Peter Cat Recording Co

Vibe to the music of Peter Cat Recording Co. at Spoken!

Formed in New Delhi around 2010 by the crooner Suryakant Sawhney, PCRC (@petercatrecordingco) is a group that’s mutated over time, shedding members and accruing more, always evolving musically with each album.

Rudy Francisco

Come fall in love with Rudy Francisco at Spoken!

Rudy Francisco (@rudyfrancisco) is one of the most recognizable names in Spoken Word Poetry. As an artist, Rudy Francisco is an amalgamation of social critique, introspection, honesty and humor. He uses personal narratives to discuss the politics of race, class, gender and religion while simultaneously pinpointing and reinforcing the interconnected nature of human existence.

Rudy is also the co-host of the largest poetry venue in San Diego, competes in domestic and international poetry slam competitions and had the honor of being nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Ultimately, Rudy’s goal is to continue to assist others in harnessing their creativity while cultivating his own.

Shane Koyczan

Get lost in a world of words with Shane Koyczan.

Canadian poet and spoken-word artist Shane Koyczan (@shane_koyczan) uses personal narrative to engage themes of social justice, mental health, and love.

Winner of both the individual champion title at the National Poetry Slam and the Canadian Spoken Word Olympics, Koyczan performed his poem “We Are More” at the opening ceremonies for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Millions of people have viewed the animated video of his anti-bullying poem, “To This Day,” on YouTube, and Koyczan has given a TED Talk on bullying and created a free anti-bullying smartphone application as part of his To This Day Project. For his social justice work, Koyczan received a BC Civil Liberties Award for the Arts.

The Local Train

Sing your heart out with The Local Train at Spoken!

The Local Train (@thelocaltrain) is a Hindi Rock Band from New Delhi who write and produce their own music. Their second album ‘Vaaqif’ was released in January 2018 and was one of the most streamed independent albums on Apple Music India.

Come watch The Local Train’s first performance of 2020 at Spoken!

Amandeep Singh with Karan Chitra Deshmukh

Explore the different dimensions of love with Amandeep and Karan at Spoken!

Amandeep Singh (@amandeep.khayal) and Karan Chitra Deshmukh (@karanchitradeshmukh) are all set to take over the stage and win your hearts at Spoken Fest. Through his heartfelt stories and mesmerizing poems — often about love and life — Amandeep reached over 20 million people online.

Beside assisting with Coke Studio & MTV Unplugged, Karan has worked with the likes of AR Rahman, Salim-Sulaiman, Benny dayal, Papon & Jason Derulo. He’s currently a band member for- Karsh Kale, Alif, Rhapsody and Nihira Joshi.

Amol Parashar

Come hear what’s next with Amol Parashar at Spoken!

One of India’s most promising young actors, Amol Parashar (@amolparashar) is the poster boy of versatility. He charmed his way into young India’s hearts with his performances across theatre, TVCs, films and web series.

He will next be seen in Balaji Motion Pictures’ feature film ‘Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitaare’ directed by Alankrita Shrivastava, opposite acclaimed actress Konkona Sensharma. The film received high critical acclaim at its premiere at Busan International Film Festival.

But those are all things one can Google about Amol. What you get in person is someone as humble, witty and approachable as he appears on screen.

Anshu Mor

Laugh along with Anshu Mor at Spoken!

Anshu Mor, (@anshu_mor) now a stand up comedian, an entrepreneur and a storyteller, left his glorious corporate life with just an idea of starting an entertainment content company and converted that idea into reality.

His versatility with spoken word will crack you up and warm your heart all at once.

Gaurav Tripathi

Be stirred by the poetry of Gaurav Tripathi at Spoken!

Gaurav Tripathi (@gaathiwrites) is a Hindi spoken word poet and storyteller. His writing leaves you introspecting, much like his famous piece ‘Lord Ram In Court’ does.

Hari Sankar

Make friends with Hari Sankar at Spoken!

Hari Sankar (@harisankerps) is a powerhouse who graduated in Bcom(H) from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University, co-founded Beatmap (@beatmapin) and found love for performing arts along the way.

Though he kick-started as an entrepreneur, he eventually started juggling that with his new found flair for storytelling. On further exploring his talents, Hari became a TedX speaker, a vivid storyteller and an excellent corporate trainer. He has performed all around the country and captivated hundreds of people with his stories.

When not using any of these talents, he uses his unusual knack of uploading a combination of lame jokes and eating watermelons on Instagram.

Jasmine Khurana

Feel the power of words with Jasmine Khurana at Spoken!

Jasmine Khurana (@jrimmykhurana) went from being a geeky economics professor (and later administrator) to now being a writer and spoken word artist. On the other side of 40, she discovered her humorous side while writing and performing!

Yahya Bootwala with Justh

Dive into poetry with Yahya Bootwala & Justh at Spoken!

Also known as the lover boy in the poetry circuit, Yahya Bootwala (@yahyabootwala) rose to fame after his piece “Shayad Woh Pyaar Nahi Hai” went viral on the internet. With 10M+ views, he is the most viewed Spoken Word Artist in Asia. He has also given two TEDx Talks.

Justh (@i.justh) is a singer-songwriter creating original Hindi songs and is working on his first album. His interest in melodies and poetry has led him to the mystical territory of music, he is creating unique and fresh melodies with poetic lyricism as its backbone. His music comes from a space of deep rooted soul emotions. He is a performer unlike any and someone who really values his audience and makes sure they get an absolutely unique experience that stays with them for a long time.

Kausar Munir

Erupt with joy at Kausar Munir’s delightful words at Spoken!

A contemporary lyric, dialogue and screenplay-writer, Kausar Munir (@kausarmunir) first made impressions with Falak Tak in Tashan. Since then, she’s scripted lyrics for scores of films such as Ishqzaade, Youngistan and Dear Zindagi and penned dialogues for Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Begum Jaan among others.

Mahitha

Explore bittersweet truths of life with Mahitha at Spoken!

Mahitha (@lovedreamsandcoffee) swapped her life in Chennai as an etiquette columnist & trainer featured in a ‘top 10 in the country’ list, for one in Mumbai, hanging about backstage at rehearsals, making tea and checking to-do lists, when, luck by chance, she landed her first screen role in Sacred Games, playing Dr.Ponnuthai nuclear scientist, aka the Bomb Aunty.

Mom, grandmom, actor, accidental writer and storyteller who laughs that if you know her, chances are you will find its way into her pieces, she stands before you, happy not to be boxed into a definition of what she is or is not.

Megha Rao

Come experience love with Megha Rao at Spoken!

Megha Rao (@_megharao) is a confessional poet, a surrealist artist and the author of her latest book ‘Music To Flame Lilies’

When she’s not cafe hopping in Mumbai with a bunch of Sylvia Plath poems or biographies on Frida Kahlo in her bag, she’s mostly curled up on her grandfather’s easy chair with her cats back home in Trivandrum, Kerala.

Her pieces are written to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed.

Mithila Palkar

Get to know Mithila Palkar like no one before at Spoken!

This 26-year-old Mumbai girl has taken the web by storm, @mipalkarofficial is the new age internet superstar. Her career kick-started with Filter Copy’s ‘News Darshan’, and was followed by a couple of sketches on the same channel.

She bagged her 1st full length web series titled ‘Girl in the City’, where she plays a girl who is new in Mumbai, on UTV network’s Bindass channel. They have successfully completed the 1st and 2nd Season.

She has set her foot in Bollywood with “Karwaan” opposite Irfan Khan.
Her latest release is “Chopsticks” with Abhay Deol and “Little Things 3” on Netflix.

Priya Malik

Snap along to the words of Priya Malik at Spoken!

Priya Malik (@priyasometimes) is a lot of things! An actress, a columnist, a TV personality, a teacher, a spoken word poet, a storyteller but most importantly a writer/performer whose recent viral work “2019 mein 1999” is a testimony to her distinct voice. She has recently pressed pause, rewind and reset in her artistic direction and we can’t wait to see what she has in store for us this year.

Rupesh Tillu

Unleash your inner clown with Rupesh Tillu at Spoken!

Rupesh Tillu (@mr_funnybone_tickler) is an Mumbai-born actor, director and independent film-maker. He holds an MFA in Physical Comedy from The National School of Dramatic Arts, Sweden.

Rupesh’s extensive career has touched Santosh Sivan’s Boichek, Claire McCarthy’s Ophelia and he was recently seen in Lakhon Mein Ek Season 2 on Amazon Prime. In the theatre world, Rupesh has worked with several companies in India and Sweden. He has also done expeditions with Clowns without Borders to Moldova, Palestine, Israel, India, Jordan, Nepal, Bhutan and Egypt.

Winner of several awards from Stockholm Fringe, Prague Fringe, Rome Fringe, Amsterdam Fringe and Clown Without Borders; Rupesh uses his art to pick at the incongruencies of life and helping us accept them through laughter.

Sabika Abbas Naqvi

Feel the fiery words of Sabika Abbas Naqvi at Spoken!

Sabika (@sabikaabbasnaqvi, @boltiaurat) is a performative poet and the Founder of Sar-e-Rahguzar: Poetry on the Streets.

She is a story teller, translator, alternative educator and campaigner. With two of her books set to release, she is soon going be an author as well. Her work revolves around intersectionality, gender, minority, LGBTQI+ , and other progressive rights. She writes in Urdu, Hindi, Hindustani, and English. She believes in subverting public spaces with her poetry and story-telling.

As an educator she helps create inclusive school curriculum based on social and emotional learning. She is an INK Fellow (2019) and currently works as a campaigner.

Sainee Raj

Lose yourself in the poetry of Sainee Raj at Spoken!

Sainee Raj (@cacklerraj) is an Indian actor-writer who has written the award winning short film named Int. Cafe – Night, and The Last Day respectively. Her claim to fame was a 90s TV show called Shaka Laka Boom Boom. She grew up to act in a bunch of shows and sketches ranging from AIB to Filtercopy. She finds poetic justice in words, and is obsessed with everything Gulzar saab and Urdu.

You will often find her sniffing through books in libraries, wishing she’d read more. She’s here to leave her story behind. Do give it a listen!

Samar Mehdi

Free your souls with Samar Mehdi at Spoken!

Coming from a conventional, small-town family, Samar (@samarmehdi) broke the pattern early in terms of exhibiting musical ambits and had his heart set on music quite stubbornly.

Writing music from the age of 16, Samar co-founded the bands Acrimony (2010) and Ferryclock Yarns (2013). His latest project, Reinterpretations, are his way of rewriting and rerouting music in the realm of more expressive fingerstyle, which has brought finality to his quest for self-sufficiency and, in his own words, “Brought a sense of magic back to music for me again”.

Shantanu Anand

Open your heart to Shantanu Anand at Spoken!

Shantanu Anand (@shantanuanandpoetry) is the co-founder of Airplane Poetry Movement. He considers it a full-time job to make people fall in love with poetry. They have performed for audiences all over the country, and are currently curating a collection of poems and essays, which will be published in 2020.

Also, community manager at @kommuneity, Shantanu takes his artsy nature in his stride and experiments with the Hindi language as much as he can.

Shruti Vyas

Experience truth with Shruti Vyas at Spoken!

Shruti Vyas (@shrutivyas1) is an actor and artist, who loves learning anything that is artistic – acting, singing, dancing, cooking and writing. What she loves most about writing is that it enables her to say all those things that she’s not otherwise allowed to say. Because sometimes life doesn’t give you the courage to express yourself freely, but art always does.

Slight Diversion

Let Slight Diversion soothe your heart at Spoken.

Slight Diversion (@slight_diversion) seem to write intensely personal songs that speak to the complexities of the human heart.
In joy, in time, in close up.

The spare guitar work and haunting backing vocals support a lyrical structure and delivery that springs from that impulse when emotion and perspective are distilled into music.

Their work shuns the pop vocabulary and generalities and speaks to that midnight moment when only truth remains.
These are songs about time, honesty and hope.
These are songs for grown ups.

Spitfire

Experience Asli Hip Hop with Spitfire at Spoken!

Swaddled in his grandmother’s frosting coated love since childhood, Nitin Mishra (@ntnmshra) was not taught to stand up to hood bullies violently, which is probably why he took to the might of the word so easily. Spitfire’s lyrical fluency and way with words became apparent with his contribution to Gully Boy, for which he wrote most of the protagonist, Murad’s rap battles and his single for the feature, ‘Asli Hip-Hop’ was used to introduce a Bollywood dependent audience to the real value of Spitfire’s beloved genre.

His debut EP ‘Paathshala’ is a testament to this vision and creative dexterity. An EP with a profound lyrical quality of poetry that is timeless, is why Spitfire is fondly known to those around him as Little Ghalib: a poet whose words penetrate through you, surpassing time and trend.

Sriti Jha

Immerse yourself in the funny world of Sriti Jha at Spoken!

In the last 12 years, Sriti Jha has entertained millions of people with her performances on television shows like India’s Dhoom Machao Dhoom and Kumkum Bhagya. She has won various awards like Aadhi Aabadi Women Achiever Award, 6th GR8 Women Awards, Zee Rishtey Awards, Indian Telly Awards, Bollystar Vazana Awards (indonesia) and others.

Armed with a newfound love of poetry, Sriti is set to warm your hearts at Spoken.

Sumit Roy

Ask questions that matter with Sumit Roy at Spoken!

Sumit Roy (@sumitroystudio) is a tri-lingual rapper and a visual artist based out of New Delhi.

He confronts the reality of India with his art by juxtaposing an aspirational visual universe and the cult of global stardom with everyday sights from his immediate locale.

The same approach extends to his music, where he uses the subversive, trans-continental form of hip hop to articulate ongoing contemporary political anxieties in India.

As an artist working with sound, text and image, he is able to tap into a range of sensibilities while defying them all.

Taba Chake

Move to the music of Taba Chake at Spoken!

A dreamer from a small town called Doimukh in Arunachal Pradesh, Taba Chake’s music has made waves around the country.

Having grown up in a Nyishi tribal family; his music inspired by tribal folklore, birds and nature played with his signature finger-style guitar sound have settled into people’s hearts with quite a degree of permanence.

Varun Grover

Question authority with Varun Grover at Spoken!

Varun Grover is a standup comedian, lyricist, short fiction, and screenplay writer based in Mumbai, India.

From his humble beginnings on The Great Indian Comedy Show, Varun (@vidushak) has gone on to become a voice of reason in the cultural landscape.

Through his words, Varun has not only birthed iconic lyrics of Gangs of Wasseypur, the screenplay for Masaan, children’s short stories for ‘Paper Chor’ and cutting satire for the live performance Aisi Taisi Democracy; he has led the writers’ room for Netflix’s first fiction series in India – Sacred Games (2018) but, more importantly, has remained true to his social commentary.

Vipul Rikhi

Find joy with Vipul Rikhi at Spoken!

Vipul Rikhi (@canticlesofecstasy) is a singer, poet, fiction writer and much more. He’s been immersed in the oral traditions of Kabir and other Bhakti and Sufi poets for over a decade. His work with Kabir Project has involved writing, translations, research, curations and the creation of a vast digital archive called ‘Ajab Shahar’. In the course of these magical journeys, he developed a deep love for singing mystic poetry in the folk music traditions and now performs widely.

Gopal Datt

Soothe your souls with the words of Gopal Datt at Spoken!

Gopal Datt (@gopaldatt) started his career as a theatre artist in 1989. He got his first break in Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai(2001). After that he played roles in Tere Naam, Samrat and Co. as Chakradhar Pandey and also wrote the soundtrack writer for the same.

He was part of a national award winning film, “Filmistaan”. He has been actively involved with TVF since a very long time and is known for his work on web series like TVF Pitchers (2015), TVF Bachelors (2016), Official Chukyagiri (2016), Official CEOgiri(2018), Delhi Crime (2019) and The Office(2019).

Mariyam Saigal

Walk along the paths of poetry with Mariyam Saigal at Spoken!

Mariyam Saigal (@mariyamsaigal) works as a Content Writer for YourQuote. She was a performer at TEDx and was published in the first print anthology of The Bombay Review (literary magazine) at the incredibly young age of 17. She’s been a slambassador of Airplane Poetry Movement in her college and has done the rounds of festivals ranging from Inverse, The Habitat in Mumbai, APM, YQ, LF 18, WeTheWomen (Barkha Dutt’s Fest), BITS Pilaani, NIT Rourkela, SoFar Sounds and the list goes on.

We find immense joy in having her back at Spoken to stun us with her words.

Annie Zaidi

Seek knowledge with Annie Zaidi at Spoken!

Annie Zaidi is the author of Prelude to a Riot, Gulab, Love Stories # 1 to 14, and Known Turf: Bantering with Bandits and Other True Tales, and the editor of Unbound: 2000 Years of Indian Women’s Writing. She was awarded the Nine Dots Prize in 2019 for innovative thinking and The Hindu Playwright Award in 2018 for her play, Untitled 1.

Prabal Panjabi

Find inspiration with Prabal Punjabi at Spoken!

Prabal (@prabalpanjabi) likes to describe himself with the quote, “Being a verb in a world full of nouns”. He found success as an actor in flims like Mujhse Fraaandship Karogi, Mere Dad Ki Maruti and numerous TV shows, and we can’t wait to hear his stories at Spoken.

Sheena Khalid

Tap into deeper truths with Sheena Khalid at Spoken!

Sheena Khalid (@sheenakhalid) is a theatre director, writer and actor based in Mumbai. She is a founding member of the theatre company – Patchworks Ensemble, where she co-directed and co-devised the shows “Ila” and “The Gentlemen’s Club AKA Tape”

Sheena Khalid continues to deepen her exploration into performances and stories about and by women.

Tenzin Tsundue

Build a home in the words of Tenzin Tsundue at Spoken!

Tenzin Tsundue (@tenzin_tsundue_tibet) was born to a Tibetan refugee family in India. He is a Tibetan writer and activist. The author of four books of poetry and stories has won the first ever Picador Outlook Non-Fiction Contest 2002. He is now working on his fifth, a book of Tibetan refugee stories. Tsundue solely lives off his writing by selling his self-published books.

Tsundue wears a red bandana as a symbol of his childhood pledge that he would work every single day until Tibet regains its independence. He lives in a rented room in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, North India.

Eisha Chopra

Open up your heart with Eisha Chopra at Spoken!

Five years ago, Eisha Chopra (@eishachopra) moved to Bombay to act and accidentally discovered she could write!

You first saw her in the blockbuster film, Neerja, as Debuna and then in the critically acclaimed, Homeland remake, Prisoners of War. Soon after, she became a household name on everybody’s phones as the much loved, Anita from Dice Media’s What The Folks which just completed Season 3. You’ve also seen her as Sonali from Alr Balaji’s The Great Indian Dysfunction Family and Mallika from CEogiri both which have just completed their third season.

She has written for almost everyone from Zoya Akhtar to Anurag Kashyap to Ekta Kapoor to Nikkhil Advani and is even two time TedX speaker and has everyone on her Instagram following chuckling at her stories every day. When she’s not dodging Instagram proposals for Anita, she’s busy wondering how she can get to perform her own words, “Because, Hey… They’re mine. Why should anyone else get to say them?” She’s made you laugh, she’s made your cry, and now she’s going to take you down a memory lane at SpokenFest.

Roshan Mathew

Enjoy stories from the life of Roshan Mathew at Spoken!

Roshan Mathew (@roshan.matthew) is an film and stage actor and director, best known for his work in Malayalam films. He made his debut in 2016 with Puthiya Niyamam, in which he played the antagonist. He shot to popularity with his portrayal of Gautham Roy, a musician with a major identity crisis in Aanandam released the samy year. His performance in Anjali Menon’s Koode (2018) was widely appreciated and garnered him positive reviews. Roshan was next seen in the critically acclaimed film Moothon.

In addition to his film career, Roshan has appeared in numerous theatre productions based in Mumbai and Chennai. Some of his prominent productions have been The Glass Menagerie directed by Rajit Kapoor, 07/07/07 directed by Faezeh Jalali. He has also directed an original play in Kochi called A Very Normal Family with a new team of artists based in the city.

Harsha Bhogle

Find joy in the thoughtful words of Harsha Bhogle at Spoken!

Harsha Bhogle (@bhogle_harsha) is widely acknowledged to be not just the voice, but the face of Indian cricket.

He started at a time when few Indian broadcasters were considered good enough to be on overseas networks. But he changed those perceptions, especially in Australia where in 1992 he was rated as the possessor of the “sexiest voice on radio” and in 1999 when a poll on an independent web site rated him the number one commentator for the season.

He brings a fresh perspective to cricket and is seen as a voice of reason which makes him acceptable across all cultures. His interesting background, a chemical engineer and an alumnus of IIM-Ahmedabad, India’s premier business school, has made him a role model for many.

Adam Gilchrist called him “India’s Richie Benaud equivalent and the guru of cricket from India”. Sachin Tendulkar said “I have realized that speaking to him sometimes opens up completely different perspectives in addition to the ones I already have…”

Faye D’Souza

Find the voice of reason in Faye D’Souza at Spoken!

Faye D’Souza (@fayedsouza) is a journalist and a television news anchor whose work with The Urban Debate on Mirror Now is widely regarded as an example of journalism at its best. Touching on the subjects of corruption, communal violence and independent press, The Urban Debate was started, according to her, to “shine an uncomfortable spotlight on apathy, inefficiency and corruption which is the root cause of most problems that we face as Indians today.” She was awarded The RedInk Award for ‘Journalist of the Year’ in 2018 and she continues to use her platform to shine a light on topics that are often left uncovered by most news organisations.

Rohan Joshi

Keep calm and enjoy the show with Rohan Joshi at Spoken!

Rohan Joshi (@mojorojo) is a writer, digital creator and a popular Indian stand-up comedian. Starting off as an open micer and writer in 2010, he cut his teeth writing award shows like the Filmfare awards. In 2012 he helped found AIB, one of India’s first and largest independent online content creators. He is currently working on his next stand-up special.

Rosie Garland

Let your imagination fly with Rosie Garland at Spoken!

Tagged ‘literary hero’ by The Skinny, Rosie Garland (@rosiegarlandwriter) is a UK-based novelist, poet and singer with punk-goth band The March Violets. With a passion for language nurtured by public libraries, her writing has appeared in Spelk, Mslexia, The North, Rialto, Butcher’s Dog, Bangalore Review, Envoi, and elsewhere. She’s received writing commissions from Bronte Parsonage Museum, the BBC, Tate Modern as well as nominations for the Pushcart and Forward Prizes.

Her latest poetry collection, As In Judy, is published by Flapjack Press. Apples and Snakes describe her as ‘one of the country’s finest performance poets’. Rosie has received the DaDa Award for Performance Artist of the Year, the Diva Award for Solo Performer, and a Poetry Award from the People’s Café, New York.

Meghna Yesudas

Look for magic in the words of Meghna Yesudas!

Meghna Yesudas is a 21 year old student of Media, Literature and Psychology, shuttling between Bombay and Bangalore. She can be frequently found scribbling her thoughts on a number of topics in her notebook, or mostly the notes app on her phone. After winning Kommune Mumbai’s Roots Story Slam last year, she ventured into the world of Spoken Word and has loved every bit of her journey so far, the stage being a space where she feels like her truest self.

She is a strong believer in the magic that words can weave and thinks of poetry as catharsis.

Aamir Aziz

Find honesty is the music of Aamir Aziz!

Aamir Aziz is a musician and an actor who speaks his mind through his art. He fearlessly creates unapologetic music that strikes a chord with everyone who hears it. His song, ‘Acche Din Blues’ spread like fire and stayed with everyone long after, reminding us about the realities of our country. He has a degree in civil engineering but follows his passion for acting, creating music and also writes for ads and films!

Rega Jha

Spend a moment feeling connected with Rega Jha!

Rega founded BuzzFeed India in 2014 and was its editor-in-chief for four years. Now she can’t stop thinking about the internet, gender, mental health, identity, and all their endless overlaps. She’s currently trying to pass off her compulsion to note-take through these identity crises as a freelance writing career.

Swarada Bodas

Find a quiet sort of peace with Swarada Bodas!

Swarada Bodas is a singer-songwriter from Mumbai known for her acoustic, soothing sound. She’s performed at multiple venues across Mumbai such as The Habitat, Above The Habitat, Fun Republic Social, Brewbot, Cuckoo Club, etc. Her collaboration with Spill Poetry has garnered her significant attention in the poetry community. Her debut single, Sorry, has over 11,000 streams on Spotify and she is currently gearing towards releasing more songs soon.

A fairly new songwriter, her songs are derived from her experiences as a student of Clinical Psychology. They are honest, raw and heavy but calming in a weird sense. Her song, Sorry speaks of the aftermath of suicidality and the guilt that accompanies the ideation.

Vidya Nesarikar

Explore the shades of humanity with Vidya Nesarikar!

Vidya Nesarikar is a full time mother and a part time storyteller and children’s writer. She has worked in PR and corporate communications before she found her calling in writing and storytelling. She contributes fiction for Young World, The Hindu and writes for Parentcircle magazine. Her kids are her biggest critics and toddlers are her toughest audience. When not spinning her tales, she dreams of hour long foot massages, uninterrupted cups of tea and traveling light.

Rounak Chawla

Forget your troubles with Rounak Chawla!

An architect turned artist manager/guitarist, who moonlights as a musician known for strumming heartstrings with his guitar. On a journey to explore himself and the world of music and contribute in any and every possible way. His inspirations range from classical to indie to progressive rock and his music is often a unique amalgamation of these.

The Red Nose Juniors

Come and feel the difference with The Red Nose Juniors!

How would you feel when you are being looked at? Special? Centre of attraction?
How would you feel if you are a teenage girl growing up in India’s biggest red-light district Kamatipura and being looked at?
Come and feel the difference.
“That’s How We Feel” is a clown performance directed by Rupesh Tillu and performed by 7 teenage girls who grew up in Kamatipura.
They have been training in Theatre and Clowning for the past 5 years.
The project is a collaboration between Clowns Without Borders Sweden and Rednose Entertainment Mumbai.

Kali Billi Productions

Sangeet Bari

Enjoy an evening of Lavani with Sangeet Bari!

Pushpa Satarkar

Pushpa Satarkar is a very popular lavani artist in the niche circles of Sangeet Bari patrons. She has been practicing this art form for over 40 years and currently works as a singer in Barkha Apsara Jalgaokar Party in Jai Ambika Kala Kendra, Sanaswadi.

Akanksha Kadam

Akanksha Kadam is known as “Queen of Lavani” amongst her fans spread across the state. She conducts Lavani workshops by Kali Billi Productions and has trained many girls and boys in footwork and adakari. Akanksha currently works as freelance lavani dancer.

Anand Satam

He is a Mumbai based Lavani artist. Although Sangeet Bari has been a women-dominated world, Dholki Fadacha Tamasha, a large-scale village entertainment show, always had male lavani artists. Anand Satam is one of the pioneering members of Anil Vasudevan’s show titled ‘Bin Baykancha Tamsha’. Anand currently works as a freelance lavani dancer.

Hussain Haidry

Immerse yourself in the vibrant poetry of Hussain Haidry!

Moved to Bombay to pursue writing, Hussain Haidry is a performance poet, lyricist and screenwriter who writes in Hindi-Urdu about his observations on life and people around him. With viral hits such as “Hindustani Musalmaan” and “Lat”, Hussain has been featured in diverse spaces like Kommun, LallanTop, Radio Nasha, Radio City and The Poetry Club and is slowly becoming a household name in the Spoken word community.

Mohammed Sadriwala

A unique voice in both the poetry and storytelling, Mohammed draws inspiration from the likes of Gulzar excelling in the world of Hindi spoken word poetry and storytelling. He has performed on channels throughout the internet, being featured on publishing houses like Scoopwhoop and Being Indian.

Rakesh Tiwari

Rakesh Tiwari, a Hindi spoken word artist, has been performing emotional poems about everyday life, forgotten hometowns, fading windows, and homes to the inner self that have long been ignored. His poems connect with audiences universally. For him, poetry is meditation.

Recently, a short film based on his life story as a spoken word artist – ‘Mere Papa Google Par’ won an award at the India Film Project (Check it out on YouTube!)

Rashmi Dhanwani

Rashmi Dhanwani is the Founder of the Art X Company, a strategic consultancy for the cultural sector focused on strategy, audience development and sector research. Prior to founding Art X, Rashmi has worked with NCPA Mumbai, Breakthrough in Delhi, the newspaper Daily News and Analysis (DNA); Kalaghoda Arts Festival, and The Goa Project.

She holds a Masters in Cultural and Creative Industries from King’s College London. She has also been a recipient of the ARThink South Asia Fellowship (2011-12), a participant fellow at ‘The Academy—a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and the Weill Music Institute’, a scholarship grantee of the JN Tata Trust and Charles Wallace India Trust, and a 2017 Global Fellow of the International Society for Performing Arts (ISPA), New York.

Rashmi has also founded Arts Culture Resources India, a network and platform for cultural professionals in India and South Asia.

Mahek Jangda

Mahek Jangda is an author, writer and a spoken word artist. Her debut novel (literary fiction) is due for release in May 2020 and is being published by Hachette India.

Mahek has been performing spoken word for the last 6 years and has performed with the Hyderabad Literary Festival, Unerase poetry, Habitat Studios, Radio mirchi, The poetry club Mumbai, NSPA and The Little Flea (Mumbai). Her performance writing is mostly personal and honest. Her style is bound to engage and comfort you, but also, most importantly, make you dig deep and ask yourselves some difficult questions.

Harpreet

Harpreet has gained critical acclaim for his light classical style of singing. His creative talent fuses both the modern and traditional when composing tunes to his own lyrics and for classical poetry that he loves.

He is best known for creating musical scores to epic works of humanist poets like Kabir and Bulleh Shah. Credited for taking celebrated poets to the masses, Harpreet has also composed popular hummable tunes to words of poets such as Pash (Avtar Singh Sandhu), Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Nirala (Suryakant Tripathi). The progressive elements of his artistic practice is not confined to poetry alone. His original composition, Kutte (dog) – a song about a canine’s view of human life — was selected by award-winning Bollywood film director Dibakar Banerjee and Kanu Behl for a Yash Raj Films production called Titli.

Rehana Munir

Born and raised in Bombay, Rehana graduated in English literature from St. Xavier’s College and earned her MA at Mumbai University.

She ran a bookshop in Mumbai in the mid-2000s and edited cricket websites for BCCI a few years later. An independent writer for many years now, she has a weekly humour column in HT Brunch and a cinema column in Arts Illustrated magazine. Her work has appeared in India Today, GQ India, Firstpost, Mumbai Mirror, Brown Paper Bag and other publications.

Her debut novel, Paper Moon, was published by HarperCollins India in November 2019.

Nikhil Taneja

Nikhil Taneja is a writer-producer, who swears by Aaron Sorkin, Chandler Bing & Andaz Apna Apna, and thinks ‘Taneja Main Hoon, Mark Idhar Hai’ is a witty thing to say in a bio. An engineer by degree, he’s so far created a sitcom, and produced a thriller and six TV films for MTV. He currently works at Yash Raj Films as a creative producer for Y-Films and teaches at Jai Hind College on weekends. He spends any remaining time watching movies and TV, or trying to write them.

Contracts For Contractors

Contracts For Creators (@contracts4creators) is a platform that provides contractual information freely for the empowerment of the creative community. We see this as a crucial tool for freshers and professionals to be able to strengthen their professional ties and protect themselves from unethical industry behaviour, late payments, unruly clients etc.

Founded by Manojna, Mihir and Ayesha, the website has been designed to be simple and hassle free. Contracts don’t need to be complicated. They need to be functional.

Mantra

Mantra (@mantramugdh) is a Mumbai-based actor, television presenter, radio jockey, model and voice over artist. MnM talkies is the audio wing of Mantra’s already established production house MantraMugdh Productions which indulges in film making and theatre production.

Vijay Thomas

Almost a decade of being a part the most iconic motorcycle brand has exposed this self confessed story hunter to ordinary human beings who have lived the most extraordinary lives while riding their Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Saba And Imaad

Saba Azad (@sabasultanaazad) is an actress, theatre director and musician known for her leading role in the romantic comedy film Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge (2011) which was a sleeper hit in India, gaining a cult following among college students all over the country.

Imaad Shah (@imaadshahmadboy) is a musician and actor. Since his acting debut in Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota (2006), he has appeared around a dozen movies, notable among which are Dil Dosti Etc (2007), Dhobi Ghat (2011), the political thriller The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012) and the road movie M Cream (2014).

Mukul Chadda

Mukul Chadda (@mukulchadda) peddled mortgage bonds and research ideas for Lehman Brothers in New York, before moving to Mumbai to engage in more conventional forms of acting.

He can now be seen promoting sundry products on television, performing live improv theatre around Mumbai, and acting in films & web series, most recently as the annoying yet affable Jagdeep Chaddha in the Indian adaptation of The Office.

Mayur Puri

Mayur Puri (@mayurpuri) is a professional storyteller, screenwriter, lyricist & filmmaker working in Mumbai for 19 years now. He has written over 100 songs, and scripts of tens of movies including blockbusters like Om Shanti Om (2007) and ABCD (2014).

Mayur is also a localization expert for Hollywood studios and has written Hindi dialogues for several Disney, Marvel and Pixar movies including The Jungle Book (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and The Lion King (2019).

In 2010, he co-founded #StoryCircus – an institution dedicated to foster the art of Storytelling, which now functions as a full-fledged Theater Group. Mayur also teaches screenwriting regularly at Actor Prepares institute in Juhu. With 8 batches completed in the last 3 years he has mentored hundreds of aspiring screenwriters.

Jhansi

Jhansi (@jhansidramaqueen), whose content is almost as fun as her personality, likes to tell stories through music, and likes making you question society even more.

She has appeared on Queens of Comedy, and now she performs live (Don’t Eat My Face Pizza – revue original musical, Aladdin). Her influence and goal is to be a part of the world of Broadway, and she is getting there one story-song at a time.

Rutwik Deshpande

Rutwik Deshpande (@rutwicked) is a 20-year-old Spoken Word Poet and Theatre Artist, who is often seen jumping in and out of his “zone”. His light-hearted pieces will not only leave you with laughs, but also thoughts to ponder over.

He has won the English Poetry Slam at Mood Indigo in 2017, among a host of other slams. He has collaborated with multiple poetry collectives like Kommune, UnErase Poetry, Spill Poetry and The Habitat Studios. He has also performed at events like Social Nation and Lil Flea. Most recently, he performed at the Thespo Festival at Prithvi Theatre.

Radhika Apte

Emmy nominated star, Radhika Apte (@radhikaofficial), is one of the most credible names in the Indian Film Industry. Radhika has broken the barrier of language and given stellar performances in Hindi, Bengali and South Indian cinema.