Making of Coral Woman: The Film and The Book

Asad Lalljee is SVP Essar Group and CEO of Avid Learning, a public programming initiative and creative platform under the Essar Group. Asad brings several years of advertising, publishing, marketing and business development experience, both in international and domestic markets. Prior to relocating to India, Asad worked for 14 years as one of the ‘Mad Men’ advertising executives on New York's Madison Avenue. He was with McCann-Erickson, and earlier with Hill Holiday, a subsidiary of advertising giant IPG. Under Asad’s leadership AVID has distinguished itself with a wide variety of arts and cultural programming and is currently at the forefront of India’s cultural hub. AVID has grown its curatorial practice by leveraging international cultural collaborations through the diplomatic core and partnering with the existing ecosystem by creating opportunities at some of the country’s and region’s largest cultural platforms including JLF, The Serendipity Arts Festival and The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. Asad co-curated the Literature Section at Kala Ghoda for two years. Asad’s career also demonstrates his passion for technology and new media. Under his leadership AVID has a robust social media presence and uses social media as an integral channel for learning. In 2016, Asad was appointed curator of the newly restored Royal Opera House, Mumbai for which he has successfully designed a robust program. Under Asad’s guidance the Royal Opera House, Mumbai has re-established itself as a performance space of international quality, a cultural venue par excellence and a prime example of restored and renewed city heritage. In 2018 Asad was inducted into the prestigious FICCI Art and Culture Committee as a distinguished member. FICCI is the largest and oldest apex business organization of Indian business with a glorious history of nine decades. FICCI cuts across 72 different sectors and has started working for the cause of the Indian Art and Culture Industry since 2015. Asad has co-convened foray conferences for FICCI’s Smart Cities, Art Cities IP in Mumbai and Bangalore. Asad holds a B.A. in Economics from St. Xavier's College (Mumbai) and an M.A. in Global Marketing Communications from Emerson College (Boston).

Anupama Madloi’s first tryst with content as features director began with Plus Channel in 1993. Her career has spanned 15 years of programming content in the broadcasting space with channels such as Sony Entertainment Television, Sab TV and Star Plus. She was the Managing Director of Fremantle India, a television production company, for 6 years. She currently works as an independent consultant on scripts and creative for Zee5 and content companies. Anupama made her debut as an Independent Producer under her banner ‘A Boy and A Dog Productions’ with her award winning documentary ‘Aunty Sudha Aunty Radha’. She is the Co-Founder and Impact Producer of The Coral Woman Impact Project which highlights the need for marine life conservation.

Tina Narang is the Children’s Publisher at HarperCollins India. She joined HarperCollins India in early 2017 and launched the children’s imprint, HarperCollins Children’s Books. She has published across genres and age groups and worked with some of the finest names in Indian children’s literature such as Ruskin Bond, Sudha Murty, Venita Coelho, Paro Anand, Ranjit Lal, Sampurna Chattarji among others. She has been part of literature festivals such as the Asian Festival of Children’s Content at Singapore; Jumpstart, organized by the German Book Office; the Philippines International Literary Festival at Davos and most recently at ‘Ctrl Alt Refresh’, the online conference organized by the Society of Young Publishers Scotland. She has also been at online events organized by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI, India). Prior to HarperCollins, Tina was with Scholastic India from 2005-2017. Tina started her career in 1987 with The Times of India.

Sophy Sivaraman is the co-founder and chief executive of the Indian Documentary Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that was founded with the aim to promote and develop documentaries in India and about India. Sophy brings her 20 years of experience being an advertising producer to help strategize impact campaigns for documentary filmmakers and helps raise funding for outreach activities. She also collaborates on CSR-led training workshops for social entrepreneurs and curates programs for film festivals. She leads the global Good Pitch program in the country and has created a climate justice Lab called Eco Lens. Sophy is currently on the advisory board of Dhai Akshar – a non-profit that uses art, and culture-based curriculum to educate street kids and on the advisory board of SOBA - NIMIMS ( Media Branding & Advertising ). She continues to engage sectors of society to work with documentary film