Hone Your Drama Skills With Top Acting Courses in Mumbai, India

Nivedita Bhargava

Faculty

Nivedita Bhargava has over 28 years of vast experience in the field of imparting Theatre Training and as a Media Professional. She is a graduate from the National School of Drama, New Delhi and has directed many plays throughout her remarkable career. Her accolades include fellowships and production grants from the Ministry of the Culture, Government of India in the field of Theatre. She is also trained in Indian Classical Vocal Music and has performed in Radio Concerts. She additionally spends her time taking workshops across the country in Theatre and Personality Advancement.
As an actor, she has featured in the role of Satto in the web series “Heeramandi” directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali for Netflix. She has also played the character of Imad’s mother in the web series “Railway Men” produced by Yashraj films for Netflix. In the web series “SCAM 2003” produced by Applause Entertainment for Sony Liv, she played Faridabee – Telgi’s mother. She played Rukmani Attai in the feature film “Meenakshi Sundareshwar” produced by Dharmatic, the digital content company by Dharma Productions for Netflix. She also has featured as Ghazalabee in the popular series “Sacred Games” directed by Anurag Kashyap for Netflix. She played the role of Aarya’s lawyer Mallika, in the web series “Aarya” produced and directed by Ram Madhwani for Disney+ Hotstar. She featured as Shantishree in the film “36 Farmhouse” produced by Mukta Arts for Zee 5
Her upcoming projects as an actor include the web series “Akka”, being produced by Yashraj Films.
Her well-known commercial theatre plays as an actor-singer include Ladies Sangeet, Bandish and Roshe Roshe.

Arvind Pandey

Faculty

Mr. Arvind Pandey is an alumnus of NSD, New Delhi. Post his PG from NSD, he had done a research on ‘Method Acting’ under the aegis of NSD and subsequently studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute,USA. His association with Whistling Woods International began in 2006 as faculty in the acting department while it was headed by Mr. Naseeruddin Shah. His experience of acting in films, television and theatre spans across two decades. Mr. Pandey has taught acting at almost all top-ranking film and drama schools in the country. Besides acting and teaching he has also written, adapted screenplays and directed them. At present he heads the department of Acting.

Amod Bhatt

Visiting Faculty

Born in a traditional family devoted to classical music, Amod Bhatt has received classical training from Smt. Nirmala Bhatt and theatre music training from eminent theatre and film personality Guru Shri B.V. Karanth. He has composed music for over 100 major productions in various languages and has worked with Internationally acclaimed directors such as, B.V. Karanth, Habib Tanvir, Fritz Bennewitz, John Martin, Sunil Shanbag, Salim Arif, Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Satish Kaushik, and Gulzar. He was also felicitated with ‘Akademi Award’ in 2014-15 for Theatre Music, by the President of India Sangeet Natak and has also received the Indian Telly Award for Best Music Direction for the series Upanishad Ganga, produced by Chinmay Mission. He has also composed music for numerous feature films, Ads, TV serials & music albums.

Amod Bhatt has worked as a Music Head at Rangmandal, Bharat Bhavan. He has designed and conducted workshops for various actors & singers and has been a faculty for various University & Performing Arts Institution in India such as, National School of Drama (Delhi, Varanasi, Bengaluru), S N School of Drama (Hyderabad central University), Drama School (Mumbai), Academy of Theatre Arts- (University of Mumbai), Bhartendu Natya Academy (Lucknow), Kala Academy (Goa), and Madhya Pradesh School of Drama (Bhopal).

Salim Arif

Head of Department- Culture Studies

Mr. Salim Arif is an illustrious alumnus of National School of Drama, New Delhi. A well-known name in the field of Indian Theatre and Films, Salim Arif is currently the Head of Culture Studies at Whistling Woods International, Mumbai. He is also associated with Ladakh International Film Festival and Navi Mumbai Film Festival as Director, Cultural Affairs.

Shyam Benegal’s Bharat Ek Khoj, Gulzar’s Mirza Ghalib, Dr. Chandraprakash Dwedi’s Chanakya got him international recognition as a Period Film Designer of substance. Nirja Guleri’s Chandrakanta, Ketan Mehta’s Sardar Patel, Gulzar’s Maachis & Hu-Tu-Tu, Govind Nihalani’s Takshak and Anil Sharma’s Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyo are his other films as a Designer. He has been a consultant for period details in Anil Sharma’s Gadar and Mani Ratnam’s Guru.

Tamara P Nedungadi

Visiting Faculty

Tamara P Nedungadi is a Postgraduate in Sociology from Mumbai University. She had an exposure to cinema right from childhood as her father was an eminent Film critic. Her passion for the visual medium got an impetus when she did the Film Appreciation course of FTII in 1986.

After her post-graduation, she joined renowned Film Editor Renu Saluja in 1990. Amongst the films she assisted Renu were films such as ‘Sardar’, ‘Dharavi’ and ‘Maya Memsaab.’ She decided to expand her horizons and became an assistant director to renowned filmmakers Ashutosh Gowarikar and Kundan Shah.

In the Mid 1990’s she started her independent career as an online editor (vision mixer) for multi camera TV Shows. Some of the shows she edited were ‘Swabhimaan’, ‘Farz’ and ‘Nyay’. She got her first break as a Director for a TV show titled ‘Waaris’ in 1999. She then went on to direct many shows over the next 12 years. Some of the shows she directed were, ‘Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi’, ‘Kittie Party’, ‘Remix’.

Apart from her career as a Director and Editor, she is trained in Oddissi dance form under Guru Jhelum Paranjpe. She has performed in dance ballets and shows, choreographed by dancers like, Astad Deboo and Illeana Chirasti.

She has also been part of Satyadev Dubey and Sunil Shanbag’s plays like ‘Andha Yug’ and ‘Pratibimb’. Her association with these stalwarts helped her understand Stagecraft and nuances of speech and performance.

Ankit Varshneya

Visiting Faculty

Ankit Varshneya studied Computer Engineering from Army Institute of Technology, Pune but decided to pursue his passion by taking up Lee Strasberg’s method of acting for two years from Rob Reece at Whistling Woods International. He has played the lead in feature films as Mithyam, Kaansya, and Alien and short films like Scared To Be Alone, Unmothered, Shunyata, Check In, Rab Da Vaasta, Amidst Dark, and Savita and acted in the Theatre play Manto Mantra (2012- 14) and performed all over India. Ankit Varshneya also featured in various Public Service Ads, YouTube series, and Television series.

Aru Verma

Visiting Faculty

Aru Verma is a trained professional actor with acting experience of over 15 years, he started his life in theatre and has been working in the Indian Television and Film Industry from the last 10 years.

He is an alumnus of Whistling Woods International and graduated top of his class in 2010, trained under veteran Indian actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Benjamin Gilani and Kenneth Desai. He has an Acting Diploma – 2 years Understudy to Rob Reece (member of Actors Studio, LA for 3 years Understudy to Shernaz Pater (veteran Indian Actor) for 1 year Understudy to Salim Arif (veteran Indian Director and Production Designer) for 1 year. He has trained for 3 years in professional theatre under Arvind Gaur (prominent Indian Theatre director and Social Activist) in the theatre society known as Asmita Theatre Group.

He is the first Plus size Model for India and the Brand Ambassador for ALL (future Group Clothing Brand)
He has also been part of more than 40 television commercials including the following brands KFC, AIRTEL (4) VODAFONE (3), MAKEMYTRIP.COM, SABTV PROMO, SONY SPORTS PROMO, CADBURY’S ECLAIR, ETC. His latest work experience in a principle role is in Dil To Happy Hai Ji (2019) for Star Plus Network in Indian Television. Supporting role in ITTRAT – TV SERIES (2019) KULFI KUMAR BAJEWALA – TV SERIES (2019) JAB HARRY MET SEJAL – FILM (2017) BEFIKRE – FILM (2016) WEDDING PULLAV – FILM (2015) BEZUBAN ISHQ – FILM (2015) BEGUSARAI – TV SERIES (2015) 2 STATES – FILM (2014), ETC.