A Giridhar Rao
A. Giridhar Rao is interested in questions of linguistic justice. What are just and equitable language policies for a multilingual country like India? How can our schools use India’s astonishing linguistic diversity more effectively? At Azim Premji University, his courses on language and literature pedagogy ask these questions. He blogs in English on these questions at bolii.blogspot.com. Questions of communicative justice drew Giridhar to the planned language Esperanto. He has translated the writings of Gandhi, Manto, and Faiz into Esperanto. He is a member of the Academy of Esperanto. He blogs in Esperanto at lingvovivo.blogspot.com.
Aarti Phatarphekar
Aarti Phatarphekar has been running a theatre outfit for children for over a dozen years. Besides conducting workshops, she teaches drama in schools and produces large-scale musicals like “Peter Pan”, “Around the World in 80 Days”, and “Sound of Music” with children. She has been a part of the Dramatic Circle Hyderabad and has performed several times with the Secunderabad Club Dramatic Society. She is an animal activist and works closely with street dogs in her community. She is an active member of the YWCA and Bring a Smile Foundation, NGOs that work to uplift the less fortunate among us.
Abhijit Sengupta
Abhijit Sengupta is a sports journalist who worked with The Hindu newspaper for over three decades. In his career, he covered international and national competitions in various sports such as cricket, football, hockey, boxing, track and field, badminton, volleyball, tennis and other games. He is also an author and now writes as a freelancer in Siasat.com.
Abhisheka Krishnagopal
Abhisheka Krishnagopal is an artist, ecologist, and educator. With an educational background in Fine Arts, Ecology & Environment, and social sciences, she is building nature stewardship through art and science education. She has worked for more than a decade with leading conservation NGOs in India, and has experience in Urban wildlife rescue and rehabilitation, wildlife research, nature education and communication. Currently working with the Nature Conservation Foundation, she is also associated with grassroots collectives working on the interface of ecology, sustainable agriculture and alternative learning.
Aditya Tiwari
Aditya Tiwari is a poet, writer, and activist. He has led a life that has hopscotched around the world—from India to America to Britain—through a hyphenated career spanning journalism, podcasting, activism, and literature. His debut poetry collection April is Lush earned international recognition from the Lambda Literary Foundation (2019). He was the host of the BBC's Voices podcast on men's mental health and worked as a producer at BBC Cambridge. His work has appeared in The Telegraph, PinkNews, BBC, Vice, The Times of India, Hindustan Times, and elsewhere. Over the Rainbow: India’s Queer Heroes (2023) is his latest publication.
Aditya Undru
Aditya Undru is a Science Writer at CSIR-CCMB. He is a neuroscientist and bioinformatician by training and a writer, poet, storyteller, singer, translator, cyclist, and amateur historian by passion. He writes in English, Telugu, and Hindi. He has published several short stories and one book of poems in Hindi. He has also been instrumental in conducting various workshops and writing sessions as one of the organizers at Write Club Hyderabad.
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. Afshan D’souza-Lodhi's participation at HLF 2025 is supported by CLF-IDP-British Council grant.
Ahtushi Deshpande
Ahtushi Deshpande is a travel journalist and one of India’s top 80 photographers, recognized by the India Photo Archive Foundation in 2022. Her recent book, Speaking Stones: Rock Art of Ladakh (2024), was a finalist for the 2024 Banff International Mountain Book Award. Her work has appeared in National Geographic Traveller, GEO, Marie Claire, and Outlook Traveller. Her travelogue, To the Land of Snow is part of high school curricula. She has curated three solo exhibitions: “Therefore I Climb” (2006), “The Colour of My Cancer” (2016), and “Speaking Stones”, recently showcased at the Médiathèque Edmond Rostand in Paris.
Ajay Kumar
Ajay Kumar is a student and writer. He is the author of the chapbook balancing acts (2023) and his poems have appeared in The Bombay Literary Magazine, Rattle, The Bombay Review, Usawa, and The Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English, among others. He received the Srinivas Rayaprol Poetry Prize for 2024 and was longlisted for the Toto Funds the Arts Creative Writing Award in 2023.
Ajit Kumar Panigrahi
Ajit Kumar Panigrahi is a singer and song writer associated with popular people's movements in Orissa. He is part of Samadhwani, a progressive cultural group and sings in his native language Sambalpuri. His song “Paen Paban Jharan Dangar” and album Paen Talar Jue (Fire under Water) became wildly popular in 2007 during a mass movement to assert primary rights of farmers over the waters of Hirakud Dam. As part of Relaa Collective, he has travelled to several states to share his songs and voice his concerns among other diverse audiences.
Ajit Mohanty
Ajit Mohanty is a former Professor at JNU and ICSSR National Fellow with over 50 years of work in mother tongue-based education for tribal children in India and South Asia. He has also served as a Fulbright Professor at Columbia University and a visiting faculty worldwide. His books include The Multilingual Reality (2019) and Bhāsā Kathā, Bhāsā Byathā (2019/2024). In addition to academic publications, he writes essays, short stories, and columns in Odia. Promotion of education in mother tongue has been his life-time ideology, research, dedication, and ambition and Odia language, his love.
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.
Aluvala Saiteja Gupta
Aluvala Saiteja Gupta is a trailblazer and the youngest editor to make a mark in mainstream Telugu cinema. With films like Gamble Monster and The Birthday Boy to his credit, he has excelled as a main editor, VFX artist, VFX compositor, and VFX supervisor. A prolific filmmaker in the horror genre, his short film won 23 national and international awards making him one of the most promising directors of his generation. The film was also nominated for the Dadasaheb Phalke Award and was released on YouTube. He has ventured into documentary filmmaking with an award-winning project.
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.
Amalendu Jyotishi
Amalendu Jyotishi is a professor at the School of Development, Azim Premji University. An economist by training, he ventured into writing poems in his younger days. He writes in Odia, Hindi, and English—more often in English than the other two languages. His poems are published in Odia and English magazines and dailies including the Madras Courier, Deccan Herald, The Critical Mirror.
Amit Goswamy
Amit Goswamy is a wildlife filmmaker and a trained wildlife biologist from the Wildlife Institute of India. He joined the Border Security Force as Assistant Commandant and served in diverse areas of operations from border management to anti-Naxal operations. After retiring from the armed forces in 2018, he has been working on a series related to human-wildlife interactions in India. His work is featured on TV and in-flight entertainment in some airlines. He posts his work on Wildlife Moments India YT.
Amita R Desai
Festival Director
Amita R Desai
Festival Director
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.
Anhad Kashyap
Anhad Kashyap is a voracious reader with a quirky sense of humour. He is passionate about all things maths and science. He wants to grow up to be a scientist, inventor, mathematician, author, pianist, and stand-up comedian—depending on the day of the week! However, on all days of the week, he is certain that he will live in a gigantic lab in Antarctica.
Anindita Majumdar
Anindita Majumdar is an Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad. She has been researching commercial surrogacy, kinship, and infertility since 2010. Her ethnographic research-based book Transnational Commercial Surrogacy and the (Un)Making of Kin in India (2017) was shortlisted for the Bloomsbury LSE Social Anthropology Monograph Award 2016. She contributed to the Oxford India Short Introductions Series on Surrogacy (2019), is on the international advisory board of the journal Medicine, Anthropology, Theory, and is an external member of Center for Reproductive Health (CORTH), University of Sussex. In 2023, she was Social Sciences and Public Policy Global Visiting Fellow at King’s College London.
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.
Anjali Lal Gupta
Anjali Lal Gupta teaches journalism at the Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication, University of Hyderabad. She was a journalist for over 16 years in television, digital media, and development communications. At CNBC-TV18, New Delhi, she held various positions from correspondent to features producer in a tenure spanning over six years. As web editor and images Manager for the international development agency ActionAid, she researched, wrote, and edited features for their website and publications. She also contributed regularly to newspapers and magazines, including Tehelka, The Hindu, and The Times of India.
Anju Khemani
Anju Khemani is the founder of the Drama Association of the Deaf (DAD). Her work has been a synthesis of sensitizing organizations and communities towards inclusion, developing content for training and capacity building of trainers, young adults with disabilities, and HIV-affected women and men. Her course material for training youth with disabilities is translated into many languages and used across India. DAD was an outcome of her theatre course at the National School of Drama, and extensive work with the Deaf community. DAD seeks to promote self-identity in a multicultural society by fostering a sense of belonging in one’s own culture, and respect for other cultures.
Speaker @ HLF 2023, 2019
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.
Anu Pande
Anu Pande teaches courses on literature and cultural history in the Department of Germanic Studies at the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. She has a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and takes an active interest in Gender Studies, discourses of violence, representations of disease and death in literature, and Human-Animal Studies. In her research, she explores processes of othering across a broad spectrum, ranging from political belief to gender identity and species belonging. She is also an experienced literary translator and co-founder of the Indian Animal Studies Collective.
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.
Anusha Veluswamy
Anusha Veluswamy is an architect, educator, and award-winning author with a master’s degree in architecture. She has been honoured with the REX Karmaveer Global Fellowship & Bronze Award (2018) and the Woman Lit of the Year Award (2021, 2024). As the founder of The Little Dipper Publishing, she champions culturally rooted and representative children’s literature. Her books Where is Mr. Thookam? (2022) and Maari: A Gift from the Skies (2022) have earned multiple nominations and awards, including the AGBLF Book Prize 2023, for their rich storytelling and cultural essence.
Anusheela Chatterjee
Anusheela Chatterjee is a science writer who leads the science communication and public outreach programme at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Hyderabad. She focuses on engaging ways to communicate basic science research to multiple target audiences, including school and college students. She has been exploring the intersection of art, science, and culture to initiate conversations on basic sciences, especially reaching out to individuals who may not have a primed interest in science. Such initiatives include popular science cafes, art-science linkages, and science theatre. She has a Master’s degree in Biology from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai.
Aparajith Ramnath
Aparajith Ramnath is a historian of science, technology, business, and an Associate Professor at Ahmedabad University. His publications include Engineering a Nation (2024) and The Birth of an Indian Profession (2017). He has also written for Scroll, The Wire, The Hindu, and FiftyTwo.in. He was trained as an electrical engineer at BITS Pilani, and as a historian of science and technology at Oxford University and Imperial College, London. He has been an International Scholar of the Society for the History of Technology, a Charles Wallace India Trust grant awardee, a Sangam House writing fellow, and a recipient of the Young Historian of Science Award (2018).
Aparna Rayaprol
Aparna Rayaprol is Professor of Sociology at the University of Hyderabad. Her areas of academic interest include gender studies, migration and diaspora, and urban sociology. She is the author of Negotiating Identities: Women in the Indian Diaspora (OUP, 1997). She has held several administrative positions, was with the Study in India Program (SIP) at the University of Hyderabad since its inception in 1998, and has been closely involved with the internationalization of the university. Her PhD was from the University of Pittsburgh, USA and she did postdoctoral work at Princeton University at the Center for the Study of American Religion in 1998-99.
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.
Aquin Mathews
Aquin Mathews is a photographer and curator. He established the Indian Photo Festival and served as its Artistic Director since its inception in 2015. He has judged numerous photography competitions, including Portrait of Humanity by the British Journal of Photography and Print Swap by Feature Shoot Magazine, and curated photography exhibitions in India, France, Australia, New Zealand, and Georgia. He is an advisor to the Auckland Festival of Photography, a nominator for the Prix Pictet, and the author of the book Here & There which champions the use of smartphones to capture compelling stories. Currently, he is the director of the Hyderabad Centre for Photography.
Arathi Menon
Arathi Menon has been a writer and editor for over two decades. She has been an integral part of the editorial teams at prominent publications such as India Water Portal, Deccan Herald, and The Week. Currently, as Senior Staff Writer at Mongabay India, she writes on a broad spectrum of topics, including climate change, indigenous knowledge, mental health, and wildlife conflicts and research.
Archana Satwalekar
Archana Satwalekar has been a practising gynaecologist for the last 20 years. She believes in customizing patient care tailored to their needs. She finds that despite living in times where information is in surplus on any topic, the ignorance and myths surrounding women’s health are widespread among urban, educated women, and her practice focuses on addressing these issues.
Arkasubhra Ghosh
Arkasubhra Ghosh is Chief Scientist, Molecular Signalling and Gene Therapy, and Director, GROW Research Laboratory at the Narayana Nethralaya Eye Hospital, Bengaluru. The GROW research laboratory was established in 2013 with the goal of performing patient-directed, discovery research for application in future diagnostics, drug repurposing and novel therapies. The laboratory focuses on understanding the genetic and molecular signalling mechanisms driving pathogenesis of ocular disorders and cancers.
Arnav Maturi
Arnav Maturi is a law student, who is trying to balance the rigorous life of university with the finer things in life. When not attempting to memorise legal jargon or rehearse lines, he can usually be found with his nose buried in a book, pretending it is “research.” His hobbies include pretending that he is a good actor and excessive laziness.
Arun M. Kumar
Arun M. Kumar is a business leader, diplomat, and author with extensive global experience in many fields: consulting and professional services, high technology, entrepreneurship, venture capital, and public service. Currently a managing partner at Celesta Capital, a deep-tech venture fund, he was formerly Chairman and CEO of KPMG India. He served in President Obama’s Administration as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets. In his book, The Global Trade Paradigm (2023) he highlights the evolution and imperatives of global value chains—and attendant geopolitics. He is the author of two books of poetry, Mantram Beach (2020) and Plain Truths (2010).
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).
Arundhathi Subramaniam
Arundhathi Subramaniam is a leading Indian poet and author of fourteen books including an anthology of female mystic poetry, Wild Women (2024), and the prose work, Women Who Wear Only Themselves (2023). Shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry 2015, she won several honours for poetry including the Sahitya Akademi Award (2020), the Mahakavi Kanhaiyalal Sethia Award, the inaugural Khushwant Singh Poetry Prize, the Il Ceppo Prize in Italy, the Raza Award, the Mystic Kalinga Award, the Charles Wallace and Homi Bhabha fellowships, among others. She is an active curator, performing arts critic, and poetry editor of the India domain of the Poetry International Web. Year: 2025, 2022, 2017.
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.
Asad Rahmani
Asad R. Rahmani, is a former Director of Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and Scientific Consultant to The Corbett Foundation and Hem Chandra Mahindra Trust. He has written 26 books, nearly 160 peer-reviewed scientific papers, 90 book reviews, nearly 75 editorials, and more than 350 popular articles on nature conservation. He was the Global Council member of BirdLife International, UK (2006-2013), and Chairman, BirdLife Asia Council (2006-2013). He was the Executive Editor of Journal of BNHS, and the editor of Hornbill, Mistnet, and Buceros, popular magazines of BNHS. His main interest is in grassland and wetland birds, and highlighting the plight of lesser- known species and habitats.
Ashish Sankrityayan
Ashish Sankrityayan is an exponent of the Dhrupad genre of Indian classical music and a writer on music history and musicology. He has given concerts and courses on Dhrupad in many countries and extensively researched and documented the Dhrupad genre over several decades through articles, a book, and a documentary film.
Asif Qureshi
Asif Qureshi is a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and head of the Department of Climate Change at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad. He received a D.Sc. in environmental science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich, and a B Tech from IIT Kanpur. His research group's core interest is in environmental health. They employ collaborative approaches and seek to better understand the cycling of chemicals in the environment and biotic exposure.
Avinash Visvanathan
Avinash Visvanathan is the General Secretary of Friends of Snakes Society, Hyderabad, where he has dedicated over two decades to wildlife conservation and research. An expert member of the Telangana State Board for Wildlife, his research focuses on herpetofauna, particularly snake ecology and taxonomy, with several published papers in peer-reviewed journals. A passionate educator and conservationist, he has taught herpetology at the Forest College and Research Institute and continues to lead various wildlife conservation initiatives. His contributions to snake rescue, rehabilitation, and public education have been instrumental in mitigating human-wildlife conflict in urban areas and promoting wildlife conservation awareness in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Ayesha Minhaz
Ayesha Minhaz is a journalist with over ten years of experience writing on politics, policies, and development issues. She is currently a special correspondent for Frontline magazine and covers Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. She is an alumna of SOAS, University of London, and the Asian College of Journalism. She is also a Chevening Scholar.
B. S. Prakash
B S Prakash is a retired banker who is interested in reading both for himself and to others. He has been with The Little Theatre Hyderabad for more years than he cares to remember or, in fact, can remember! He also dabbles in amateur theatre.
Barkha Patel
Barkha Patel is a kathak dancer, choreographer, educator, and the Artistic Director of the NYC-based Barkha Dance Company (BDC). She is a student of Guru Rachna Sarang of Lucknow and Jaipur Gharana and continues to be mentored by Guru Pandit Rajendra Gangani, Swati Sinha, and Dheerendra Tiwari. She has performed at dance festivals in India (Chidambaram Dance Festival, Modhera Festival) and the US (Dance Theatre Harlem (NYC), Harlem Stage (NYC), Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out (MA), Joyce Theatre (NYC) and Little Island (NYC), 92Y (NYC), and Chelsea Factory (NYC)). She received the ‘23 Juried Bessie Award and the Princess Grace Award Dance’24.
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.
Bittu Sahgal
Bittu Sahgal, the Editor of Sanctuary Asia and the Founder of the Sanctuary Nature Foundation and the one million-strong Kids for Tigers programme, is one of India’s strongest and most eloquent voices for nature preservation, climate change mitigation, and wildlife conservation. He has made it his life’s mission to direct world leaders away from short-term development objectives that could compromise the ability of the nation to sustain its population of 1.3 billion people in the decades ahead. He believes that India’s ecological foundation is the bedrock of the nation’s economic progress and that climate change poses the greatest ever threat to the stability of the Indian nation.
BP Acharya
BP Acharya, a retired IAS officer, was the Special Chief Secretary to the government of Telangana and played an instrumental role in facilitating many world-class industrial clusters in Telangana and AP, such as the Genome Valley, Financial District, Mindspace, Knowledge City, and Sri City. He has been pursuing his childhood hobby of cartooning, emulating legends like RK Laxman, Mario, and Kutty and publishing a regular column titled “Obtuse Angle.” The book Obtuse Angle is a collection of his black and white cartoons, from his initial days as a probationer in Mussoorie and captures the travails of a civil servant’s journey.
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.
C. Rammanohar Reddy
C. Rammanohar Reddy is the Founder-Editor of The India Forum. He was Editor of Economic and Political Weekly, Mumbai, between 2004 and 2016. He has been in the media since 1988 writing on economic affairs first with Deccan Herald (Bangalore) and then with The Hindu (Chennai and Hyderabad). He has a PGDM from IIM Calcutta, an MPhil (Applied Economics), and a Phd (Economics) from the Jawaharlal Nehru University while based at the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram. He co-edited with MV Ramana Prisoners of the Nuclear Dream (2004) and authored Demonetisation and Black Money (2017).
Deepanwita Chattopadhyay
Deepanwita Chattopadhyay developed India’s first Life Sciences Research Park in Hyderabad and has supported 1800+ innovators and startups. She joined IKP as its CEO (2001), took over as Chair (2015), retired as CEO (2024), and is currently its non-executive Chairman and MD. She is also the Chair and Co-Founder of Support Elders Pvt. Ltd, an organization that works on holistic at-home eldercare. She received the Golden Jubilee Biotech Park Lifetime Achievement Award 2023, was recognized as one of the top 10 Champions of the Indian Incubation Ecosystem (2022), received the FICCI FLO Influential Women Award (2021), and the “Top Women Achievers of the Year 2017 in Asia” by AsiaOne Magazine.
Deepika Mahidhara
Deepika Mahidhara is a personal leadership, public-speaking, and life coach, learning experience or workshop facilitator, content writer, MC, talk-show host, and an actor. When she is not coaching, facilitating, consulting, or MCing, she’s a theatre artist and a novice motorcyclist.
Dhanalakota Rakesh & Dhanalakota Vinay Kumar
Dhanalakota Rakesh & Dhanalakota Vinay Kumar are Nakashi artists, carrying forward a rich legacy of Cheriyal scroll painting—a traditional handicraft that has been preserved in their family for at least 15 generations. Hailing from Cheriyal village, about 90 km from Hyderabad, they are among the few remaining families dedicated to keeping this centuries-old art form alive.
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.
Dilnaz Baig
Dilnaz Baig studied at Mahboobia Girls School and Women’s College, Koti. While living in Mumbai (1987-1995) she became a life member of the Mahila Dakshita Samiti and worked in the Dharavi slums under the aegis of the Concern India Federation to bridge the Hindu-Muslim divide. After returning to Hyderabad, she played an instrumental role in establishing the Hyderabad chapter of Sham-e-Ghazal and the NGO Apna Watan. She also started Dastarkhan-e-Naaz, curated dinners and lunches in typical Hyderabadi ambience, and has curated Hyderabad Food Festivals for Grand Hyatt Kochi, Hyatt Place Hyderabad, Mariott Bombay, Lake Palace Udaipur, and Land’s End Bombay.
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.
Eglė Lipeikaitė
Eglė Lipeikaitė is a master of watercolour and a teacher from Lithuania. She graduated from the Academy of Arts in Vilnius in 1994 and has been participating in international watercolour exhibitions worldwide since 2002. In 2014, she became a finalist in the World Watercolor Competition. In 2009, she founded a private watercolour studio where she teaches children and adults various watercolour techniques. Water themes make up a major part of her work, and she is sometimes called the Water Master. She sees universal creative ideas in water. When she paints, she feels like conducting an orchestra, with the music coming from the watercolour.
Ganesh Bagler
Ganesh Bagler as a teenager aspired to be an astronomer. Trained in physics, computer science, and computational biology, he has had an adventurous journey from astronomy to gastronomy becoming known for his pioneering research in ‘Computational Gastronomy.’ By building keystone data repositories, algorithms, and applications, his lab has established the foundations of this emerging data science that blends food with artificial intelligence. Innovative research from his lab has contributed to this niche dealing with food, flavours, nutrition, health, and sustainability. He has an audacious dream of transforming the food landscape by making food computable.
Gautam Bhatia
Gautam Bhatia is a speculative fiction writer, reviewer, and editor. His most recent novel is The Sentence (2024). He is also the author of the SF duology, The Wall (2020) and The Horizon (2021), both of which were long-listed for Locus Magazine's book of the year award. He is the co-ordinating editor of Strange Horizons, a weekly online magazine of science fiction and fantasy, which won the Hugo Award in 2024.
Gogu Shyamala
Gogu Shyamala is a well-known Telugu language writer and poet whose critically acclaimed works—Nene Balaanni, a biography of T.N. Sadalakshmi the first Dalit woman legislator from Hyderabad and Nallapoddu: Dalitha Sthreela Sahithyam 1921-2002 (Black Dawn: Dalit Women’s Writings) are widely known. English readers know her through the Navayana book, Father Maybe an Elephant and Mother Only a Small Basket but…” (2012). Two of her stories have been translated into English, Hindi and Urdu as part of the Different Tales Series published by Anveshi Hyderabad and Ekalavya Publishers.
Gunda Chandrakanth
Gunda Chandrakanth retired as a Yōga Teacher from the Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet (Hyderabad). He learnt Yōga and participated in Prāṇāyāma research under the guidance of Sri Ramananda Yogi, and continued his Yōga studies under the supervision of Sri. Dhirendra Brahmachari at the Vishwayatan Yōgashram Katra (Jammu & Kashmir). He established the ‘Chetana’ Centre for Yōga and Health Education, where he conducts classes for both practitioners and teachers. A widely travelled teacher, many of his students have set up Yōga centres around the world imparting Yōga education to the new generation.
GV Prasad
GV Prasad is a graduate of Purdue University in industrial administration and has an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. A part of Dr Reddy’s group since 1986, he has turned the group into a trusted global pharma player. He is a photography enthusiast and a birdwatcher and chairs the board of trustees of Wildlife Trust of India and is involved with the NGOs Aakar Asha Trust and World Wildlife Fund. He is a Board Member of the Indian School of Business, Ashoka University, and the Institute of Public Health Sciences. He has been the Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of Belgium in Hyderabad since April 2019.
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.
Harsha Durugadda
Harsha Durugadda is a sculptor and won The Arts Family Emerging ArtistAward (2023) for South Asia and the Rio Tinto Sculpture Award (2017) at Sculpture by the Sea, Australia. He was part of a Sotheby’s New York contemporary auction (2021), invited to present on Ancient Buddhist Sculpture at the British Museum, London (2014), and received the Andrew Stretton Memorial invitation (2016). His sculptures have been exhibited at Nord Art in Germany, Emergent Art Space in the United States, London, and Sculpture by the Sea in Australia. His artworks are part of major public and private collections including Busselton Jetty (Australia), Bangalore Airport, and RMZ Foundation.
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.
Ileana Citaristi
Ileana Citaristi, an Italian-born scholar and dancer, holds a PhD in Philosophy. After a career in the European theatre, she immersed herself in Indian culture, residing in Odisha since 1979. She is a renowned Odissi dancer, trained under Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, and also mastered Chhau dance under Guru Hari Nayak. She is celebrated for her innovative choreography in both styles. She actively imparts her knowledge, guiding students at her institution, Art Vision, in Bhubaneswar. Her contributions to Indian dance have been recognized globally through performances at major festivals.
Indumathi Mariappan
Indumathi Mariappan is a Research Scientist at the Center for Ocular Regeneration and Sudhakar and Sreekanth Ravi Stem Cell Biology Laboratory, LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad. Her lab is involved in basic and translational research towards addressing the problems of retinal and corneal diseases using different sources of adult and pluripotent stem cells. Her group is currently exploring the applications of patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and genome editing technology for disease modelling studies and developing regenerative therapies for inherited eye diseases.
Jaideep Unudurti
Jaideep Unudurti writes on travel and popular culture and reviews books for The Hindu. He also writes scripts for podcasts and co-wrote the script Shadmayudh, a film on the history of chess which was awarded a development grant from the Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris. His Hyderabad: A Graphic Novel led to “Every City is a Story”—a city-centric graphic storytelling initiative encompassing various cities in India. His graphic novel Die Unterirdischen Städte (2020), with artist Fabian Stoltz, set in an underworld beneath the battlefields of World War I grew out of a cross-cultural collaboration supported by the City Senate of Hamburg and Goethe-Zentrum, Hyderabad.
Jameela Nishat
Jameela Nishat is a significant feminist poet writing in Urdu. She edited an anthology on Deccan women poets called Inkeshaf (2000). Her poems were translated into English and published by the Sahitya Akademi in 2008. She has four poetry collections, including Butterfly Caresses (2015). She received the Devi Award for “bringing poetry to life”, the Adhikara Bhasha Sangham Award for promoting the Dakhni language and literature at the grassroots level (2007), and the Ladli Award for Best Radio Play (2012). Her work on gender and social justice issues among communities in the old city of Hyderabad has been widely recognized. Speaker @ HLF 2025, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2014-15
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.
Jay Krishnan
Jay Krishnan is a serial entrepreneur with a background in Hardware platforms, Networking and IoT. He has a background in venture, entrepreneurship, engineering, product management, and strategy and traversed six cities across India, the US, and Canada in his career. He was the CEO of The Accelerator Centre, Canada, and the founding CEO of T-Hub, Hyderabad. His venture experience ranges from SRI Capital and Mantra Capital and his angel investments from EdTech to Web3. His professional career spanned Brookoutrout-Cantata, Juniper Networks, and Cisco Systems. His book Unfinished Business (2024) is a collection of 12 short stories.
Jhilam Chattaraj
Jhilam Chattaraj is an academic, critic, and poet. Her books include Sudeep Sen: Reading, Writing, Teaching (2025), Noise Cancellation (2021), Corporate Fiction: Popular Culture and The New Writers (2018), and When Lovers Leave and Poetry Stays (2018). Her works have been published in Ecocene, Mekong Review, New Contrast Magazine, One Art, Calyx, Ariel, Room, Colorado Review, World Literature Today and Asian Cha, among others. She received the CTI Excellence Award in ‘Literature and Soft Skills Development’ (2019) from the Department of Language and Culture, Government of Telangana, and was nominated for the Nina Riggs Poetry Award (2023). She teaches at the RBVRR Women’s College, Hyderabad. Speaker @ HLF 2023, 2025.
Jitendra Vasava
Jitendra Vasava is a poet who writes in Dehwali Bhili language. He is the founder and president of Adivasi Sahitya Akademi, based in Mahupada village, Narmada district, Gujarat. He has published six books on tribal oral literature and a chapbook of poetry, Asabhya Ghoshit Mahuva (2023). He edited Geet Kavita (2019), Adivasi Sahitya Movement of Gujarat. His doctoral research focused on the cultural and mythological aspects of the oral folk tales of the Bhils of Narmada district. He is currently doing post-doctoral research at IIT, Gandhinagar on the cultural and linguistic study of the environmental knowledge systems of the Bhil.
JSR Prasad
JSR Prasad is a Sanskrit scholar and a professor at the Department of Sanskrit Studies, University of Hyderabad. He specializes in Indian logic through a traditional learning system. His current research focuses on Indian psychology and research methodology, drawing rich insights from Ayurvedic texts. He has presented over 60 research papers at national and international conferences and published 45 peer-reviewed articles. He is on the editorial boards of prestigious research journals and has a profound interest in the poetry of Shankara and Kalidasa.
K Anand Kumar
K Anand Kumar, a PhD in Microbiology, has over 32 years of experience in the vaccine/biotech Industry. He worked abroad for companies such as Pfizer Global Manufacturing (Australia) and Schering Plough (New Zealand). Currently, he is the Managing Director at Indian Immunologicals Ltd, one of the largest producers of vaccines in Asia. Several important human and animal vaccines were developed under his leadership and he also established Pristine Biologicals in New Zealand to help India secure a key raw material used in vaccine manufacturing. He is a member of several committees in India and has many awards, papers, and patents to his credit.
K S Nair
KS Nair has authored three books and over a hundred articles on Indian military history in Indian, American, British, and Japanese publications. His books include Ganesha’s Flyboys (2012), on the IAF in the Congo in the 1960s, The Forgotten Few (2019), on the Indian Air Force in World War II, and December in Dacca (2022), on the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. He is a graduate of IIT Delhi and IIM Bangalore, and has served at levels up to Vice President, CEO, and Director at multinational and boutique firms, in the areas of consulting, investment, and development.
Kaladas Deharia
Kaladas Deharia is a singer, poet, and cultural activist. In 1992 he left his government job to join Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha, the labour movement of martyr Shankar Guha Niyogi. He formed Chhattisgarhi Lok Kala Manch and has been instrumental in forming “Relaa Collective”, bringing together several cultural groups and individuals from different parts of India. In 2009 he was recognized by the Chhattisgarh government for his cultural work in opposition to alcohol addiction.
Kalpana Kannabiran
Kalpana Kannabiran is a sociologist and non-fiction writer. Formerly a teacher and academic administrator in higher education, she has been a rights educator and campaigner. She has published widely on the need for constitutional sensibilities in everyday life and sociality, the sociology of gender and human rights, and law and literature. Year: 2014-15, 2023, 2025.
Kamaan Singh Dhami
Kamaan Singh Dhami is a singer and song writer. His song “American War Paar Da”, set to the tune of the popular Sinhalese song “Surangani”, has become associated with anti-war action in India. He drew inspiration from Narmada Bachao Andolan and since the late 1990s has been penning songs on topics ranging from the WTO to the pollution in the Vrishabhavati river. He has been part of Relaa Collective since 2016 and has written songs to be performed with fellow members.
Kanchan Bhattacharya
Kanchan Bhattacharya is a retired army officer and veteran of the Liberation Warof Bangladesh. A former professor of electronics, he has published seven books—sonnets, haiku, Haibun, blank verse, short stories, and runaway humour, with subdued erotic passages, and masked violent content. His work has been anthologized in India and abroad.
Kanchana KV
Kanchana KV brings over 18 years of experience in Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Business Development, Project, Financial and Operations Management. As the CEO of the Network of Indian Cultural Enterprises (NICEorg), she leads the organization's mission to create an ecosystem to help enterprises build cultural businesses in F&B, fashion, home decor, experiential tourism, and health and wellness sectors. By enabling an ecosystem to catalyze cultural entrepreneurship through market-side interventions, partners, funding, policy advocacy, and research, the organization aims to create and nurture valuable and profitable Indian cultural brands across the globe and shape Brand India.
Karthikeyan Vasudevan
Karthikeyan Vasudevan is Chief Scientist at the Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species, a lab of CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology. His research focussed on reptiles and amphibians, revealed previously undocumented biodiversity, and identified key factors that regulate reptile and amphibian communities in tropical forests and human-modified habitats. It has contributed data for conservation planning and the implementation of species recovery plans. His work on the disease ecology of a pandemic in amphibians that caused extinctions has highlighted the role of sub-clinical infections on their population. His work on toxinology of viper and krait venoms in India focuses on improving snake envenomation outcomes.
Kavi Yaga
Kavi Yaga is the author of Walking in Clouds: A Journey to Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar (2018), and her writing has appeared in The Hindu, Outlook Traveller, One Story, Swamp Pink (CrazyHorse), and others. A 2023 Yaddo Fellow, she won second place in the 2021 Calvino Prize and attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop Summer Session in 2022. In previous avatars, she was a software engineer and development economist.
Kavita Vemuri
Kavita Vemuri is a neuroscience researcher and faculty at IIITH. Her interest spans understanding human behaviour in everyday interactions, the complex construct of empathy and sexual objectification, the functional brain and the clinical conditions from environmental pollution with the study of the human brain being the connecting thread across the domains. Her special and long-term interest is understanding brain atrophy attributed to air/water/soil/food.
Khadeer Babu
Khadeer Babu is a well-known Telugu language writer, editor, anthologist and scriptwriter. His early collections of childhood stories—Dargamitta Kathalu and Poleramma Banda Kathalu continue to enthral readers. The stories “Head Curry” and “Three-fourths, Half Price and Bajji Bajji” have been translated into English, Hindi, and Urdu as part of the Different Tales Series published by Anveshi Hyderabad and Ekalavya Publishers.
Kinnera Murthy B
Festival Director
Kinnera Murthy B
Festival DirectorKinnera Murthy B is a strategy consultant, director on corporate boards and academic governing councils, national council member of professional organisations, and founder of a women support NGO, among others. Since her superannuation in 2012 from the Administrative Staff College of India, where she held the posts of dean and professor of strategic management. She is also associated with Moving Images and Apna Watan. She is a director of the Hyderabad Literary Festival.
Latha Sashi
Latha Sashi is a consultant Nutritionist at the Fernandez Hospital in Hyderabad. Her speciality is pregnancy and post-natal nutrition, maternal and paediatric nutrition, customized medical nutrition therapy packages for the overweight and with obesity, gestational diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, Osteoporosis, infertility, hormone imbalance and menopause. She is a recipient of the Outstanding Young Scientist Award by Nutrition Society of India.
Lavanya Karthik
Lavanya Karthik is the award-winning author and illustrator of over thirty-five books for children of all ages. She has a background in environmental design and planning and loves writing about the natural world around her. Her books have travelled the world and been translated into many languages, including Mandarin, Tibetan and Braille. She writes, draws and dreams of a greener, cleaner world.
Lavanya Suresh
Lavanya Suresh is an Associate Professor at BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad campus. After her PhD in Political Science (from ISEC Bangalore), she joined Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Hyderabad as an Assistant Professor. She was awarded the visiting research scholar fellowship under the Graduate Development Program of the Watson Institute of International Studies at Brown University, USA. Her work focuses on the political ecology of commons in India, with a broader interest in decentralisation and public administration. Besides publications in leading social science journals, she co- authored Decentralised Democracy: Gandhi’s Vision and Indian Reality (2017). She is PI and Co-PI in several funded projects.
Madan Meena
Madan Meena is a practising visual artist and a researcher working extensively with rural, nomadic, and tribal communities. He has designed two important exhibitions in western Rajasthan based on brooms and pottery. He is the recipient of various fellowships to work on the oral traditions of Rajasthan, among which Tejaji Ballad is a major one documented in more than one dozen languages. He has been involved in the revival of various craft traditions among the indigenous communities. Presently, he is the honorary director of the Adivasi Academy in Gujarat.
Mahendra Kumar Mishra
Mahendra Kumar Mishra is a noted folklorist. He is the author, most recently, of Erai, Erai—Multilingual Education in Tribal Schools of India: Voices from Below (2023). His work on using folklore in school curricula in a multilingual education framework in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan has been widely recognised. In 2023, UNESCO conferred on him the International Mother Language Award. He is currently a National Advisor, Multilingual Education, with the Language and Learning Foundation.
Malini Gopalakrishnan
Malini Gopalakrishnan has a master’s degree in biotechnology and currently edits medical textbooks for a publishing firm in Hyderabad. She has authored poems and articles for digital and print publications.
Manjari Katju
Manjari Katju is a professor of political science at the University of Hyderabad. Her book, Electoral Practice and the Election Commission of India was published in 2023. She also researches and writes on issues of religious nationalism and democracy.
Manjari Kaul
Manjari Kaul is a queer feminist performer, director and theatre facilitator. She is a graduate (2015) of the DUENDE School of Ensemble Physical Theatre and holds a Master’s degree (2010) from The School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University. She is a recipient of Frankfurt MOVES!, Think Arts 2022, and Genderalities 2.0 Grants. She works extensively with children, creating work for and with young people in the theatre. She is dedicated to exploring the incongruous, disruptive and off-key in theatre and live performance, seeking possibilities for intersections and solidarities. Her area of investigation in performance-making is anti-oppressive, experimental and movement-based work.
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.
Maria Goretti
Maria Goretti studied economics and fashion design. She was a dancer and model for Coca-Cola, Liril, Close-up, and Volkswagen Beetle among many others. She was a VJ for MTV, hosted the MTV Video Music Awards (2000), anchored the ICC Champions Trophy (2002), and the Cricket World Cup (2003), did the weekly news and entertainment show for Times Now, and anchored food shows for NDTV. She has also acted in the film Raghu Romeo (2004) and, completed the Cordon Bleu certificate course (2011) in food and baking at the Tante Marie School of Cookery, UK. She writes a food blog that has recipes, slice-of-life stories and poetry.
Mariyam Alavi
Mariyam Alavi is an award-winning Indian journalist with a passion for uncovering the truth. She has worked with prominent media outlets such as Hindustan Times, and NDTV, reporting extensively on the Indian economy, politics, human rights, and the COVID-19 pandemic. She has also contributed to the 2024 Indian General Elections coverage of international media organisations like TRT World and RTÉ. She is also one of the co-authors of Love Jihad and Other Fictions: Simple Facts to Counter Viral Falsehoods (2024), a book that looked at some of the most prevalent divisive theories in the country.
Medha Kohli
Medha Kohli is a development sector professional, working in the area of social impact and social behaviour change communication. She has over five years experience in project management and programme design in the education, media, and development sectors. She is passionate about community-driven projects and the environment and is currently also supporting local community efforts for Kapra Lake restoration in Sainikpuri, Hyderabad. She is an endometriosis survivor and has been a vocal advocate in creating awareness about this chronic condition and the lack of proper care for it.
Meenakshi Ahamed
Meenakshi Ahamed is a freelance journalist and has written on American foreign policy for publications such as Foreign Policy, The Asian Age, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and Seminar. She was the London correspondent for NDTV from 1989-1996. She holds a post-graduate degree from the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, in development economics and public health. While her first book, A Matter of Trust (2021) was on India-US relations, her latest book Indian Genius (2024) is about “The Meteoric Rise of Indians in America”.
Meenakshi J
Meenakshi J is an independent journalist, and an alumna of East-West Center, Hawaii. She writes and reports on community health, people, climate change, solutions, food science and travel. Her work appears in The New York Times, Nature Medicine, National Geographic, The British Medical Journal, Smithsonian, Hakai Magazine, BBC, The Guardian, Nikkei Asia, among others.
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).
Meraj Faheem
Meraj Faheem is a serial entrepreneur, an engineer by education, and a law student. He built India’s first coding bootcamp—The Hacking School and India’s first student-focused startup incubator—EdVenture Park and Code for India Foundation that delivers India's first government-accredited Web2 & Web3 programmes. He is an Innovation Fellow with the Government of Telangana and is the CEO, Telangana Innovation Cell. During his stint as an entrepreneur and startup professional, he mentored and enabled many social startups to the market stage across sectors: assistive technology, mental health, science and technology, and sustainability.
Michelle Cahill
Michelle Cahill is an Indian Australian writer of fiction and poetry. She was awarded the KWS Hilary Mantel International Short Story Prize and the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for New Writing for the short story collection Letter to Pessoa (2016). Her debut novel Daisy & Woolf (2022/2024) gives voice and story to an Anglo-Indian character in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (1925). She has been awarded fellowships at Sangam House, Sanskriti Kendra, Hawthornden Castle, and a Hedberg Residency at the University of Tasmania, as well as grants from the Australia Council, the Copyright Agency, and the Australian Society of Authors. Year: 2022, 2025.
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.
Mohamed Shafeeq Karinkurayil
Mohamed Shafeeq Karinkurayil is an Associate Professor at the Manipal Centre for Humanities, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Karnataka. He is the author of The Gulf Migrant Archives in Kerala: Reading Borders and Belonging (2024). He received his PhD in Cultural Studies from the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad, and taught at the Centre for Comparative Literature, University of Hyderabad. His works have appeared in Himal Southasian, New Lines Magazine, The Hindu, Jadaliyya, The Wire, Scroll, among others.
Mohana Krishna Indraganti
Mohana Krishna Indraganti is a prominent Telugu film director. His debut film Grahanam (2005) fetched him eleven awards including the National Film Award for Best First Film of a Director, the Nandi Award for Best First Film of a Director, and the Gollapudi Srinivas Award for Best First Film of a Director. The film was also showcased in the Indian panorama section of the 2005 International Film Festival of India. Since then he has made several successful films and is currently making his twelfth film titled Sarangapaani Jaathakam (Sarangapaani’s Horoscope). He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from York University.
Mohar Basu
Mohar Basu is the Chief Correspondent (Entertainment) at Mid-Day. She worked as a film critic at Koimoi.com and reviewed movies for The Times of India. Her stories include in-depth coverage of censorship in films and OTT platforms, the 2016 ban on Pakistani actors in India and their return in 2020, and the systemic culture of sexual harassment in Bollywood. Her reporting has contributed to industry changes, such as the creation of safe spaces at casting agencies and talent-management companies. In 2024, she was recognized in the Indian Achiever’s Club’s ‘40 under 40’ list. Shah Rukh Khan: Legend, Icon, Star (2024) is her latest publication.
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.
Nanda Kishore Kannuri
Nanda Kishore Kannuri is an Associate Professor at the Department of Anthropology, University of Hyderabad. He has about 25 years of work experience in the social development sector and academia. Before joining the University of Hyderabad, he was a Professor of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the Indian Institute of Public Health, Hyderabad. The areas of his interest include Medical Anthropology, Mental health and well-being, Marginality, Multispecies ethnography, One Health and Sustainability.
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).
Nandita Venkatesan
Nandita Venkatesan is a journalist, public health professional, and public speaker. Her work in antimicrobial resistance is widely recognized and TIME magazine listed her among 100 emerging global leaders working to make life-saving tuberculosis drugs cheaper. She battled two rounds of tuberculosis and lost hearing due to the side effects of a TB-related injection. She led high-level advocacy and community engagement initiatives to raise awareness about tackling infectious diseases and was invited to address the United Nations General Assembly and other prestigious forums including the Union World Conference on Lung Health. She is a member of WHO’s civil society task force on TB and the Lancet Commission on TB.
Navanita Lahiri
Navanita Lahiri is a happily retired lecturer of English. She has a PhD in Culture Studies, taught both undergraduate and postgraduate students, and worked in HR and as a corporate trainer. She also co-founded a business consultancy company. She is currently associated with a welfare society in the Sunderbans dedicated to education. Theatre, travelling, music, reading, and cooking excite her.
Nayantara Nanda Kumar
Nayantara Nanda Kumar is a disciple of Guru Smt Jyoti Rout and Guru Smt Swathi Mahalakshmi. She has performed widely in the United States and India. She is the Founder of Our Sacred Space, a centre for environment, art, and wellness at Secunderabad and Dharur. She has performed at fundraisers for Nonviolent Peace Force (Santa Cruz), Asha for Education (Berkeley), Tibetan Medical College (Richmond), Chaparral House for the Aged (Berkeley), Tamil Refugee Fundraiser (South Bay), Ruchika for Street Children, Alzheimers Walk (Treasure Island), Nritya Shila on the Shamirpet Hill for Society to Save Rocks, and Prajwala and the US Consulate against human trafficking.
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).
Neera Deharia
Neera Deharia is associated with Mahila Mukti Morcha in Bhilai. She advocates women taking centre stage in the struggles for the rights of communities and assert their own rights in the family as well as work spaces. In 2014, the workers of ACC Cement went on a 24-hour strike against the Cement Wage Board. Through songs she helped the women workers stay united during the strike. She has been singing with Relaa Collective since its inception in 2015, and often addresses women workers with the song “Utho meri behna” (Rise, My Sister).
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.
Nishanth Injam
Nishanth Injam is the author of the story collection The Best Possible Experience (2023), which was named a New York Times Editors' Choice pick and longlisted for the PEN/Faulkner award. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Zoetrope: All-Story, The Virginia Quarterly Review, ZYZZYVA, The Georgia Review, Best Debut Short Stories 2021, and The Best American Magazine Writing 2022.
Omkar Bhatkar
Omkar Bhatkar has been teaching and involved in theatre-making, poetry,and cinema for a decade. He writes and directs plays, and makes independent feature films and documentaries. Many of his over 20 plays were performed at art and theatre festivals. In collaboration with Alliance Françaisede Bombay, he has directed several contemporary French plays in English. His plays ‘Blue Storm’ and ‘Raindrops on My Window’ were selected for the World Asia Playwrights Theatre Festival in South Korea in 2021 and 2024 respectively. He is the artistic director of Metamorphosis Theatre and Films and was curator at St. Andrew’s Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts.
Padma Ramesh
Padma Ramesh is a teacher, a trainer and a journalist by qualification and an eager film enthusiast by heart. She started her career by writing on films. In a career spanning well over two decades, she has dabbled in diverse fields from media to corporate training, to teaching, to handling CSR initiatives but through it all writing remained a constant, as did her association with films.
Pankaj Sekhsaria
Pankaj Sekhsaria is a long-time member of the environmental group Kalpavriksh and currently Associate Professor, Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA), IIT Bombay. His research interests lie at the intersection of science, environment, society, and technology. He has written extensively on issues of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands – his books include his debut novel The Last Wave (2014), a collection of journalism Islands in Flux – the Andaman and Nicobar Story (2024), a children’s book Waiting for Turtles (2021) (also in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu), and most recently The Great Nicobar Betrayal (2024).
Parimala Kulkarni
Parimala Kulkarni teaches in the Department of English, Osmania University, Hyderabad. She is Professor and currently the Chairperson, Board of Studies. Her area of research is Women’s Writing. Her other research interests include Indian Literatures, Gender Studies, Cultural Studies, and English Language Pedagogy in India. She received the UGC-Research Award 2014-2016.
Parvati Gupta
Parvati Gupta graduated with a BA in Education Honours, completed Montessori diploma and a diploma in Jolly Phonics. She taught in schools in Calcutta, Singapore, and Hyderabad as an Early Years educator. She conducts Phonics, English, and specific reading sessions for children who find reading difficult.
Pogula Ganesham
- Pogula Ganesham, a distinguished former officer of the Indian Army, holds engineering and MBA degrees, and expertise in Armoured Fighting Vehicles. He was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal in 2005 for his distinguished service in the army. Post-retirement, he founded “Palle Srujana” in 2005 to promote grassroots creativity and traditional knowledge through quarterly Chinna Shodha Yatras and grassroots innovation initiatives. Through Palle Srujana he has supported over 500 innovators, facilitated numerous recognitions including President’s Awards and international honours, and has developed a model for "Grassroots Entrepreneurship," contributing to a turnover of Rs 18 crores from 2018-2023. His work has impacted over 10 lakh families.
- Priyanka
Praveen Kandregula
Praveen Kandregula is the writer and director of the critically acclaimed Telugu film, Cinema Bandi (2021). He studied Engineering at GITAM University in Visakhapatnam and studied cinematography at Whistling Woods International. His favourites are Mani Ratnam and Stanley Kubrick. He has directed several ad and short films. After a brief stint as a cinematographer, he is currently developing his second feature film Paradha, a female-oriented drama film starring Anupama Parameswaran, Darshana Rajendran, and Sangeetha Krish.
Praveen Pranav
Praveen Pranav has over 25 years of experience in the field of Information Technology. Currently, he serves as a Senior Director at Microsoft. He has a keen interest in Hindi literature and has published six books, including two poetry collections. He is one of the founding members of the Hyderabad-based organization “K se Kavita” dedicated to Hindi/Urdu poetry.
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.
Priya Malik
Priya Malik is an award-winning spoken word poet, storyteller, and actor. She writes and performs in English, Hindi and Urdu. Her work revolves around love and relationships and has been featured at prestigious events like Kommune, UnErase Poetry, Spill Poetry, Tape a Tale, Jashn-E-Rekhta, Sahitya Aaj Tak, Times Literature Festival, and Colomboscope. She has beenfeatured in magazines such as Grazia, Femina, and Cosmopolitan and was on the cover of Cosmopolitan India. Her viral poem “Main 2019 main 1999 dhoond rahi hoon” took us back to the 90s. Her solo show “Ishq hai” is a unique amalgamation of music and poetry. Her two poetry collections are forthcoming.
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.
Priyanka Aelay
Priyanka Aelay is a contemporary visual artist with a PhD in film studies and the visual arts.
Priyanka Srivastava
Priyanka Srivastava is the principal investigator at the Perception and Cognition (PAC) Lab at IIIT Hyderabad. Her team investigates the determinants of human perception and thinking ability and uses emerging technologies like VR/AR, to understand how our brain is wired. Her current work at IIIT Hyderabad is breaking the glass ceiling in gender typecasting and depression. An early interest in human behaviour led her to study cognitive mechanisms, using virtual reality to screen and diagnose mental health issues in youth, linguistic geographies and vulnerable demographics.
Pulagam Chinnarayana
Pulagam Chinnarayana has 25 years of experience in film journalism and authored 11 books on films which fetched him three prestigious AP State Government Nandi Awards. As a lyricist, dialogue writer, and screenwriter, he has worked on popular Telugu films like Yashoda, PaisaVasool and others. Additionally, he has been a PRO in the Telugu film industry for almost 500 films in a career spanning 24+ years.
Puneet Sikka
Puneet Sikka is an actor and media professional who has worked in theatre, TV, and digital commercials, short films, and a feature film. An alumna of Lady Shri Ram College and Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, she started a platform called Arteree for independent artists from all specialities to showcase their talent and connect with other artists and organisations in the industry. She is also the Founder-Director of Indic Quotient Media Foundation, a section-8 company that aims to illuminate the Vedic culture and history via its documentary series on the temples of India. Take No. 2020 (2024) is her debut novel.
PV Akhil Jaikishan
PV Akhil Jaikishan is an architect and interior designer. He is passionate about creating innovative, sustainable spaces that enhance human experiences. Outside of work, he loves being out in nature, enjoys singing and playing music, has a keen interest and experience in theatre production and enjoys reading. He also enjoys motorcycle rides, travelling and uncovering new experiences along the way.
Radha Kumar
Radha Kumar is an Associate professor in the Department of Ancient Indian, History, Culture and Archaeology at St Xavier's College Mumbai. She has a Master’s degree in Sitar and Bharatanatyam and a PhD in Buddhism. She integrates her study of Ancient India and the performing arts. She is a member of academic boards, publishes papers and delivers lectures on Ancient Indian history and performing arts. Currently, she is a faculty coordinator for creating content and delivering courses on the Indian Knowledge System.
Radha Yamini
Radha Yamini is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist and the founder of RadArt. She creates fun, quirky, and sustainable utility items that add a dash of art to your daily grind. She teaches students of all ages at Masterclass Art Academy and co-runs the academy with her father.
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.
Ragini Siruguri
Ragini Siruguri is a visual communication designer. She is passionate about design culture and education, street photography, and music. She spends her time experimenting with the smell of colours, the taste of words and thinking between the lines. Over the last couple of years, she has designed books for Tara Books, a Chennai-based independent publishing collective of artists, writers and designers. These books include Hic!, Where has the Tiger Gone? and Frida Folk.
Year: 2019
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.
Rajdeep Sardesai
Rajdeep Sardesai is an award-winning journalist, author, and TV news presenter. Currently the consulting editor and lead news anchor of the India Today Group, he was the founder-editor of the IBN 18 network and the managing editor of NDTV 24X7 and NDTV India. In his over three-decade career, he has won more than fifty awards for journalistic excellence. His previous books on the Indian elections, 2019: How Modi Won India (2019) and 2014: The Election That Changed India (2014), have been national bestsellers. 2024: The Election That Surprised India (2024) is his latest publication. He is also the author of Democracy’s XI: The Great Indian Cricket Story (2017). Year: 2018, 2025.
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.
Ramesh Karthik Nayak
Ramesh Karthik Nayak is the winner of the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar in Telugu for 2024 for his short story collection, Dhaavlo (2021). He is the first tribal and at 26 the youngest Telugu author to receive this honour. A bilingual poet, short-story writer, editor, and translator from Telangana, he has six books to his credit: five in Telugu and a poetry collection in English. His poems have been published in many journals including Poetry at Sangam, Live Wire, Outlook India, Nether Quarterly, Borderless Journal, The Riveraine, Indian Literature, and Scroll, and have been translated into Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, and Assamese. Speaker @ HLF 2023, 2025
Ranjan A Ranganathan
Ranjan A Ranganathan has been associated with The Little Theatre Hyderabad almost since its formation in the 1990s. An architect and a passionate theatre actor/director, he is an integral part of the Dramatic Circle of Hyderabad (DCH) since 1990, acted in many theatre productions, toured England and Scotland with a group based in Harrow London and directed seven plays for the Secunderabad Club Dramatic Society.
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.
Ravi Menon
Ravi Menon served as General Manager (Training) at the Union Bank of India. He has been a leadership training executive for various corporations and banks. He has published articles in The Hindu, New Indian Express, and The Wire.
Ravi P Padi
Ravi P Padi, a senior civil servant and IRTS officer with South Central Railway, is a passionate freelance writer known for his deep understanding of storytelling and cinematic nuances. He has contributed extensively to Telugu newspapers with insightful articles on Indian cinema, music and cultural heritage.
Rekha Reddy
Rekha Reddy, Sub-Grandmaster of Ohara Ikebana has been teaching, and holding workshops and demonstrations for 30 years. She is President, Ikebana International Rangareddy (P) Chapter #270, has done Ikebana demonstrations the world over and received the ‘Japan Foreign Minister’s Commendation Award’. Her exhibitions have themes like ‘Tokonoma’, ‘Ikebana and Literature’ and the children’s workshops are on ‘Recycle’ and ‘Books’. She has authored Petals and Palette (2010)—a juxtaposition of Ikebana with MF Husain’s paintings, coordinated ‘Blooms & Looms’ on Ikebana and Saris, ‘Mishrana’ on Ikebana and Indian recipes, and presented an online series ‘Lockebana: Ikebana for lockdown times’. She freelances articles on flower arrangement, gardening, travel, and nutrition.
Rishiraj Kulkarni
Rishiraj Kulkarni is a solo independent artist. Beginning with the tabla in 2005, he received incalculable guidance from Ustad Zakir Hussain and Pandit Yogesh Samsi. An alumnus of A.R Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory, and Middlesex University in London, he bonded with instruments such as the handpan, Rav Vast, Maschine, marimba, xylophone, and vibraphone. Since 2012 he has performed with artists from various art forms such as illustrators, painters, thespians, poets, singers, ballet dancers, western classical orchestras, and Indian musicians, performing across Europe and India.
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.
Rohit Naag
Rohit Naag has an MBA from Insead and a Master’s Degree from Duke University and worked in the US, Europe, and Asia. After returning to India, he discovered the wealth of Indian crafts but also noticed that the artisanal products available in the markets often failed to showcase the rich history of these heritage crafts, and were not in sync with contemporary sensibilities. He founded Nolwa to bridge the gap and make heritage crafts relevant in contemporary contexts, through unique design interventions.
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.
Ruby Islam
Ruby Islam is the Head Chef at Manam Chocolate, a pioneering Indian craft chocolate brand. A certified Level 1, 2, and 3 Chocolate Taster by the International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao Tasting (IICCT, USA), she led Manam Chocolate to garner international acclaim and awards. The brand secured 17 awards at the 2023 Academy of Chocolate Awards, UK and was included in TIME’s prestigious list of the "World’s Greatest Places – 2024.” Earlier she worked with ITC Hotels, contributing to the launch of Fabelle, a luxury chocolate brand, and revamping Nutmeg, the hotel chain’s patisserie.
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.
Sagarika Melkote
Sagarika Melkote is an engineer by qualification and profession but prefers the company of books and dogs now! She’s a recreational marathon runner, an avid bird watcher and a wildlife enthusiast. She is also addicted to travelling and a Scrabble maniac.
Sai Kumar
Sai Kumar is a professional drum circle facilitator who has a PhD in musicology. He focuses on healing the mind and body with music. He found Djembe to be a wonderful instrument that connects people through rhythm and joy and is ideal for stress management. The Djembe Circle aims to promote the magic of music to people of all ages. The Djembe Circle is known for drum circles conducted in India and the UK, and its sessions are known for stress management, building an opportunity to explore creativity and self- expression through music.
Sameera Maruvada
Sameera Maruvada is an Instagram cartoonist who goes by the Insta handle, ‘Salt and Sambar.’ Her art also works as social commentary and her visual storytelling has many fans. She is also an entrepreneur.
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.
Sandhya Gokhale
Sandhya Gokhale bridges law, art, and activism. Her professional journey as a civil rights advocate in the USA was complemented by her enduring passions for Indian classical music and creative writing. She has authored eight acclaimed feature film scripts of varied themes and powerful women-centric narratives. Paheli (The Riddle) based on Vijaydan ji Detha’s epic story Duvidha was chosen as the Indian official entry to the Oscar Awards in 2006. Directing Bhinna Shadja (Note Extraordinaire), a documentary celebrating Padma Vibhushan Kishori Amonkar’s legacy, remains her most cherished and significant accomplishment. She and her husband Amol Palekar share a commitment to social responsibility striving for a better world through collective action.
Sanidhya Verma
Sanidhya Verma, a 9 year-old fourth grader, has published three books of fiction—Sam's Dino World the Dino Factia (2023), My Underwater Adventure (2024), A Day with Dinosaurs (2024). He won the Young Author Award from Opus Coliseum group for Sam's Dino World, and an entry in the International Book of Records for the subsequent two books.
Sapna Desai
Sapna Desai holds a PhD in epidemiology and population health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and an MS from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is a Senior Fellow at the Population Council Institute, New Delhi. Her public health research and practice, over twenty years, has focussed on women’s health and well-being; community-based interventions; and health systems on the path to universal health coverage. She is the Principal Investigator for ‘SAHELI’, the Study and Action on Hysterectomy: Evidence on women’s health through the Life Course in India.
Sarah Hyder Iqbal
Sarah Hyder Iqbal is an independent researcher, practitioner, and trainer with a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford and postdoctoral research at The Scripps Research Institute, USA. She champions creative and participatory approaches to connect science with society, co-founded Superheroes Against Superbugs to tackle Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), and developed and contributed to innovative projects like Planet DIVOC-91, The Explorer Series, Arting Health for Impact, and the India Science Festival. Her research focuses on science communication and promoting fair, meaningful knowledge exchange between researchers and communities. She led innovative programmes blending science, policy, arts, and community action to address societal challenges through collective problem-solving.
Sarala Mahidhara
Sarala Mahidhara, an alumna of the University of Hyderabad retired as the Head of the Department of Languages, Bhavan’s Vivekananda College, Sainikpuri. She taught English language, literature, soft skills, business communication to undergraduate and graduate students. Deeply interested in theatre, films, and culture, she has staged numerous plays for the public with her students. She has been associated with the Little Theatre, Hyderabad, since its inception.
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.
Seema Azharuddin
Seema Azharuddin is a distinguished Leadership Communication Expert, published writer, producer and actor in international classic theatre and film, President of Safe Water NGO, TED Speaker, and a prominent advocate for social change. She has been the spokesperson for the Indian diaspora in President Joe Biden's Presidency. With over 30 years of experience, she integrates leadership communication, advocacy, and the performing arts in her work. As the President of Safe Water NGO, she has advanced global access to clean water, positively impacting over 1 million people. Her coaching methodology prioritizes self-awareness, authenticity, empathy, and storytelling to cultivate effective leadership.
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.
Sesha Sindhu Rao
Sesha Sindhu Rao started her career as an assistant director over a decade ago and is now a director, writer, and producer. She explores diverse genres and pushes the boundaries in her pursuit to tell compelling stories and make impactful films. She is the writer-director of Choosi Choodangaane (2020) and is currently working on her next film Kanyasulkam.
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.
Shabnam Virmani
Shabnam Virmani’s engagement with the philosophy of Kabir and other mystic and Sufi poets since 2002 has resulted in a series of performances, award-winning films, books, urban festivals, rural yatras, a digital archive (Ajab Shahar), and a school programme (Shabad Shaala). Her film Kabira Khada Bazaar Mein won the Special Jury Prize at the National Film Awards 2011. She has published two books I Saw Myself: Journeys with Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai (2019) and Burn Down Your House: Provocations from Kabir (2024). The Kabir Project was given the Sadbhavana Award in 2016 by Shri Morari Bapu and Vishwagram Trust, Gujarat for contributing to inter-faith understanding.
Shaji Vikraman
Shaji Vikraman is a journalist with more than three decades of experience and served as the National Editor of The Economic Times and Resident Editor of The Indian Express in Mumbai. He also had a stint with the Hindu Business Line and reported and wrote on fiscal and monetary policies and the financial markets while based in New Delhi and Mumbai.
Shankar Melkote
Shankar Melkote, founder of The Little Theatre, Hyderabad, loves books. He does theatre, feature films, and dramatized readings and has retired after long stints in industry and business organisations.
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. Sheena Patel's participation at HLF 2025 is supported by CLF-IDP-British Council grant.
Shiv Bansal
Shiv Bansal is a writer by profession and a storyteller at heart. He enjoys travelling and exploring, as he believes there's a story to unearth wherever we go. He has worked as a content writer and scriptwriter and has also written for short films, advertisements, and social media copy. He also runs OctaVibe Entertainment, a company dedicated to organizing a diverse range of events for various occasions. Additionally, he has been instrumental in conducting various workshops and writing sessions as one of the organizers at Write Club Hyderabad.
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.
Shrikant R. Bharadwaj
Shrikant R. Bharadwaj is Scientist & Network Associate Director, Brien Holden Institute of Optometry and Vision Sciences, LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad. he runs the Visual Optics research laboratory at LVPEI with the overall agenda of understanding how the eye's optics influence spatial and depth vision. He uses a combination of experimental, behavioural and computational techniques to address this research agenda.
Siddharth
Siddharth is an actor, producer, screenwriter, and playback singer. An MBA from SP Jain Institute of Management, he started his journey in cinema as an Associate Director to the legendary Mani Ratnam. He has been a lead actor for over two decades and has had industry-defining successes in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi Cinema. Chithha (2023), produced under his Etaki Entertainment banner, was a box-office success and has won many prestigious Best Picture and Best Actor awards. He will be seen in two Tamil films in 2025 and is currently filming for a Tamil film and a new Hindi web series for Netflix.
Sita Reddy
Sita Reddy is a writer, scholar, and curator. She was a Visiting professor at the University of Hyderabad and a fellow at the Smithsonian and Sangam House. Her recent nonfiction writing is on the fate of botanical art in global archives through her favourite writing form: the essay. In 2025, her pioneering MARG volume of essays, Weight of a Petal: Ars Botanica (that first launched at HLF!) will be republished in book format in collaboration with Kew Publishing.
Somdatta Karak
Somdatta Karak is a science communicator. She works to make science available to young people by creating engaging content and appropriate platforms. She leads science communication and public outreach at CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad. She co-leads Superheroes against Superbugs, an educational and public engagement initiative on antimicrobial resistance, a global health crisis. She also co-leads SciCity-Hyderbad, an initiative to bring science to the cultural conversations of Hyderabad. Her primary training is in life sciences with a PhD in Sensory and Motor Neuroscience, and she is an ex-Teach for India fellow.
Sonam Kalra
Sonam Kalra is a musician with a message. A celebrated, award-winning singer and composer, she has performed in 30 countries and shared the stage with legends like Sir Bob Geldof and Abida Parveen. A member of the Grammy Recording Academy, she has received numerous accolades, including the Femina ‘Woman of Worth’ Award, Indian Express Devi Award, FICCI YFLO ‘Young Women Achiever’ award, the Global WIN Award, and the Naushad Samman. She leverages her voice to raise awareness about human rights, child abuse, women's rights, animal rights, and education. Her philanthropic efforts have also supported cancer charities and children’s education initiatives.
Sonam Samat
Sonam Samat completed her undergraduate degree at BITS Pilani and moved to the US to pursue her PhD in Behavioural Sciences. She then worked in California as a UX Researcher at Meta and Google. After spending 13 years in the US, she returned to Hyderabad in 2024 to start her own company - Flavour Lab - on a mission to teach school-aged children how to cook delicious, nutritious, and sustainable foods, through games, activities and hands-on cooking classes.
Soni Wadhwa
Soni Wadhwa currently teaches Literature Studies at SRM University, Andhra Pradesh. Her digital archive of Sindhi books, PG Sindhi Library, is dedicated to Sindhi literature published in India. Her project on Sindhi libraries in India is funded by IIT Indore. She has also received a grant from George Mason University for her research on post-Partition Sindhi literature in India.
Soumya Swaminathan
Soumya Swaminathan, a paediatrician and global expert in tuberculosis and HIV research, served as WHO’s Chief Scientist (2019-2022) and as Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) (2015-2017). Currently, she is the Chairperson at the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), and the Principal Advisor to the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP), Government of India. She received her academic training in India, the UK, and the USA, and has published over 480 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. Her current focus is on addressing the health impacts of climate change, especially on women and children. At The Wheel of Research (2024) is her biography.
Sreenivas Mangipudi
Sreenivas Mangipudi held senior business roles, inspiring teams to action (and occasionally untangling the chaos they created). Along the way, he discovered his love for communication extended to the four-legged kind. He has trained his German Shepherd to excel in Protection Sports Association trials (no small feat, as dogs have their own opinions) and raised a Rottweiler who did therapy work at Tihar’s Juvenile Home. His passion lies in building connections—whether with humans, canines, or anyone who enjoys stories about both.
Sreenivasan Jain
Sreenivasan Jain is an award-winning broadcast journalist, columnist and author. In a career spanning three decades, he has investigated political corruption and reported on wars, insurgencies, majoritarianism, and democratic struggles. Award highlights include the Journalist of the Year at the Ramnath Goenka Awards and at the Red Ink Awards, the World Media Summit Awards in Beijing, and the World Silver Medal at the New York Festivals for his report on farm suicides in one of India’s wealthiest states. He is the co-author of Love Jihad and Other Fictions: Simple Truths to Counter Viral Falsehoods (2024).
Sridala Swami
Sridala Swami is the author of three collections of poetry, including the Run for the Shadows(2021, reprinted 2022). She has served on the Jury of the Montreal International Poetry Prize (2019) and the Rayaprol Poetry Prize (2023).
Speaker @ HLF 2023, 2022
Srinivas Reddy
Srinivas Reddy is a scholar, translator, and classical sitarist. His publications include Raya: Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara (2020), Kalidasa’s Meghadutam: The Cloud Message (2017), Kalidasa’s Malavikagnimitram: The Dancer and the King (2014), Krishnadevaraya’s Amuktamalyada: The Giver of the Worn Garland (2010). Illuminating Worlds: An Anthology of Classical Indian Literature (2024) is his latest publication. He is currently on a Fulbright-Nehru fellowship at IIT Gandhinagar. Year: 2017, 2015, 2025.
Star Papaya
Star Papaya is founded by Echo Han and Deepti Chadda, long-time friends and mothers who are passionate about safeguarding the limitless imagination of our children, in a world filled with noise and distraction. Echo, originally from Taiwan, has worked in education institutions and technology companies in China, London and Singapore for the last 20 years. Deepti is an entrepreneur with professional experience across Asia and Europe with an MBA from INSEAD, and loves creative pursuits and keeping fit.
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).
SubbaRao M Gavaravarapu
SubbaRao M Gavaravarapu is a scientist at the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad and heads the Nutrition Information, Communication and Health Education unit. He teaches nutrition communication and sits on expert committees of regulatory bodies like the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), and the Bureau of Indian Standards. He has a PhD in Health Communication from the University of Hyderabad. He is a Principal Investigator for NIN’s Nutritional Atlas of India.
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.
Subhatul Marjan
Subhatul Marjan is an English language consultant and trainer, and poet. Her verse explores themes of feminism, self-realization, and defiance.
Suchitra Shenoy
Suchitra Shenoy is a non-fiction writer. Her publications include Mindful Parenting (2016) and the co-authored Infinite Vision (2011) on the Aravind eye-care system. Both books made Amazon’s top lists. Infinite Vision was a finalist for the George Terry Award in the US and translated into Japanese, Portuguese, and Tamil. Her third book is forthcoming. She holds degrees from Brandeis University and the London School of Economics. She also teaches in the Buddhist tradition.
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.
Sujoy Sarkar
Sujoy Sarkar is currently working at Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysuru. Since March 2016, he has also been Officer-in-charge for the “Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages” (SPPEL) at CIIL. His MPhil was on “Medium of Instruction in Primary Education for the Toto Tribe”. His doctoral dissertation was titled “Linguistic Human Rights and Language Discrimination: A Critical Study of Language in Education Policy for Tribal Education in India”.
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.
Sumana Kasturi
Sumana Kasturi is a writer and educator specialising in feminist media studies and children’s communication. Her work has appeared in the Wire, India Forum and other academic and popular publications. She is the author of Gender, Citizenship, and Identity: Writing the Everyday (2019) and co- editor of Childscape, Mediascape: Children and Media in India (2023).
Sumanaspati
Sumanaspati has been a radio broadcaster, writer, promoter of serious documentary cinema, photographer, and now a farmer. During the last decade and more, he has spent much of his professional and personal life in Adilabad, documenting and showcasing in various formats, the Adivasi and folk cultures of north Telangana from Adilabad to Mancheriyal. He has so far held two exhibitions of his photographs.
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.
Sunita Reddy
Dr Sunita Reddy has over two decades of experience teaching English at the undergraduate level. Her career is interspersed with foundational roles at non-profits in Hyderabad and elsewhere in Andhra Pradesh. Being an avid reader and actively engaged in social justice causes, she has used her journalistic credentials to interview luminaries from all walks of life for state and local television channels. She is also on the advisory board of Manthan, an organization that promotes high-quality discussion and debate involving intellectuals from across the globe.
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.
Sushmita Banerji
Sushmita Banerji is an Assistant Professor of Humanities at IIIT Hyderabad, India. She teaches courses on cinema, literature, and gender. Her primary work is on the cinema of Ritwik Ghatak and the cinema of the Partition of India. She is interested in critical theories of film and literature, partition and trauma studies, Indian popular cinema, new technologies, and visual cultures outside of cinema.
Swathi Kantamani
Swathi Kantamani heads Natco Trust (the CSR arm of Natco Pharma Limited) which runs numerous education and health projects across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. She has a Master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Oxford, and a Masters in Philosophy from The University of Hyderabad. Before transitioning to the field of CSR, she was in publishing, serving as an editor for books on social sciences and children’s literature.
Syed Bashaar
Syed Bashaar is known for his animated videos ranging from Harry Potter to Avengers. He has also been doing stand-up comedy for the last three years. Despite being described as 'light-hearted' and 'humorous', his books draw on deeper social questions and his stories feel as real as the morning newspaper.
Tanmay Maheshwari
Tanmay Maheshwari is an avid singer, and songwriter who has been performing on stage since he was 16. Two of his singles “Chal Chalein” and “Kafiraana” have been released on all the streaming platforms, and a collaborative project with Unerase Poetry featuring his original ‘Fikar’ has crossed over a million views. He has performed live sets in several cities in India. He has shared the stage with indie artists like Ankur Tewari, Akanksha Seti, Ramil Ganjoo, Akash Chopra and others. He is now an integral part of Priya Malik’s show “Ishq Hai”.
Tanveer Alam
Tanveer Alam is trained in kathak with Sudeshna Maulik and guru Sandhya Desai. He is a 2019 graduate of Western contemporary dance from the Dance Arts Institute of Canada (DAI). He presented his work as a performer, choreographer, and curator at several prestigious events in India, Canada, and the US, among others. In the 2023-24 season, he choreographed Moving for the second-year students of DAI, performed solo at the Vilaya Festival (Pittsburgh), The New York Kathak Festival (New York), and Navatman Black Box Baithak (New York). He was a commissioned choreographer for the Sampradaya Dance Creation’s 35th anniversary work, ‘Salaam Rahman’, featuring AR Rahman’s music.
Tej
Tej is a screenwriter and aspiring director with a deep love for storytelling. By day, he works as an Operations Manager at Amazon India, and by night, he dives into the world of films. With experience in feature films, ad films, and short films, he is gearing up to pursue his creative dreams full-time. A binge- watcher with no language barriers, he enjoys listening to podcasts and stories. In his free time, he loves dancing, travelling, and exploring new places. An active member of Write Club Hyderabad’s organizing team, he conducts writing sessions and workshops.
Tejah Balantrapu
Tejah Balantrapu is a member of the Nature Lovers of Hyderabad, a tree and nature appreciation community. He is part of the Hyderabad Literary Festival and is the Associate Director of Science, Health Data, and Storytelling at the L V Prasad Eye Institute.
Uma Damodar Sridhar
Uma Damodar Sridhar is currently Head, Department of French and Francophone Studies at the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad and teaches French language, linguistics, teaching methodology, and translation. She worked at the Alliance Française of Hyderabad as a teacher and translator (1988-2000) and as the in-charge of the translation bureau and deputy director (2005-2009). She has published articles and translations in national and international journals and is a co-translator of an anthology of poems Butterfly Caresses (2015). She has been associated with the Hyderabad Literary Festival since 2012.
Unnati Ved
Unnati Ved is the founder of Eager Readers, which has reading and activity clubs, writing clubs, drama clubs, and current affairs clubs for ages 5 to 16 years. She has completed her Trinity DIP TESOL, a Level 7 certification in ELT, and an LTCL and an ATCL in Communication Skills and Speech and Drama from Trinity College London. She is part of the academic support team of Trinity College London India. An international conference speaker and a self-confessed bibliophile, she started a book club for adults called “The Lit People.”
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.
Vaibhav Kumar Modi
Vaibhav Kumar Modi’s passion for building inclusive communities fuels his diverse endeavours. He is a think entrepreneur, kathak dancer, LGBTQIA+ advocate, actor, and visionary behind India’s premier experience curation house, Dark Vibe Society (DVS) as Founder-Director.
Vamshi Bhasham
Vamshi Bhasham is a creative professional at Lollypop Design Studio, who blends UX design with photography, filmmaking, and storytelling. Since 2017, he has collaborated with production houses like Iclickyou and 9th Ray Studios, crafting impactful projects such as "Women Empowerment with BNI" and "A Day at a Bazaar." His initiative, "Unusual Vision 365," showcases macro photography's beauty, while his podcast, "Draw With Us," fosters creative discussions through live drawing. As an organizer of the 24-Hour Project, he raises awareness about social causes and teaches photography through NGOs like Aikarth and 6to16.
Vardhini Amin
Vardhini Amin is a leading lifestyle and portrait photographer with over a decade of experience, capturing stories through her lens. However, her true calling lies in storytelling. With her debut book, The Forestborns (2024), she attempts to connect readers to nature through enchanting fantasy worlds.
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).
Vijay Kumar T
Festival Director
Vijay Kumar T
Festival DirectorVijay Kumar T currently teaches literatures in English at BITS Pilani, Hyderabad. His publications include critical studies and translations from Telugu. He is TEDx speaker and a Founder Editor of Muse India: the literary ejournal. He is a founder-director of the Hyderabad Literary Festival.
Vijay Padaki
Vijay Padaki is a Theatre Educator based in Bangalore. He has worn several hats for most of his life with equal facility. Among them, two stand out. He has been active in the theatre for over sixty years. He has been a management professional for over forty-five years and received the ASSITEJ International’s Lifetime Achievement Award in May 2024.
Vijay Raman
Vijay Raman IPS, author of Did I Really Do All This? Memoirs of a Gentleman Cop Who Dared to be Different (2024), recorded his unique and varied experiences in Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, SPG, BSF, CRPF, and ITBP. In his 35-year career, he handled the Security for four Prime Ministers, led anti-dacoity operations in Chambal, anti-terrorist operations in J & K, anti-Naxalite operation, and investigated the Vyapam scam. He won several honours including the President’s Police Medal for gallantry, the President’s Police Medal for Meritorious Services, and the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service.
Vijaya
Vijaya is the co-founder of KOSHA.ai, a deep-tech startup working on traceability and supply chain management in crafts and textile sectors. He holds a management degree from XLRI, Jamshedpur and has over 16 years of experience in the fashion sector and management consulting. Before starting KOSHA.ai, he advised several Indian and foreign corporates on business strategy and planning, market assessment, and market entry strategy. He also advised government organizations and industry bodies on policy, implementation, and impact assessment. He has conducted workshops/guest lectures organised by IIM Bangalore (NSRCEL), Deshpande Start-ups, Radboud University (Netherlands), TEXPROCIL, CCAMP, Jain University, AICTE among others on entrepreneurship and technology.
Vikas Prakash Joshi
Vikas Prakash Joshi is a writer by nature, not compulsion, ambition, or choice. He is an award-winning and internationally published author, with his first book My Name is Cinnamon (2022) being translated into six major languages. Since childhood, his favourite sentences have been “Come, hear my story” and “Come, tell me a story.” Reading books from different countries as a child, inspired him to create characters who looked more like him.
Vinod Pavarala
Vinod Pavarala is Senior Professor of Communication and UNESCO Chair on Community Media at the University of Hyderabad. His research and teaching have been in the areas of communication for social change, community media, and media and democracy. His two-decades-long work on community radio has been able to make the case for a pluralistic media landscape in which unheard voices could find a space, something that is essential for any democratic society. He has been a visiting fellow at several institutions, including Princeton University, Duke University, Loughborough University, University of Queensland, and Ashoka University.
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.”
Yaga Venugopal Reddy
Yaga Venugopal Reddy is an IAS officer who served as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (2003–2008), and is Chairman of the 14th Finance Commission. He is credited with saving the Indian banking system from the sub-prime and liquidity crisis of 2008. He was Executive Director, International Monetary Fund; Chairman, Bank for International Settlements, Asian Consultative Council (ACC); Chairperson of SAARC FINANCE; Secretary (Banking) in the Union Ministry of Finance, and Principal Secretary to the Government of Andhra Pradesh. His publications include India and The Global Financial Crisis: Managing Money and Finance (2009), and its sequel Global Crisis, Recession and Uneven Recovery (2011). In 2010, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan.
Year: 2017
Yunus Lasania
Yunus Lasania is a journalist with over a decade experience in reporting. He is associated with The News Minute and also writes for other news organisations. He has previously worked for Mint (Hindustan Times), The Hindu, The New Indian Express, and Siasat.com. He also runs the Instagram page ‘The Hyderabad History Project’, and is also the host of ‘Beyond Charminar’, a podcast series on the history of Hyderabad, focusing on the lesser-known aspects of his city.
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.
