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The faculty of Whistling Woods International forms a body of academics, top working industry professionals, instructors from renowned Indian and foreign film schools and the finest guest lecturers. Much of our faculty combines teaching with the real world of production, alternating between the classroom and film set. They are talented, highly-skilled, working professionals who have made an indelible mark in the film industry. This team of skilled and experienced lecturers, trained in the most advanced systems and latest teaching methodologies and proven in real-world productions offers students a vibrant and long-term education.
Small classroom sizes ensure personal attention to each individual, offering the guidance and mentorship necessary for the student to focus, excel and realize his or her potential. The conservatory atmosphere of the institute offers the perfect environment for students to take risks, push their boundaries and explore creatively, as they develop their skills. The close interaction of faculty and students allows for a learning experience that goes beyond a mere mastery of materials and process, providing growth of students’ aesthetic sensibilities and maturity as filmmakers.
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| View faculty for: |
Acting
Art & Technique Of Animation
Business Of Film & Television
Cinematography
Direction
Editing
Screenwriting
Sound Recording, Design & Music Production
Additional Mandatory Subjects
Co-curricular Training |
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| Acting |
 Head of Department - Naseeruddin Shah
A graduate from the NSD in 1973 he enrolled in the Film and Television Institute of India the same year. He won The National Award for Best Actor in 1979 for an effective portrayal of a blind man in the film Sparsh. He also won three Filmfare awards during the eighties as well as his second National Award and The Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival for 'Paar'. He was also bestowed with the Padma Shri in 1987, which is the country's fourth highest civilian award. Later, he performed in several international films like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Monsoon Wedding. His efforts as a director, theatre artiste and actor culminated in him being awarded The Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award. |
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Faculty
Arvind Panday
Benjamin Gilani
Jameel Khan
Kenneth Desai
Guest Faculty*
Subhash Ghai, Shabana Azmi, Meeta Vashist, Madhuri Dixit, Nagesh Kukunoor, Suhasini Mulay, Makarand Deshpande, Ratna Pathak-Shah, Bansi Kaul, Randeep Hooda, Pankaj Kapur |
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| Faculty for co-curricular subjects for acting students |
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Voice Training - Marianne D’Cruz
Fitness - Binisha Naik
Yoga - Siddharth Bangera & Gulzar Karmali
Dance - Jhelum Paranjpe & Meghna / Suragini (from SDIPA) |
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| Art & Technique Of Animation |
 Head of Department - Gokul K
First entering the CG industry as a computer programmer, Gokul has spent 12 years working the length of the animation pipeline and establishing himself as a CG Generalist, supervisor and as a business, R&D, and technical consultant. As the Quality In Charge for Jadooworks, Gokul oversaw a wide variety of television and advertising productions including Higglytown Heroes for Disney and advertising films for All out, Flying machine, HLL and Nestle. In developing the studio's high-end production capabilities, he spearheaded the setup of India's first multi-OS render farm. Having had the privilege of working alongside and learning his craft from some of the world's greatest CG artists through online forums, Gokul founded and managed the studio's in-house training facility. He now extends his 'never stop learning' mantra to his training and inspiration workshops, seminars, event through India's successful online community, CGTantra. Gokul was a founding faculty member and currently heading the Art & Technique of Animation course at Whistling Woods International.
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Faculty
Dhananjay Khore
Dnyaneshwar Jagdale
Jyotirmaya Gadnayak
Kumar Chandrashekhar
Guest Faculty*
Craig Caldwell (ex-Disney), Bala Rajashekhar, Vikram Veturi, P.C. Vikram, Vaibhav Kumaresh, Ashish Kulkarni, Savita Shekhawat (Prime Focus), Irina Saakian,
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| Business Of Film & Television |
 Head of Department - Kurt Inderbitzin
Dean, Whistling Woods International
Kurt holds a BA from Georgetown University, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and an MFA (film) from the University of New Orleans. He has taught or lectured at the University of La Verne, Texas Christian University, California State University, Northridge and Susquehanna University. He has twelve years of experience developing, writing, directing and producing movies and shows for major studios, cable companies and networks, in all formats, including High-Definition, digital video and 35 mm film. Kurt was President of Abandon Pictures for four years, which produced films such as Sundance Film Festival selection Scotland, P.A., starring Oscar winner Christopher Walken, Oxygen starring Oscar winner Adrian Brody as well as Off the Lip, Pros and Cons, Glory Days, Project Greenlight, Dimensions of Fear, Time Shifters and The Brink. As Vice President of Orly Adelson Prductions for three years, he developed and sold 21 television films. Additionally he has directed Brian Gina Nick and Welcome to the Neighborhood, and written and produced many other films.
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Faculty
Anupama Bose
Bulbul Mankani
Geetika Tandon
Samar Khan
Shruti Desai
Guest Faculty*
Karan Johar, Ronnie Screwwalla, Subhashchandra Goel, Ashok Amritraj, Kamal Kumar Barjatya, Ramesh Sippy, Alex Grundewald, Ram Madhvani
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| Cinematography |
 Head of Department - Rajen Kothari
Rajen has over 25 feature films to his credit as Director of Photography, including: Bose the Forgotten Hero (2005), The Memsahib(2005), Soch(2002), Zubeidaa(2001), Koi Mere Dil Se Poochhe(2001), Hari-Bhari (2001) and Godmother(1999). He has also photographed many documenaries, short films, ad films and music videos. He holds awards from UPFIA, TAMP, Filmfare and Uptron for Best Cinematography and from WBFIA for Best Film for Purush which he also directed. He has held Visiting Faculty posts at FTII, SRFTI Calcutta, Xavier Institute of Communication Mumbai, Sophia Polytechnic Mumbai and NID Ahmedabad. Rajen holds a Science degree from Bombay University and a Diploma in Cinema from FTII
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Faculty
Chandrashekar Iyer
M. Sunderesan
S. Krishhnamurthy
Guest Faculty*
Ashok Mehta, R.M.Rao, Binod Pradhan, Manmohan Singh, Vikas Sivaraman, Balu Mahendra, Anup Jotwani, C.K.Murlidharan, A.K.Bir, Anil Mehta, Kiran Deohans, Krishna Shetty, Sivaraman(Prasad), Ujwal Nigudkar(Fuji), Rajesh Jiandani(Kodak), Virendra Saini, Mahesh Aney, Santosh Sivan, Rajiv Menon, Biswadeep Chatterjee |
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| Direction |
 Head of Department -Somnath Sen
Writer & Director of the film ‘Leela’, Somnath Sen began his career in the visual medium in 1987, as an Assistant Director in TV Serials in New Delhi, India. Since then, he has worked as Director, Director of Photography, Editor, Screenwriter and in production oriented activities in over one hundred productions including feature films, documentaries, music videos, television series and commercials in both the United States and India. After his training in the Masters program in Film Directing from USC School of Cinema-Television, Somnath moved to Mumbai, India and worked in mainstream Hindi films such as Raja Hindustani, Judwaa, Ajay, Kachche Dhage, Janam Samjha Karo and Kareeb. Somnath's first script, "67 Down" written while he was a student at the USC film school was accepted by the National Film Development Corporation. Later, Somnath formed Lemon Tree Films and produced and directed commercials and corporate films. Somnath has co-written and directed two other feature length films. Somnath has also acquired an MS in Computer Aided Design and worked as a software engineer for several years at McDonnell Douglas and Electronic Data Systems. |
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Faculty
Ashmaki Acharya
Kabir Kapoor
Shyamal Sengupta
Subhankar Ghosh
Guest Faculty*
Ashutosh Gowarikar, Karan Johar, Rajkumar Santoshi, Ramesh Sippy, Manjul Sinha, Kundan Shah, Vikas Desai, Munir Khan, Saeed Mirza, Ketan Mehta, Santosh Sivan, Rakeysh Mehra, Mahesh Bhatt |
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| Editing |
 Head of department - Umesh Gupta
Umesh began his studies with a B.Com (Hons) before following his passion for film into a Diploma in Photography and a Post Grad Diploma in Editing from FTII, Pune. Having established himself as the Film chief at ad agency Triton Communication, he branched out into a career as a freelance editor that has spanned 13 years. His film work as an editor includes Kuchh Meetha Ho Jaye (2005), The Memsahib (2005), Soch (2002), Love in Nepal(2003), Choo Lenge Akash (2001), Tera Jadoo Chal Gayaa (2000), Mausam (1996), Narashya (1995), Jaan Se Pyaara (1992). He has also edited over 40 television series, ad films and documentaries. He was awarded “Best Editor” at the Uptron awards for Dekh Bhai Dekh. Umesh has also produced and directed a number of television series, ad films and documentaries.
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Faculty
Prashant Naik
Sankalp Meshram
Vivian Pimenta
Guest Faculty*
Rajkumar Hirani, Reena Mohan, Arunaraje Patil |
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| Screenwriting |
 Head of Department - Anjum Rajabali
Anjum Rajabali wrote his first film Drohkaal in 1992, in collaboration with director Govind Nihalani. Subsequently, five more films written by him have been released, including Ghulam and The Legend of Bhagat Singh. He was also the Commissioning Editor of a TV channel, set up and headed the script department of iDream Production for two years, and has been a script doctor and consultant to several well-known films, most recently Khakee, Gangaajal and Apaharan. In 2004, he designed the one-year Course in Screenplay Writing at FTII. Anjum holds a Masters' Degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Pune, and is an alumni of UCLA’s online Professional Programme in Screenwriting.
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Faculty
Ashwini Malik
Indranil Chakravarty
Guest Faculty*
Kamlesh Panday, Javed Akhtar, Javed Siddiqui, Mahesh Dattani, Mahesh Elkunchwar, Sameer, Neeraj Vora, Sanjay Chhel, Vinta Nanda, Raman Kumar, Ravi Rai, Rahul D'Cunha
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| Sound Recording, Design & Music Production |
 Head of Department - Rakesh Ranjan
A graduate of FTII Pune, Rakesh has worked alongside the leading directors and producers of Bombay, Chennai and Kolkata. His Audiography credits to date cover 125 Hindi feature films. He has been honoured with four Filmfare, two Screen, one Zee and one IIFA awards for films such as Aitraaz (2004), Aks (2001), Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha (1998), Pardes (1997), Barsaat (1995), Damini (1993) and Taal (1999)
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Faculty
Bhaskar Roy
Shrimanti Sharma
Sudipta Basu
Guest Faculty*
Nakul Kamte, Kuldip Sood, Hitendra Ghosh, Anup, Resul Pookutty |
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Faculty for Co-curricular Subjects for all students |
Film Appreciation
Anil Zankar – Senior Professor
Indranil Chakravarty
International Art, Literature & Culture
Prabodh Parikh,
Shanta Gokhale,
Girish Shahane
Music
D Wood
Production Design
Salim Arif
Sabyasachi Bose |
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