AVID Acceleration @ Kalaghoda Arts Festival 2014

Akshay Manwani turned to freelance writing after a brief career in the corporate world. His writings on popular Indian culture have appeared in The Caravan, Business Standard, Man's World and Mumbai Mirror. Akshay’s first book, Sahir Ludhianvi: The People’s Poet, a biography of noted Urdu poet and Hindi film lyricist, Sahir Ludhianvi, was published by HarperCollins in 2013. Akshay lives with his wife and daughter in Mumbai

Nasreen Munni Kabir is renowned documentary filmmaker & author, an India-born television producer based in UK. Her work includes the 46-part series Movie Mahal, In Search of Guru Dutt, Follow that Star- profile of Amitabh Bachchan and Channel 4 series such as How To Make It Big In Bollywood. She won the 1999 Women of Achievement Award in Arts & Culture and became a governor of the British Film Institute in 2000.  She has produced documentary on Shahrukh Khan, "The Inner and Outer World of Shah Rukh Khan". She published a coffee table book called In Search of Lata Mangeshkar, In April 2011, a book titled "A. R. Rahman The Spirit of Music" written based on the conversations with her.

Kausar Munir has done her English Honour's from St. Xavier's College Mumbai.  She began writing lyrics with the Yashraj Film's 'Tashan'. Some of the songs and title songs for various Hindi blockbusters like  Anjaana Anjaani, ‘Ishaqzaade’, Ek tha Tiger movie songs - ‘Mashallah’ and Saiyaara , Ajab Gajab Love, Nautanki Saala, Saheb Biwi Gangster and Chashme Buddoor. She has also been script consultant for the internationally acclaimed Sridevi starrer ‘English-Vinglish’  She has just finished writing a script for a film to be directed by Mr Ramesh Sippy and the dialogues for Kabir Khan’s under production film, Phantom. My recent film projects (Lyrics) include- Yashraj Film’s 'Dhoom 3', Tigmanshu Dhulia’s 'Bullet Raja', Karan Johar’s 'Gori Tere Pyaar Mein'.

Unnati Dasgupta is a UK based singer - songwriter, hailing from a Music family with strong roots in Indian Classical Music.  Unnati’s father the late Nitai Dasgupta was an Indian Classical vocalist, performer & teacher.  Unnati grew up learning Indian Classical Music, Bhajan, Folk & Ghazal from her father as well as being exposed to music influences in the West including Soul, R n B and Jazz.  Alongside her education, Unnati grew up performing with her father in UK & Europe.  In 2002, Unnati and her sister Preeti, released their debut album “Vishwa – The Universe of Music” with a Six City tour of India.  In 2005, Unnati was a semi finalists of the Glastonbury Unsigned Artistes Jazz World heat and her track “Baarish Mein – In the Rain” released on "The Glastonbury Unsigned Artistes of 2005" Compilation album.   Unnati has been performing extensively as a solo artist and guest vocalist with UK based bands and has toured India, Mexico & the Caribbean.  Unnati has also developed her own style of song writing inspired by both traditional and contemporary music from around the world.  Currently in India, Unnati is working on the release of her forthcoming album “Indigo Soul”, a diverse crossover album with Indian Classical, folk, spiritual, Middle Eastern, Jazz & Soul influences.

Elisa Paloschi With more than 20 years experience working in virtually every aspect of documentary film production, Elisa’s work has taken her around the globe. She is the President of Eyesfull, a Toronto based, independent documentary production company dedicated to making non-fiction films with social relevance that reflect the diversity of the human voice. Her work has screened at festivals such as Kurzfilmtage Oberhousen, Bellaria Film Festival, Palermo Cinema and NXNE. She has produced award winning interactive media such as Weirdstop (Best Children’s Content, Australian Interactive Media Awards). She is currently in post-production with Driving with Selvi, about a young woman who escapes a child-marriage to become South India’s first female taxi driver. Elisa is currently involved in a far-reaching impact campaign, with the support of the Bertha BRITDOC Connect Fund, Good Pitch and The Canadian High Commision of Mumbai and London.

Mahesh Dattani is a playwright, stage director, screen writer and filmmaker. His published works include FINAL SOLUTIONS AND OTHER PLAYS, TARA, a COLLECTED WORKS edition in two volumes published by Penguin India and BRIEF CANDLE AND OTHER PLAYS also by Penguin. He is a Sahitya Akademi Awardee, the highest award for a literary work in the country, Mahesh is the first to receive this award.Today his plays are produced in all the major cities of India and abroad including London, Leicester, New York, Washington DC, Sydney, Colombo and Dubai. Most of his plays have been translated and performed in Hindi, Gujarati and Kannada. His plays are on the syllabus of several Indian and foreign universities and schools. His works have been adjudged best motion picture at the Barcelona Film Festival 2003 and at the Cairo Film Festival, he won the award for best artistic contribution.

Anup Soni is an alumnus of the National School of Drama (NSD). He is a popular film and television actor who has appeared in TV serials like C.I.D. – Special Bureau and Balika Vadhu and movies such as Gangaajal and Apaharan.

Shernaz is the daughter of Gujarati stage veterans Ruby and Burjor Patel and grew up in a theatre environment. During her school years, she participated in plays directed by Pearl Padamsee. Subsequently she did her Masters in Acting from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. She made her theatre debut with The Diary Of Anne Frank in 1984. In 1992, she performed the lead in the English play, Love Letters for the first time, along with Rajit Kapoor, under the direction of Rahul da Cunha. The play is still being performed. Since then, she has acted in several noted productions in Mumbai-based English theatre, and formed RAGE theatre group in Mumbai, with Rahul da Cunha and Rajit Kapur in 1993.

She has trained and studied Flamenco extensively at the Alegría Academia de Flamenco under Rosana Maya and Maria del Sol. She has also been a regular participant at the Festivale de Jerez, Spain, for the last 5 years and has taken courses with well renowned maestros of flamenco across Europe and the United States. She was originally trained as a classical ballet dancer for several years before she discovered Flamenco,and has recently established a branch of the Alegría Academy of Flamenco, here in Mumbai, which is the only dance school to offer Flamenco classes in India.

Jehan is the Founder and Director at Theatre Professionals. Since founding Theatre Professionals in 2008, Jehan has conducted numerous workshops for professional actors, children, and corporate. Jehan has been a guest faculty at Ninsasam Theatre Institute, Attakallari Centre for Movement Arts and St Xaviers College, Mumbai. While he has directed many plays in his career, he also works with teams across languages and cultures, most recently directing Shakespeare’s Othello in Kannada at the Ninasam Theatre Institute in Karnataka and Eklavya in Japanese at the Matsumoto Performing Arts Centre, in Japan

Kanika Dhillon is a screenwriter and author of the best selling novel- Bombay Duck is a fish (2011). An alumna of London School of Economics and St Stephens college, she divides her time between writing films and books. She recently came out with a young adult fiction titled 'Shiva and Rise of the shadows' (2013) . The films she has worked on include Om Shanti Om (2009), Billu Barber, and Ra one. (2011). She was content head for Shah Rukh Khan's production house-Red Chillies entertainment, and then was heading the creative division as -Vice President Films for Ekta Kapoor's- Balaji films. Currently she is writing screenplays for directors like Sujoy Ghose and a few others. Her next book published by Harlequin Mira, is slated to release in 2014.