What Really Happened and Other Stories by Banaphool, By The Tungabhadra by Saradindu Bandyopadhyay, Striker Stopper by Moti Nandy, and My Kind of Girl by Buddhadeva Bose. His translation of Shankar’s Chowringhee won the Vodafone-Crossword Translation Prize in 2007 and was shortlisted for the Independent Best Foreign Fiction Prize in UK in 2009. “
Atanu Roy is an illustrator and political cartoonist by profession. He has a keen interest in photography and computer graphics and has hundreds of children’s books to his credit. He has also designed books for National Book Trust, Limca Book of Records, HarperCollins, Penguin/Puffin India. Scholastic and many more. Atanu has won many awards like, Children’s Choice Award for book illustration (AWIC) in 1989, Sir Bob Geldofs Cartoonaid, Book of Cartoons in 1988 International Cartoon Festival, Semarang, Indonesia in 1988 and is also a record holder in the Limca Book of Records.
Balu Mahendra is a cinematography graduate and a gold medallist from F.T.I.I. Pune. He started his career as a D.O.P in a Malayalam film called Nellu, directed by Ramu Kariat, which won him his first Best Cinematography Award. Mahendra has won the Government of India National Award twice for Best Cinematography, thrice for Direction and the Shantharam National Award for best editing. Also, Mahendra has won the Kerala State Award for Best Cinematography four times. He has won the Andhra State Award for Best Cinematography and the Kalai Vithahar Virudhu Tamil Nadu State Government’s Award for a Filmmaker. He now runs a small film school in Chennai.
“Bama Faustina is a pioneering Dalit novelist from Tamil Nadu. Her first novel Karukku is not only the first autobiographical work of its kind written in the dialect of her community, but also broke new ground in both fiction writing as well as in the use of language in fiction. Karukku has won several awards and has been translated into many languages. Bama has subsequently written two more novels, Sangathi and Vanmam and two collections of short stories, Kusumbukkaran and Oru Tattavum Erumaiyum. One of the first Dalit women writers to be widely recognized and translated, Bama is a school teacher in Uthiramerur. “
“Esther David won the Sahitya Akademi Award 2010 and the Prix Eugenie Brazier in France for her novel Book of Rachel. It is now being made into a French film. She has documented Gujarat’s Bene Israel Jewish community for the Diaspora Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel. She has also authored The Walled City, By the Sabarmati, Book of Esther, My Father’s Zoo, Shalom India Housing Society and The Man with Enormous Wings. She has edited an anthology of Earthquake Stories and co-authored with Shalva Weil a book on India’s Jewish Heritage Ritual, Art and Life Cycle. She has also co-authored city-stories - Tales from Here and There. She has scripted Gattu Tales for Book-Box. “
“Indrajit Hazra is a journalist and writer. His books include The Burnt Forehead of Max Saul, The Garden of Earthly Delights and The Bioscope Man. He works as a journalist with the Hindustan Times in New Delhi and writes the popular Sunday column Red Herring. Indrajit is currently giving finishing touches to his novel. tentatively titled Bulganin’s Girl. “
Jai Arjun Singh is a freelance writer and journalist based in Delhi. He writes a fortnightly film column for Yahoo! India and has also written for the Business Standard, The Hindu, Tehelka, The Sunday Guardian, Outlook and The Hindustan Times. His book about the making of the cult comedy film, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro was published in 2010. He has also penned Excess: The Tehelka Book of Short Stories and edited an anthology of film writing The Popcorn Essayists: What Movies do to Writers.
Jigyasa Giri is a writer and a partner at Pritya, a publishing house started by her and her partner Dr. Pratibha Jain. Jigyasa’s first project had been the authoring and publishing of a cookbook of traditional vegetarian Andhra recipes. She edited the translation of Jai Jas Gatha (The Story of A Saint) which is the original work by Dr. Padam Muni in Hindi and Aparigraha Darshan, discourses on non-possessiveness, which is the original work by Upadhyaya Amar Muni in Hindi. Her book, Cooking at Home with Pedatha won the Best Vegetarian Cookbook in the World in 2006, and Sukham Ayu stood second best in the world for Best Health and Nutrition Book in 2009. She is also a founder of Devaniya, a Kathak dance school in Chennai.
K. Hariharan is a Director at LV Prasad Film & TV Academy and also heads the department of Direction at the institute. The National Award-winning Tamil film Ezhavathu Manidhan, earned him international acclaim featuring in Moscow and other film festivals. Hariharan has also made many documentaries on subjects like travel, education and social movements. He is a visiting faculty at the University of Pennsylvania since 1995, and a guest faculty at the Miami University in Oxford, Film & TV Institute, Pune, and the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai.
Karthika VK is Publisher and Chief Editor, HarperCollins Publishers India.
Kavery Nambisan is a surgeon and a novelist. Her career in medicine has been a strong influence in her fiction. Currently, she works at a medical centre for construction workers and a learning centre for their children, in Maharashtra. Kavery Nambisan began by writing under her maiden name Kavery Bhatt for children’s magazines. She wrote stories for the now defunct children’s magazine Target. Under the name of Kavery Bhatt she has also published a novel, The Truth about Bharat, Almost. Her other works are The Scent of Pepper, Mango-Coloured Fish, On Wings of Butterflies, The Hills of Angheri. The Story That Must Not Be Told was shortlisted for the Man Asian Prize in 2008.
Latha Anantharaman is a writer, editor and translator based in Palakkad, Kerala. She writes regularly on books, travel and rural living.
Mahesh Dattani is a playwright, stage director, screenwriter and filmmaker. His published works include Final Solution and Other Plays, Tara and Collected Works, published by Penguin India in two volumes. In 1998. Mahesh Dattani won the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award for his book Final Solution and Other Plays; the first playwright writing in English to receive this award. His film Mango Souffle was shown in several international film festivals all over the world and was adjudged best motion picture at the Barcelona Film Festival 2003. His film Morning Raga had its international premier at the Cairo Film Festival in 2004 and he won the award for Best Artistic Contribution.
CHEF MANU CHANDRA, a Delhi native, is considered one of India’s leading culinary authorities and one of the most revered chefs in Bengaluru. From Cannes Film Festival to World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Chandra’s skillful culinary artistry has been appreciated worldwide. With numerous honors under his belt — including Travel + Leisure’s “Restaurateur of the Year” and being on the list of top 10 chefs in India by Culinary Culture, a venture by Vir Sanghvi recognising India’s 30 top chefs — his ever-evolving cooking style lays fundamental emphasis on freshness of ingredients and constant evolution. One of India’s most well-respected chefs, he brought many firsts to India’s F&B culture. He is credited for opening the first Indian gastropub, bringing the open-faced bao and trendy Asian dining and its many interpretations to the forefront, the revival of India’s romance with Gin, and celebrating India’s biodiversity by championing Indian produce in progressive ways.
Mini Krishnan is the co-ordinating editor of the Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation’s plan to support English translations of Tamil works through 14 publishers. She has edited literary translations for Oxford University Press (2001-19) and for Macmillan India Ltd (1992-2000). She was the Founding Editor of the South Asia Website for Women Writers hosted by the British Council; Member, Translation Mission; and Member, Indian Literature Abroad. She writes for The Hindu, the English portal of the Mathrubhoomi, and selects translated fiction for Frontline. Over her four-decade-long career, she has edited 135 full-length translations — fiction, non-fiction, poetry and short stories — from 15 Indian languages, been and worked on educational texts prescribed at school and university levels.
Mohammed Hanif is a writer and journalist. Though he graduated from Pakistan Air Force Academy as a pilot officer, he subsequently left to pursue a career in journalism. He has worked for Newsline, The Washington Post and India Today. He has also headed the BBC’s Urdu service in London. His first novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes was shortlisted for the 2008 Guardian First Book Award and the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in the Best First Book category. He has also written plays, including a BBC drama and a movie, The Long Night. His most recent release is titled Our Lady of Alice Bhatti.
Mukul Deva is an alumnus of La Martiniere College, Lucknow, the National Defence Academy, Pune and the Indian Military Academy, DehraDun. He is an entrepreneur, motivational speaker and an Executive Business and Creative Coach. The books written by him are Time After Time: It All Happened, S.T.R.I.P.T.E.A.S.E: The Art of Corporate Warfare, M.O.D.E.L and The Return of Employee. He also has The Lashkar Series to his credit, which includes Lashkar, Salim Must Die, Blowback and Tanzeem.
Mukul Kesavan is a writer and essayist. His first book Looking Through Glass received critical acclaim. He’s keen on the game of cricket and his book on cricket, Men in White, was published by Penguin India in 2007. The Ugliness of the Indian Male and Other Propositions published by Black Kite is a collection of essays on a wide variety of themes ranging from Indian films to Indian men, travel writing and even political commentary. He is Co-Editor of Civil Lines, the magazine, and his columns have appeared in The Telegraph, and Outlook and the blog site cricinfo.com.
Nikhil Chib is the MD and celebrity chef of Busaba, a chain of highly acclaimed South East Asian cuisine restaurants in Mumbai, a first of its kind in India. Nikhil Chib studied at France’s leading culinary school Ecole Superieure de Cuisine Francaise in 2005 after which, in 2006, he worked with numerous Michelin Star restaurants in Paris. Nikhil has been a food columnist with the Hindustan Times and Indian Express. He has also hosted a television food show, along with his wife Natasha, The Chef and His Better Half. They did 50 episodes of the show with NDTV Good Times in 2007.
Nisha Susan is a writer. She is currently the Features Editor at Tehelka, where she reports on culture - a hold-all term that allows the pursuit of anything from female boxers in Guwahati to Gond art, mating rituals in school etc. Some of her short fiction has been published by Penguin and Zubaan. She is currently working on a collection called Broadband and the Bookslut and Other Stories.
P. Sivakami is an acclaimed Tamil writer. She is Tamil Nadu’s first woman Dalit IAS officer. She is the founder of the Dalit land rights movement in Tamil Nadu and, after her voluntary retirement, she joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). In 2009 she founded her own political party named Samuga Samathuva Padai, a party for social equality. Sivakami has written four critically acclaimed Tamil novels, all of them centring on Dalit and women themes. One of these, Grip of Change, was translated into English. She also edits a Tamil monthly Puthiya Kodangi, which she has been bringing out since 1995 in literary circles, Sivakami is considered a strong Dalit writer with a feminist penchant. Her second novel titled Aanandayee is soon to be published by Penguin.
Rahul Bhattacharya is the author of the novel, The Sly Company of People Who Care. His first book, Pundits From Pakistan won the Hutch Crossword Award for most popular book. He has also been writing for the Guardian.
Rakesh Omprakash Mehra is a filmmaker and screenwriter. He started his career as an advertising film maker. He established Flicks Motion Picture Company Private Limited in 1986. He is best known for writing and directing Rang De Basanti (2006). For this film he won the Best Director Filmfare Award, National Film Award and also received British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award nomination, for Best Foreign Language Film. Rakesh Omprakash Mehra Pictures (ROMP) has cultivated an attitude that pioneers the way for a new wave and new age cinema from India.
Rana Dasgupta is a British-Indian novelist and essayist. His first novel, Tokyo Cancelled, is an examination of the forces and experiences of globalization. The book was shortlisted for John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and Vodafone Crossword Award. His second novel, Solo, is an epic tale of the 20th and 21st centuries told from the perspective of a 100-year-old Bulgarian man. He was awarded the prestigious Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for the novel and it won both the regional and overall best-book prize.
Ravi Singh is a group publishing director, Aleph Book Company and Rupa Publication. Before this he was editor-in-chief of Penguin India.
Sachin Pilot became the youngest Member of Parliament in the country at the age of 26. He represents the Ajmer constituency of Rajasthan and is a Member of the Indian National Congress. He is also a Member of the Indian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Home Affairs, a Member of the Consultative Committee in the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Minister of State in the Ministry of Communications and Technology.
Sanjna Kapoor joined Prithvi theatre in 1990s. She is involved in the running of the theatre and its various activities. She has added a host of programmes and workshops like Prithvi Players and Little Prithvi Players - Theatre for Children. Sanjna has now become the face of Prithvi Theatre.
Saugata Mukherjee is the Publisher, Pan Macmillan India, where he heads the imprints Picador, Pan and Macmillan.
Shabana Azmi is an Indian actor of film, television and theatre. An alumna of the Film and Television Institute of India, she made her film debut in 1974. Her performances have earned her praise and awards, which include a record of five wins of the National Film Award for Best Actress, Filmfare Awards and several international honours. Azmi has appeared in over 120 mainstream and independent Hindi films and foreign projects. Azmi is a social and women’s rights activist, a Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA), and a member of the Rajya Sabha.
SHASHI THAROOR (Dr.), a third-term Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, is the bestselling author of 25 books, both fiction and non-fiction, besides being a former Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and a former Minister of State for Human Resource Development and for External Affairs in the Government of India. He has won numerous awards, including the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Crossword Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2019, Dr. Tharoor was also awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in the category of ‘English Non-Fiction’ for his book An Era of Darkness. He chairs Parliament’s Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers and has previously chaired the Standing Committee on External Affairs and the Committee on Information Technology.
Siddharth Varadarajan is the Editor of The Hindu. He is a member of the International Founding Committee of The Real News, a board member of the inter-governmental B.P. Koirala India-Nepal Foundation, member of the Indian Council of World Affairs and a member of the editorial board of India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs. Gujarat: The Making of a Tragedy edited by Varadarajan, contains accounts of violence against the Muslims of that state in India. He has been awarded the Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Prize Silver Medal for Print Journalism, the Bernard O’Higgins Order for contribution to journalism and promotion of India’s relations with Latin America and Chile, and the Ramnath Goenka award for Journalist of the Year.
Singeetam Srinivasa Rao made his directorial debut with the Telugu Film Neethi Nijayathi in 1972. He has directed about 60 films in various languages including Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and English. He has directed several movies, including Pushpak, Mayuri, Taram Marindhi, Vichitra Sodarulu, Michael Madhana Kamarajan, and Aditya 369. He also directed an English animation film called Son of Aladdin. He has also scripted many plays. Currently he is working on a film about the life of Jesus Christ. He has received the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil for Dikketra Paravathi and Golden Lotus Award for Best Director for Pushpak. He has also received the Nandi Award and Filmfare Best Director Award (Telugu) for Bhairava Dweepam.
Susie Tharu is a founder member of Anveshi - a research centre for women’s studies in Hyderabad. She has been a Professor and Coordinator at the School of Critical Humanities and The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. Her research interests vary from the cultural history of India, feminism, issues of minority, and social medicine. She has authored six books including a dossier of new Dalit writing from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, titled No Alphabet in Sight, and the well known two volume anthology Women Writing in India, co-edited with K. Lalita.
Urvashi Butalia is an Indian feminist and historian. She is the Director and Co-founder of Kali for Women, India’s first feminist publishing house. Her writing has appeared in several newspapers including the Guardian, The Statesman, The Times of India, The Hindu and several magazines such as Outlook, New Internationalist and India Today. She was also conferred the Padma Shri award for her contribution to Indian literature in 2011. She is known for her book, The Other Side of Silence which is the product of more than 70 interviews Butalia conducted with survivors of the Partition.
Vikram Seth is a famous poet, novelist, travel writer and biographer. His poetry collections include Mapping, The Humble Administrator’s Garden, All You Who Sleep Tonight, Beastly Tales and Three Chinese Poets. His novels include Golden Gate, A Suitable Boy, An Equal Music and Two Lives. He has won a number of awards including the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award in 1983, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Asia) in 1985, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize in 1993 and the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1994. His latest book, The Rivered Earth, is due to be released in November.
Vir Das has to his credit, over 600 stand-up comedy performances, eight TV shows, five movies and seven comedy specials. In 2010 Vir starred in Yash Raj Film production Badmaash Company and also acted in Aamir Khan Productions Delhi Belly. He will also be seen in Tanuja Chandra’s upcoming film. Weirdass Comedy, Vir’s comedy company, is India’s first comedy content company formed by some of the top comedians in India.
Zac O’Yeah is a novelist, literary critic and columnist. He studied creative writing at Nordiska Folkhögskolan (Kungälv, Sweden) linguistics and theatre theory at University of Stockholm (Sweden). Currently, he writes about crime fiction in Mint Lounge, the weekend supplement of the Indian edition of Wall Street Journal and reviews books for Deccan Herald’s Sunday supplement. He has also translated various selections of Indian writings to Swedish. Some his works include Once Upon A Time In Scandinavistan, the Gandhi biography Mahatma which was shortlisted for the August Prize 2008 for Best Non-fiction Book of the Year. His most recent book in Swedish is a conspiracy thriller titled Summan Av Kardemumman.
Ziya Us Salam is a veteran journalist and widely published author. His latest book Being Muslim in Hindu India is a bestseller. His upcoming book is The Lion of Naushera. Based in New Delhi, he works with The Hindu as an Associate Editor.
