KGAF Series| Episode 5 | Mapping Mumbai's Madness : Humour in the City

Hrishikesh Kannan popularly known as Hrishi K. is producer & presenter on 94.3 Radio Ones flagship daily morning radio show "Good Morning Mumbai". He also is a prominent member of the stations national creative team as "National Training Director - Radio Hosts & Producers". Winner of the prestigious RAPA (Radio & TV Practitioners Association) Award for "Best Radio Jockey" and "Best Radio Programme" on multiple occasions Hrishi has branched out into other performing avenues with great aplomb. He is also a sports commentator of repute having commentated on the hindi feed of the "ICC T20 Cricket World Cup", "IPL" for Sony Max as well as the "French Open" tennis for Neo Sports. His reputation as master of ceremonies at some of the country's largest live events is unprecedented. Hrishi K. was compere at the "Nasscom Awards" as well as at the "IBM National Summit", "Asian Paints Dealership Awards" amongst others. His voice over skills have been felicitated with multiple "ProMax" winning promos and TV commercials. His stints as channel voice for the Zee Network,Star Network, Max, Sony Six & Mtv are well known and he is the brand voice on major campaigns like the iPhone, Godrej Properties, Mahindra Quanto and others.

Sooni Taraporevala is an Indian photographer, screenwriter and filmmaker who is best known for her screenplays of Mississippi Masala, The Namesake and the Oscar-nominated Salaam Bombay. She wrote and directed her first feature film, the National award winning Little Zizou in 2008. In 2000 & 2004 she authored and published a book of her photographs Parsis: The Zoroastrians of India; A Photographic Journey, which was a critical and popular success. In 2013 along with Meher Marfatia, she published the first volume of Parsi Bol, a compilation of quintessential Parsi phrases and insults. 2016 saw the second edition of the book. Sooni's photographs have been exhibited around the world and she has won numerous national and international awards for her screenplays and film. She was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2014.

Anuvab Pal is India’s Most intelligent comedian according to The New York Times. The BBC calls him India’s answer to British wit. His stand-up comedy special The Nation Wants To Know, has had over 500 shows starting in Mumbai and playing from Sydney to San Francisco to sold out houses. His current show Empire, a comedy show based on the history of the British Empire in India, has played in 35 cities worldwide and been called “Spectacular” by CNN and “A laugh riot with brilliant ideas” by NDTV. His show is the only Indian stand up comedy show after Russel Peters’ to sell out. The Comedy Store in London and Gotham Comedy Club in New York in record time. He’s also the only Indian comedian invited to perform at Harvard University. Times of India lists him among India’s top 5 English comedians. He’s also the screenwriter of the cult Indian comedy films Loins Of Punjab Presents & The President Is Coming as well as the author of 4 hit stage plays- The President Is Coming, 1 888 Dial India, The Bureaucrat and Chaos Theory, 3 of the 4 have become bestselling novels published by Random House and Picador respectively. He writes a weekly column for The Economic Times and Times Of India.

Rahul DaCunha divides his time between advertising and theatre. His production of Gurcharan Das’ Larins Sahib, was the first Indian play to be staged at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival. In 1992, he along with Shernaz Patel and Rajit Kapur, founded their company Rage. In 1996, he Indianised Herb Gardner’s I’m Not Rappaport – calling it I’m Not Bajirao; the play ushered in the use of Hinglish. In 2002, he started writing his own plays which include Class of ’84 and Pune Highway. He has collaborated twice with Anuvab Pal, having directed two of Anuvab’s plays – Chaos Theory and The Bureaucrat. His plays have traveled to the USA, England, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Sri Lanka and South Korea. He has worked for various advertising agencies like Contract and Lintas. His own ad agency daCunha Communications created the famed Amul billboard campaign – this year marks the 50th year of the campaign. Rahul writes a weekly column for Sunday Midday called Zara Hatke. He is presently writing an original musical titled #SingIndiaSing.