Profiles 2024
2025 profiles yet to be announced, stay tuned
Coming Soon
Afshan D’souza-Lodhi
Afshan D’souza-Lodhi was born in Dubai and forged in Manchester. She is a writer of scripts and poetry. Her work has been performed and translated into numerous languages across the world. Her debut poetry collection [re:desire] (2020) was longlisted for the Jhalak Prize. She is currently a BAFTA BFI Flare mentee. She received The National Theatre’s Peter Shaffer award and was also on the Warner Bros Discovery Writers Access programme. A TV pilot she wrote called “Chop Chop”, was selected for the #MuslimList (The Black List). Last year, she was the first writer-in-residence for Bluebird Pictures.
Alina Sen
Alina Sen is a communications professional and dedicated outreach member at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW). She spearheads the publishing and outreach of CEEW’s ground-breaking research on solutions to pressing global and local challenges. From publishing peer-reviewed policy briefs to their creative outreach and dissemination via cartoons, songs, influencer collaborations, and pop culture storytelling, she strives to build a community of champions who believe in mainstreaming sustainability and are willing to lead by example. She has contributed to impactful organisations such as the Naandi Foundation, The Times of India, Johns Hopkins University, and Oxfam's Centre for Development Communication.
Amal Allana
Amal Allana is a theatre director of over sixty stage productions, including Nati Binodini, Begum Barve, King Lear, Khamosh! Adalat Jaari Hai! and Aadhe Adhure. She made the television series Raj Se Swaraj and Mullah Nasruddin, among others. She was the chairperson of the National School of Drama, New Delhi and is currently the Director of the Art Heritage Gallery, New Delhi, and a Trustee of the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts. She received national and international awards including the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Direction. Her latest publication Ebrahim Alkazi: Holding Time Captive (2024) is a biography of her father.
Amol Palekar
Amol Palekar is an actor, director, and producer of films, plays and television series in Hindi and Marathi. His most successful Hindi films include Rajnigandha (1974), Chitchor (1976), Chhoti si Baat (1976), Gharaonda (1977), Gol Maal (1979), and Rang Birangi (1983). His iconic plays include Chup! Court Shaant Hai!, Pagla Ghoda, Hayavadana, Suno Janmejay, Julus and Gochi. He has directed award-winning, internationally acclaimed movies like Kairee (1999), Ankahee (1985), Bangarwadi (1995), Daayra (1996), and Paheli (2005), which was India's official entry to the Oscar Award in 2006. He also directed television serials like “Kachchi Dhoop”, “Mrignayani”, and “Krishnkali”. In 2000, he decided to return to painting.
Anita Nair
Anita Nair is one of India’s best-known authors whose oeuvre ranges from literary fiction to noir to poetry, children’s literature to translation. Her books have been translated into thirty-two world languages and have been adapted for audio, stage and screen. She has received several prizes and honours including the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Crossword Prize, and the National Film Award. “Anita’s Attic”, the creative writing mentorship programme she founded, has mentored over 125 writers. She is also a High-Profile Supporter of the UNHCR. Her latest novel Hot Stage (2024) is the third in the Borei Gowda noir series.
Anju Makhija
Anju Makhija is a Sahitya Akademi Award-winning poet, playwright, and translator. She has published poetry volumes View from the Web (1995), Pickling Season (2012), Changing, Unchanging: New and Selected Poems (1995-2023); a collection of plays Mumbai Traps (2022); and co-translated Freedom and Fissures (1998), Seeking the Beloved: The Mystical Verse of Shah Abdul Latif (2005). She has won several awards including the Sahitya Akademi English Translation Prize, The All India Poetry Competition, the BBC World Regional Poetry Prize, and the Charles Wallace Trust Fellowship. She was on the Sahitya Akademi’s English Advisory Board and is the co-founder of the Pondicherry/Auroville Poetry Festival. Years: 2025, 2021.
Anjum Katyal
Anjum Katyal is a writer, editor, and translator. She has been Chief Editor, Seagull Books and Editor, Seagull Theatre Quarterly; Web Editor, Saregama-HMV; and Editor, Art and the City and ArthArt. Her books on theatre include Habib Tanvir: Towards an Inclusive Theatre (2012), Badal Sircar: Towards a Theatre of Conscience (2015), and Safdar Hashmi: Towards Theatre for a Democracy (2024). She has edited several volumes on theatre, translated plays by Habib Tanvir, fiction by Mahasweta Devi, and children’s stories by Meera Mukherjee. Her translation of Mahasweta Devi’s Truth/Untruth (2023) was awarded the VoW Book Award for Translation (2024). She is currently Director, Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival (AKLF).
Anuja Chandramouli
Anuja Chandramouli is a bestselling author and new-age Indian Classicist. She has published 14 books across mythology, historical fiction, and fantasy genres. Her debut novel Arjuna: Saga of a Pandava Warrior-Prince was among Amazon India’s top five sellers in 2012. Her Mohini: The Enchantress was awarded the Times of India AutHer Award in 2021. She is a trained Bharathanatyam dancer, TedX speaker, storyteller, content creator, and columnist for The New Indian Express. Year: 2014-15, 2025.
Anusha Rao
Anusha Rao is a scholar of Sanskrit and Indian religion who likes writing new things about very old things. She is pursuing a PhD at the University of Toronto, and writes a column in the Deccan Herald presenting witty Sanskrit-flavoured takes on contemporary issues. She has coedited and translated How to Love in Sanskrit: Poems (2014) with Suhas Mahesh.
Appupen
Appupen has been one of India’s leading voices in comics since the publication of his first book Moonward (2009). He is the creator of the mythical world of Halahala. He was artist-in-residence at Angoulême in 2021. He is the co-creator of Dream Machine: AI and the Real World (2024) with Laurent Daudet, a physics professor in Paris and Co-CEO and Co-Founder of LightOn, a start-up at the forefront of ‘large language models’, the new generation of AI.
Aruna Roy
Aruna Roy is an Indian socio-political activist, and co-founder of the MKSS, Rajasthan, which spearheaded the campaign for the Right to Information and was an integral part of the Right to Employment and Food campaigns which resulted in powerful national legislations, enabling millions to access basic needs. She is also the President of the National Federation of Indian Women. She was a Professor of Practice at McGill and Central European Universities and spent a sabbatical at Brown University. She is the author of The RTI Story (2018), and the memoir The Personal Is Political (2024), and co-editor of We the People (2020).
Arvind Sharma
Arvind Sharma is in the paper trade and was the President of FPTA-India. His interest in the Hindi language took root in Indore, where he regularly participated in debates, kavi-sammelans, and plays. After moving to Hyderabad, he continued his passion for Hindi literature. His storytelling on platforms like LaMakaan and All India Radio was well appreciated. Speaker @ HLF 2023, 2025.
Avtar Singh
Avtar Singh is an author and editor. His publications include short stories “A Scandal in Punjab” (2024), “The Corpse Bearer” (shortlisted for the Subnivean Prize 2023), novels The Beauty of These Present Things (2000) and Necropolis (2014), Into the Forest (2024), and non-fiction work in Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, Nikkei Asian Review, India Today, and Biblio. He was a summer fellow at the MacDowell Colony (2018), founding editor-in-chief of Time Out Delhi, and managing editor of The Indian Quarterly. He has lived and worked in India, the US and China, and is now based in Germany.
Bijal Vachharajani
Bijal Vachharajani, when not reading a children’s book, is writing or editing one. She’s the author of multiple planet-friendly books including A Cloud Called Bhura (2019), Savi and the Memory Keeper (2021) – both of which won the AutHer Award, and When Fairyland Lost Its Magic (2023), which won the Kalinga Award. One of India’s first climate fiction writers for children, she's now a climate worrier.
Brikesh Singh
Brikesh Singh is the Chief of Engagement & Communication at Asar. With nearly two decades of expertise in environmental advocacy, citizen engagement, and effective communication, he played a prominent role in championing environmental causes, particularly in addressing air pollution and climate concerns in India. He initiated and has been leading the Clean Air Collective, an air quality network of over 150 organisations that fosters a collaborative approach to tackling air pollution, since 2017. In recognition of his outstanding contributions, he was honoured in 2022 with the prestigious Climate Breakthrough Award, the first Indian to receive this distinction.
C Yamini Krishna
C Yamini Krishna works on film, urban, and Deccan histories. Recipient of many research awards and grants, she has contributed to several print and digital publications. She has coedited the book Claims on the City: Situated Narratives of the Urban (2024) and is the author of the forthcoming Film City Urbanism in India: Hyderabad from Princely City to Global City. She is a founding member of the Khidki Collective, curator of the Zor project digital archive, and co-curator of the exhibition “Chitramahal: Princely Encounters with Photography and Film” (2024). Her film Ilm ka shehar (2024) examines the 19th-century idea of knowledge.
Diana Mickevičienė
Diana Mickevičienė is the Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania to the Republic of India. She is a career diplomat with over 30 years of experience and was the Ambassador of Lithuania to China (2020-2022). She has a BA in philosophy, an MA in history of culture and social anthropology and a diploma in international relations, and taught South Asian history at Vilnius University. She has published extensively on classical Indian dance and India-Lithuania historical relations, and a book All of My Indias (2011). She is fluent in English, French, and Russian, and is familiar with Hindi, Spanish, Mandarin, and Sanskrit.
Dinesh C Sharma
Dinesh C Sharma is an award-winning journalist and author with nearly forty years of experience of reporting on issues related to science, technology, innovation, medicine, and the environment for national and international media outlets. Among his books are The Outsourcer: The Story of India’s IT Revolution (2015) and Indian Innovation, Not Jugaad: 100 Ideas That Transformed India (2022). Beyond Biryani: The Making of a Globalised Hyderabad (2024) is his latest publication.
Hariharan Krishnan
Hariharan Krishnan graduated in Direction from the Film and Television Institute of India (1976) and has made nine feature films and over 350 short and documentary films. His films have won national awards and been selected at international festivals. As a writer-critic, he has contributed to several books and journals on media and cinema. Kamal Haasan: A Cinematic Journey (2024) is his latest publication.
Harsh Mander
Harsh Mander is a writer, columnist, researcher, Chairperson, Centre for Equity Studies, Delhi, and visiting faculty at IIM Ahmedabad; Vrije University, Amsterdam; Heidelberg University; and FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg. His 25 books include Burning Pyres, Mass Graves and a State That Failed its People: India’s Covid Tragedy (2023), Partitions of the Heart: Unmaking the Idea of India (2018), Looking Away: Inequality, Prejudice and Indifference in New India (2015), Ash in the Belly: India’s Unfinished Battle against Hunger (2012). He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of York, the inaugural Human Rights Award by the FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg University, and was shortlisted for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. Years: 2025, 2021, 2016.
Huma Qureshi
Huma Qureshi epitomizes the outsider who has triumphed in the glittering world of Bollywood. Her journey from the by-lanes of Delhi to the grandeur of the Indian film industry is nothing short of inspiring. Effortlessly transcending mediums and platforms, she has meticulously charted her career path, acting in Hindi, Pan-India, international films, and shows on streaming platforms. In 2022, she started her own production house. With Zeba: An Accidental Superhero (2023) she debuts as an author.
Ishika Ramakrishna
Ishika Ramakrishna is a Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Wildlife Studies and an alumnus of the National Centre for Biological Sciences. Her academic and applied interests lie in an interdisciplinary space across ethnoprimatology, social sciences, ethology, and science communication. She is currently studying the fascinating relationships between indigenous communities and other primates in India. She is a part of collaborative groups like Café Oikos, the Association of Indian Primatologists, Queer Wildlifers Circle, CEASE, and the Student Conference on Conservation Science, Bengaluru. She also hosts a podcast, ‘The Thing About Wildlife’, and has authored three nature-themed children’s books.
Janaki Lenin
Janaki Lenin writes about wildlife and conservation, and the intermingling of human and animal destinies. She was a columnist for The Hindu and is the author of the two-volume My Husband and Other Animals (2024) and Every Creature Has a Story (2020), and co-author of Snakes, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll: My Early Years (2024) with Romulus Whitaker.
Jaroslavas Melnikas
Jaroslavas Melnikas (Jaroslav Melnik) is a Lithuanian sci-fi and surrealist writer of Ukrainian descent. His books have been translated into English, French, German and other languages. He is a graduate from Lviv University and a postgraduate from Maxim Gorky Literature Institute, Moscow. His books received many prestigious nominations and awards: BBC Book of the Year, Book of the Year in France, and the finalist of the European award “Utopiales”. The Last Day (2018) was shortlisted in the UK for the International Rubery Book Award. He received the Lithuanian Government Prize in 2020 for his contribution to Lithuanian literature and its promotion in the world.
Manoranjan Byapari
Manoranjan Byapari writes in Bengali. He taught himself to read and write at the age of 24 while in prison. He worked as a rickshaw puller, sweeper, porter, and cook. In 2018, the English translation of his memoir Ittibrite Chandal Jibon (Interrogating My Chandal Life) won the Hindu Prize for non-fiction. In 2019, he was awarded the Gateway Lit Fest Writer of the Year Prize. In 2022, he received the Shakti Bhatt Prize and the English translation of his novel Chhera Chhera Jibon (Imaan) was longlisted for the JCB Prize. In 2021, he became a member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly.
Menka Shivdasani
Menka Shivdasani is an award-winning poet, editor, and translator. She is the author of five poetry collections, most recently The Seven Queens: Sindhi Folktales Retold in English Verse (2024); co-translator of Freedom and Fissures, an anthology of Sindhi Partition poetry (1998); editor of a SPARROW anthology of women’s writing (2014); and editor of The Big Bridge Book of Contemporary Indian Poetry (2024). She co-founded Poetry Circle in Bombay in 1986 and has organised poetry festivals for the global movement 100 Thousand Poets for Change since 2011. She is the Co-Chair of Asia Pacific Writers and Translators (APWT).
MK Raina
MK Raina is a well-known actor, filmmaker, and academic. He has acted in more than 150 plays, directed over 160 theatre productions, and is a major contributor to Indian New Wave cinema. He is instrumental in reviving ‘Bhand Pather’, the traditional folk theatre of Kashmir, and received several honours including the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and the BV Karanth Lifetime Achievement Award. He has been a fellow at Stanford University, and a Scholar-in-Residence at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Before I Forget: A Memoir (2024) chronicles his life, career, and activism against the backdrop of major social and political changes in India.
Mohinder (Jimmy) Amarnath
Mohinder (Jimmy) Amarnath is the son of the legendary cricketer Lala Amarnath. He played for India’s national cricket team from 1969 to 1989 and scored 4378 test runs. Nine of his eleven test centuries were scored overseas. He was the Man of the Match in the semi-final and the final of the 1983 Cricket World Cup which India won. He was named one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1984 and received the Arjuna Award the same year. Fearless: A Memoir (2024) is the story of his cricketing life.
Moupia Basu
Moupia Basu studied at the University of Delhi and worked as a journalist with some of the leading publications in the country. She is the author of Khoka (2015), The Queen’s Last Salute (2019), and Anarkali and Salim: A Retelling of Mughal-e-Azam (2020). Qutb Bhagwati (2024) is a retelling of the Mohammad Quli–Bhagmati love story.
Nandita Bhavnani
Nandita Bhavnani has an MA in anthropology. She is also a qualified chartered accountant with a law degree. She has been engaged in extensive research on Sindhi culture and history since 1997. She has conducted interviews of Partition survivors in India, Pakistan, and the UAE. She has also travelled widely across Sindh. She is the author of Sindhnamah (2018), The Making of Exile: Sindhi Hindus and the Partition of India (2014), and I Will & I Can: The Story of Jai Hind College (2011).
Neelesh Misra
Neelesh Misra is an award-winning journalist; author of five books, including The Absent State (2010, with Rahul Pandita), 173 Hours in Captivity (2000), and End of the Line (2001); lyricist of immensely popular songs like ‘Jaadu hai nashi hai’ (Jism, 2003) and ‘Kya mujhe pyaar hai’ (Woh Lamhe, 2006); and co-writer (with Kabir Khan) of the screenplay of Ek Tha Tiger (2012). His radio show, ‘Yadoon ka Idiotbox’ revived the art of oral storytelling. He also hosted ‘The Neelesh Misra Show’, started India's first rural newspaper, Gaon Connection (in 2012) and has been hosting ‘The Slow Interview with Neelesh Misra’ (since 2018).
Neha Khaitan
Neha Khaitan is a Bharatanatyam artist, illustrator, and children’s author. She conducted storytelling sessions at prestigious events like the Kalaghoda Arts Festival and for schools and NGOs. She has written and illustrated a series of math-based activity books for children, the first volume of which is forthcoming. Before she forayed into the world of arts, she worked in the information technology industry for about a decade. Currently, she also works with branding and communications projects. She founded ‘A Flower Child’, a platform that engages in visual arts, children’s books, and storytelling. Years: 2020, 2025.
Preeti Gill
Preeti Gill is an independent literary agent, commissioning editor, and rights director. She has written extensively on issues of conflict and women in Northeast India. She is the editor of The Peripheral Centre: Voices from India’s Northeast (2010), Bearing Witness: A Report on the Impact of Conflict on Women in Nagaland and Assam (2011), She Stoops to Kill (2019), and co-editor of Insider/ Outsider: Belonging and Unbelonging in India’s Northeast (2018), and But I Am One of You: Northeast India and the Struggle to Belong (2024). Her documentary Rambuai: Mizoram’s ‘Trouble’ Years (co-produced with Sanjoy Hazarika) was released in September 2016.
Priyadarshini Panchapakesan
Priyadarshini Panchapakesan is a children’s author, teacher, and storyteller. Her books, The Myth of the Wild Gaur (2023) and The Guardians of the Forest (2023) blend adventure with environmental themes, inspiring young readers to care for their homes. Her books celebrate the Western Ghats while addressing the challenges of deforestation, climate change, and tourism. She is an experienced educator who conducts storytelling and creative writing workshops, including for underprivileged children, promoting both empathy and environmental awareness.
Radhika Jha
Radhika Jha is the internationally bestselling author of Smell: A Novel (199), Lanterns On Their Horns (2009) and My Beautiful Shadow (2014). The story “Sleepers” from her short story collection The Elephant and The Maruti (2003) appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. She studied at Amherst College, the University of Chicago, and the University of Paris (V) and lives in Italy/New York. Her latest novel, Hidden Forest (2024) is about identity and what it means to belong.
Raghav Mandava
Raghav Mandava started telling jokes in 2009 when what a stand-up comedy show was had to be explained to the audiences. Since then, he has become one of the most versatile performers in the Indian industry, and takes pride in being able to do ‘any kind of show.’ He also enjoys gardening and fantasizes about being a beekeeper. At a young age, he realised his fondness for animals and nature. Through real-life experiences, he knows that snakes are better pets than monkeys. He identifies himself as a nature lover but not an environmentalist.
Rahul Bhatia
Rahul Bhatia is an award-winning writer and journalist. He has published in the New Yorker, Guardian Long Reads, and Caravan among others. He is a Harvard Radcliffe Institute fellow (2022-23) and a winner of the True Story Award (2024). He mentors writers and journalists as part of the ‘South Asia Speaks’ collective, and was a co-founder of the Peepli Project, a journalism non-profit. A former advertising art director, he graduated in communication design from Pratt Institute, New York. The New India: The Unmaking of the World’s Largest Democracy (2024) is his latest publication.
Rajender Amarnath
Rajender Amarnath is the youngest son of the legendary cricketer Lala Amarnath. A graduate of St. Stephen’s College, he played first-class cricket in India and professional cricket in England. He is an author, commentator and cricket analyst. He is the co-author of Fearless: A Memoir (2024), the story of his brother Mohinder Amarnath's cricketing life.
Rajmohan Gandhi
Rajmohan Gandhi is a historian, biographer, journalist, and former member of the Rajya Sabha. He wants to advance understanding, friendship, trust, equality, and mutual respect among the peoples and nations of our world. He also wishes to defend democratic rights. On 2 October 2024, he started, with the help of a few friends, a tiny new website, “We Are One Humanity.” From the 1990s, he taught history and politics at universities in India and the U.S., mostly at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His Fraternity: Constitutional Norm and Human Need (2024) is part of the ‘Ideas of the Indian Constitution’ series.
Rajshree Dugar
Rajshree Dugar has a PhD in Hindi and taught at St. Francis, Villa Marie, and St. Anns Colleges. She published a book of poems Jugalbandi, several short stories in the Hindi newspaper Vaarta and other Hindi magazines. She is a regular speaker on All India Radio and presented a paper “Take Charge of your Life” on emotional health at the National Women Science Conference (a Government of India initiative). A certified art therapist, she regularly conducts art therapy workshops. She is a passionate theatre artist and a freelance Hindi language trainer. Speaker @ HLF 2023, 2025.
Rama Bijapurkar
Rama Bijapurkar is a sought-after business advisor, passionate ‘people’ researcher, and prominent independent director on India Inc.’s boards. She has been a visiting faculty at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) for over two decades, and a dominant voice in the media on business and policy issues. Her widely acclaimed books on the Indian consumer market include We Are Like That Only: Understanding the Logic of Consumer India (2007), Customer in the Boardroom?: Crafting Customer-Based Business Strategy (2012), and A Never-Before World: Tracking the Evolution of Consumer India (2013). Lilliput Land: How Small is Driving India’s Mega Consumption Story (2024) is her latest publication.
Ratna Rao Shekar
Ratna Rao Shekar is a writer and journalist who has written for several Indian magazines. She is the founding editor of the city magazine, Wow Hyderabad, author of several coffee table books, a travelogue Journey Without a Map, a book on the contemporary artist, Laxma Goud, and a short story collection Purple Lotus and Other Stories (2011). Her first full-length novel Listen the House (2024), about two girls growing up in Hyderabad, evokes a city that no longer exists. She is involved with the art and culture scene of Hyderabad.
Rita Kothari
Rita Kothari is a multilingual scholar and translator. She is a Professor of English and Co-director of the Ashoka Centre for Translation at Ashoka University. Her ethnographic research on marginal communities—through religion, caste, occupation, and gender—focuses on narratives of identity, raising questions of both linguistic and cultural translation. She has translated extensively from Gujarati and Sindhi into English and occasionally vice versa. The edited volume, A Multilingual Nation (2017) and the monographs, The Burden of Refuge (2009) and Uneasy Translations (2022) are among her notable works.
Romulus Earl Whitaker III
Romulus Earl Whitaker III is unquestionably one of India’s best-known figures in wildlife conservation. He is famous for establishing the Madras Snake Park, the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, the Andaman and Nicobar Environmental Team, and for his work conserving India’s rainforests—the habitat of many endangered species. Internationally, he has received the Rolex Award for Enterprise and the Whitley Award for contribution to nature conservation. In 2018, he was awarded the Padma Shri. He has co-authored Snakes of India: The Field Guide (2004) with Ashok Captain and Snakes, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll: My Early Years (2024) with Janaki Lenin.
Ruthvika Rao
Ruthvika Rao was born in Warangal and grew up in Hyderabad. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Truman Capote Fellow and recipient of the Henfield Prize in fiction. She has taught creative writing at the University of Toronto and the University of Iowa. The Fertile Earth (2024), her debut novel, is a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel prize.
Saaz Aggarwal
Saaz Aggarwal is a writer, artist, and independent researcher. She taught mathematics at Ruparel College and was a features editor at Times of India, Mumbai. She wrote poetry and columns for national print media (1993-2010)—mostly humour, parody and nonsense, with a long stretch on books for Sunday Mid-day. She started writing books in 2006 and has published biographies, corporate histories, and family chronicles. Her books on Sindh are in the libraries of global universities and have featured in litfests and conferences in India, Pakistan and the UK. Her paintings and mixed-media collections are held by collectors worldwide and corporate offices in India.
Samrat Choudhury
Samrat Choudhury is an author, commissioning editor, and former editor of dailies in India’s major metropolises, Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. His works include The Braided River (2021), The Urban Jungle (2011), and Northeast India: A Political History (2023). He has co-edited with Preeti Gill Insider/Outsider: Belonging and Unbelonging in India’s Northeast (2018), and But I Am One of You: Northeast India and the Struggle to Belong (2024). Some of his essays and short stories have been translated into German, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. Years: 2025, 2019.
Sapna Moti Bhavnani
Sapna Moti Bhavnani is a pioneer entrepreneur; columnist; author of a self-help book for teenage girls; producer of ‘One Billion Rising’ at Carter Road (2013); spokesperson for PETA, ‘World For All’, ‘Free A Girl’; founder member of ‘Stop Acid Attacks’ (2013); and founder of ‘Wench Films’ (2020) and ‘Wench Film Festival’ (2021). She is an actor in award-winning plays “Nirbhaya” (2013) and “Jatinga” (2017), and the Producer/Director of the documentary Sindhustan (2019) about the largest migration of a culture (Sindhi) in history told through tattoos on her body. Sindhustan has won 11 Awards, travelled to 23 international festivals, and is now streaming on MovieSaints.
Satya Mohanty
Satya Mohanty is a poet, playwright, novelist, and public communicator. A former Union Secretary of Education and Secretary General of the National Human Rights Commission, he regularly contributes to a wide range of national newspapers. He was an Edward S. Mason Fellow at Harvard University and a visiting scholar in the Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies (SPURS) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Post-retirement, he taught Economics as an Adjunct Professor at Jamia Milia Islamia and Guru Govind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi. Unpolitically Correct: The Politics and Economics of Governance (2024) is his latest publication.
Savie Karnel
Savie Karnel is the author of the popular and critically acclaimed children’s book The Nameless God (2021) which was shortlisted the same year for the Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize. It was the only children’s book shortlisted for the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival’s ‘Words to Screen Options Market’ in 2023. Before transitioning to children’s writing, she was a journalist for The New Indian Express, Mid-Day, and Talk Magazine in Bangalore.
Seetha Ratnakar
Seetha Ratnakar is an independent filmmaker who started her media career with Doordarshan. In 1985, her programme “Rasavrishti” featuring Chitra Visveswaran was the official Indian entry for the Golden Prague Festival, Czech Republic. Her thematic presentation “Endenrum Podhigai” was nominated for a Doordarshan National award in 2010. Her documentary, Cosmic Connection won the Gold Remi Award at the WorldFest International Film Festival, Houston, in 2014. During the pandemic, she scripted and directed a short film Pillow Talk. Her documentary Asamana Anasuya (2023) is a tribute to the musical legacy of her mother Vinjamuri Anasuya Devi and her contribution to Telugu folk music.
Sejal Mehta
Sejal Mehta has been a writer, editor, and part of the core teams that started and helmed Lonely Planet Magazine India, National Geographic Traveller India, Nature in Focus, Saevus Wildlife, and The Habitats Trust. She also worked with JPMorgan Editorial, Femina, and Marine Life of Mumbai. She writes for Scroll, Mongabay, The Indian Express, The Hindu, Times of India, BBC Top Gear, and BBC Knowledge, among others. Her publications include children’s books, a feminist anthology, and the award-winning book on coastal animals, Superpowers on the Shore (2022). ‘Snaggletooth’, a line of nature-inspired merchandise launched by her illustrates positive associations between humans and animals.
Shabana Azmi
Shabana Azmi debuted in Ankur (1974) and has starred in over 140 Hindi films and 12 international productions, becoming the only Indian actor to win five National Awards for Best Actress. She also won six Filmfare and several international awards including at the Los Angeles Film Festival, Chicago Film Festival, North Korea International Film Festival, and Toronto Reel World International Film Festival. Her repertoire—from Ankur to Rocky aur Rani ki Prem Kahani and from Mira Nair’s Fire to Steven Spielberg’s Halo—is a testament to her talent and versatility. A Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awardee, she has received many other national and international honours. Years: 2019, 2025.
Sheena Patel
Sheena Patel is a writer and assistant director for the film and TV industry. She is part of the “4 Brown Girls Who Write” collective and her debut novel I’m a Fan (2022) won a British Book Award in the Discover category, has been longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and is a finalist for the LA Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction.
Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan
Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan is the author of a dozen works of fiction and nonfiction. She also records voice work for documentaries, educational programmes, journalistic initiatives, and audiobooks, and won the 68th National Film Awards, India for Best Narration (2022). Her writing has been widely anthologized and excerpted for school curricula and one of her stories was dramatically performed by Silicon Valley Shakespeare, California. She has been featured on radio and TV, profiled in magazines, and is a frequent guest at literary festivals. She is also a former non-profit development professional who spent two decades as an advocate and fundraiser for persons with disabilities.
Stephen P. Huyler
Stephen P. Huyler is an art historian, cultural anthropologist, photographer, and author. His life has been dedicated to exploring, surveying, preserving, and celebrating India’s rich artistic and cultural heritage. For 50 years, he has travelled through Indian villages for an average of four months each year, and his seven books, including Transformed by India: A Life (2024), invoke an India rarely seen by outsiders and unknown to many Indians today. He has been a Consultant/ Guest Curator for more than 25 major museum exhibitions of Indian art, with solo exhibitions at the Smithsonian, the Asian Art Museum (San Francisco), and the Kodak Center for Creative Imaging.
Subba Rao Duvvuri
Subba Rao Duvvuri was Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (2008-13), Finance Secretary to the Government of India (2007-08), and Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (2005-07). Since 2013, he has been a Visiting Fellow at the National University of Singapore and the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently Visiting Faculty at Yale School of Management. His publications include Who Moved My Interest Rate? (2016), best known for the way it explains the policy dilemmas confronting an emerging economy’s central bank in a globalized world, and Just a Mercenary? Notes from My Life and Career (2024).
Subhadra Anand
Subhadra Anand was born in Hyderabad (Sindh), educated in Delhi, worked as a lecturer and college principal in Mumbai, and was the CEO of Save the Children India. Her National Integration of Sindhis (1995) continues to be a seminal reference book and her novel Tryst With Koki (2023) traces a “post-partition journey of survival, sustenance and strength.” Her vision for a cultural centre for Sindhis in India was realized with “Jhulelal Tirthdham,” a cultural complex in Narayan Sarovar in Kutch, at the mouth of the Arabian Sea, that will soon house a museum and an amphitheatre alongside the magnificent Jhulelal temple.
Subhash Ghai
Subhash Ghai is a renowned film writer, director, and producer. He is the chairman and managing director of Mukta Arts, the production company he set up in 1982. In his four-decade career, he has directed and produced several blockbuster films including Kalicharan (1976), Karz (1980), Vidhaata (1982), Hero (1983), Meri Jung (1985), Karma (1986), Ram Lakhan (1989), Saudagar (1991), Khal Nayak (1993), Pardes (1997), Taal (1999), and Yaadein (2001). He is the founder-chairman of Whistling Woods International, India’s premier film, communications and creative arts institute, which was started in 2006. Karma’s Child (2024) is the memoir of “Indian Cinema’s Ultimate Showman.”
Suhas Mahesh
Suhas Mahesh is a scholar of Sanskrit and Prakrit with a terrible weakness for good verse, rare manuscripts, and arcane grammar. He is a materials physicist with a PhD from the University of Oxford where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He has co-edited and translated How to Love in Sanskrit: Poems (2014) with Anusha Rao.
Sultan Ahmed Ismail
Sultan Ahmed Ismail, presently a Member of the State Planning Commission, Government of Tamil Nadu, was the Head of the Departments of Zoology and Biotechnology at The New College, Chennai. He has done extensive research on ecology and environment, earthworms and organic inputs and has been associated with several institutions, farmers, and self-help groups. Recognized as one of the “TOP 10” people of Tamil Nadu for 2013 by Ananda Vikatan, he has been a member and chairman of several national and international committees including the Scientific Review Committee, Initiative for Research and Innovation in Science (IRIS) and Technical Steering Committee, Dezhou Dr Fa Earthworm Standardization Research Centre, China.
Sunitha Krishnan
Sunitha Krishnan is an activist, author, and film producer. She founded Prajwala—Asia’s largest institution combating sex trafficking and sex crime—in 1996 at Hyderabad and has assisted in the rescue of nearly 29000 young girls and women across 12 countries and prevented nearly 16000 children from being inducted into prostitution. She was awarded the Padma Shri (2016) and was recognized as one of the 150 “Fearless Women in the World’ by Newsweek. I Am What I Am (2024) is the memoir of this relentless crusader for the rights of sex crime and trafficking victims.
Susheel Gajwani
Susheel Gajwani is an author and filmmaker. His fourteenth feature film, Aakhreen Train-The Last Train (2023) in Sindhi has been loved by audiences all over India and abroad. He has created ‘Roots-The Time Travellers,’ a Musical Stage Show, based on Partition Poetry in Sindhi and performed in English, Sindhi, Hindi, Punjabi, and Marathi. He was a Doordarshan Producer, Founder-Vice-President of Money Satellite Television Channel, and a recipient of the Rotary Foundation Technical Fellowship to study American Media at New York University. A postgraduate in English and human resources, he writes books and newspaper articles and conducts training workshops on life skills.
Usha Raman
Usha Raman teaches media studies at the University of Hyderabad. Her writing, which spans the academic and popular, has appeared in The Hindu, Caravan, The Wire, and Scroll, among others. Recent co-edited books include Feminist Futures of Work (2023), Childscape, Media Scape: Children and Media in India (2023), and Digital Expressions of the Self(ie): The Social Life of Selfies in India (2024). She edits a magazine for schoolteachers, Teacher Plus. She has published a collection of poetry, All the Spaces in Between (2009), and her debut novel, Polite Conversations was published in 2024.
Speaker @HLF 2023, HLF Online Dec 2022, 2025.
V Ramaswamy
V Ramaswamy has translated the works of Manoranjan Byapari, Subimal Mishra, and Shahidul Zaheer. His translation of Manoranjan Byapari’s novel, The Nemesis (2023) was shortlisted for the JCB Prize for literature.
Vayu Naidu
Vayu Naidu is a performance storyteller, founder Artistic Director & Storyteller of the ‘Vayu Naidu Intercultural Storytelling Theatre Company Ltd.,’ Chair of the Black British Theatre Archives, and Professor of Practice at SOAS in the School of Arts. She has a PhD in the Epic and Oral traditions of Ramayana and Mahabharata from the University of Leeds. Her writing—short stories, novels, children’s books, radio plays—draws on the oral traditions of storytelling. Her novels include Sita’s Ascent (2013, nominated for the Commonwealth Book Award), The Sari of Surya Vilas (2017), and The Living Legend: Ramayana Tales from Far and Near (2024).
Vivek Nityanand
Vivek Nityanand is trained as a biologist. A scientist and a science communicator, he is currently a BBSRC David Phillips Fellow at the Centre for Behaviour and Evolution and the Biosciences Institute at Newcastle University, UK. He has several publications in the fields of evolutionary biology, animal behaviour, and psychology. He is also an illustrator and has published short stories, including in Penguin India’s new writing anthology, First Proof 7. Beyond Doubt: Overconfidence and What It Means for Modern Society (2024) is his latest publication.
Vytis Vidūnas
Vytis Vidūnas is a lecturer in Sanskrit at Vilnius University, Lithuania. He studied classical philology at Vilnius University and Sanskrit the Vedic Language and Ancient Indian Literature at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow. In 1993, he co-founded the Center of Oriental Studies at Vilnius University thus reviving Sanskrit studies at the University and in Lithuania in general. He also founded Hindi Studies and Indian Studies at Vilnius University, started a public initiative “Sanskrit of the Rivers,” and published Sanskrit-Lithuanian Etymological Dictionary (2016). In 2023, he was nominated for the Lithuanian-Indian Forum award “For the Merit to the Friendship between Lithuania and India.”
Yuvan Aves
Yuvan Aves is a multi-award-winning writer, naturalist, and ecological activist. His recent book Intertidal: A Coast and Marsh Diary (2023) won the Mumbai LitFest Book of the Year 2024 (Non-Fiction) award. He is an active part of community movements against industrial violence in South India and is the Founder of Palluyir Trust for Nature Education and Research.
