Multipolis Mumbai: Alternate Identities within the City

Arjun Raj Gaind is the author of the bestselling historical mystery series, The Maharaja Mysteries, which are set against the picturesque backdrop of princely India during the heyday of the British Raj. The first two installments, A Very Pukka Murder (2016) and Death at the Durbar (2018), have been published to widespread critical acclaim. The third book in the cycle, The Missing Memsahib, is due for release early in 2019. He is also the creator and author of several comic books and graphic novels, including Empire of Blood, Project: Kalki, Reincarnation Man, The Mighty Yeti, Blade of the Warrior, and A Brief History of Death.

Mandovi Menon is a creative director and entrepreneur who is passionate about using innovative storytelling to spark meaningful change. A writer first and foremost, she believes that expressing creativity freely, with integrity, is at the heart of a more inclusive world. In 2013, she co-founded and built the voice of Homegrown, a trailblazing youth media company that changed the way we speak to and about urban Indian youth. Under her leadership as Editor-in-Chief over the past 5 years, the platform earned a reputation for diverse, original storytelling, an authentic voice, pioneering curation of creative communities and a knack for being on the pulse of emerging subcultures across India. She also led several creative collaborations with leading brands, NGOs and independent artists during her time there. For her work in an emerging industry, she was featured on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Asia 2017 list and is regularly tapped as a credible resource on a wide gamut of topics that touch upon how youth culture and youth identity is evolving in India today. She remains consistently motivated by the potential of human curiosity, finding intersections between unlikely things, local food, creative communities and culture, and piecing together people’s personal histories to find magic in the world around us.

Naman Saraiya is a writer, photographer and filmmaker. His work in journalism and film has led him to work with a variety of alternative culture projects and brands. Some of those include Bacardi NH7 Weekender, Red Bull Music Academy, St+art Festival, television shows for Fox and MTV Networks, besides independently created music videos and documentaries. He's currently a producer at VICE Asia and director of Kya Bolta Bantai – The Rise of Mumbai Rap.

Nikhil Udupa is a marine engineer by education, a music fan by profession, and a lifelong supporter of the independent music scene. He is the founder-partner of subculture think-tank 4/4 Entertainment and the non-profit Control ALT Delete. With stints in marketing and programming at Only Much Louder (OML) and MTV, Nikhil brings in 8+ years of experience and expertise in content, programming, and brand integration. He brings a fan-first approach to emerging subcultures, and believes in creating media agnostic experiences for the consumer. 4/4 Entertainment is a consultancy firm focused on designing, execution and monetisation of brand-led IPs in today's ever evolving content and experience landscape.

Alumnus of MSU Baroda, Sumit Roy's practice is firmly rooted in the mural tradition of the art school and its concerns with the local context. Yet, he reinvents this inherited aesthetic on his canvases in a language that is boldly inspired by global, mainstream popular culture. He speaks for a generation of urban cultural practitioners who grew up in the face of globalization and corporatization. The media landscape in India changed dramatically with the opening up of the economy, and the emergence of Star TV, and MTV, who in the early years appropriated entertainment from American media for an Indian audience. Confronting the reality of an industrialized nation while occupying the Indian context, Sumit Roy juxtaposes an aspirational visual universe and the cult of global stardom with quotidian sights and attitudes 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.