Prachee Batra

Faculty

Prachee Batra is a practicing visual artist and educator based in Mumbai. She has completed her master’s in visual arts from Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara.

She has showcased her art practice in several exhibitions, workshops and residencies nationally and internationally like Tender Buttons and a Bellyache at ApreArt House, Mumbai, Painting workshop with Artist T.V. Santosh with Kochi Biennale, That’s what she said at Edwin Zoller Gallery in Pennsylvania, USA, Questions with and around Art History – Workshop at Rachana Sansad to name a few.

With over 5 years of experience as an educator, she inspires students to push creative boundaries and develop their unique voices fostering a dynamic learning environment. Certified by UGC NET to teach Visual Arts and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) via Coursera, Prachee integrates a profound understanding of Visual Arts. Her interest and experience in art, art education, and museums enriches a curriculum, offering students a comprehensive view of art bridging the gap between historical context and contemporary artistic practices.

Darshan Gandhi

Visiting Faculty

Darshan Gandhi is Global Head – Design, Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL).

Darshan believes in inclusive design principles; that all good design should be accessible. She joined Godrej & Boyce’s Interio division in 2006, where she was a catalyst in introducing design thinking, by creating and showcasing a diverse range of products under one platform, with a unique design philosophy. This led her to work for Godrej Industries in 2008, where she was assigned to design SPACE, a prototype office to create a young work culture that inspired the exchange of ideas, innovation and change at Godrej. This was the start of design driven thinking at GCPL.

She formed the GCPLDesignLab in 2009, and was instrumental in applying design led thinking to transform brands with delightful product offerings (in a Godrej way) for a rapidly evolving Indian market. This created a great impact and value for consumers across categories, with reinvigorated brands like Expert, aer, Cinthol, Goodknight and BBLUNT. By leveraging the design tools of need based user-centric segmentation, prototyping and product mapping, Darshan led the development of a unique collaborative approach in line with GCPL’s overall objectives. Today, she and her team of highly skilled designers have extended the same approach to GCPL’s brands and categories across Africa and Indonesia. The recent ‘designification’ of Africa’s leading hair extensions brand, Darling, marks a milestone in GCPLDesignLab’s journey of inclusive design thinking practices as a leading in-house design studio. GCPLDesignLab was awarded ‘India’s Best Design Studio Award 2017’ and ‘India’s Best Product Design Award 2019’ .

Darshan is a post graduate from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, and an alumna of the Harvard Business School’s executive education General Management Programme.

Neha Ramaiya

Visiting Faculty

Neha has completed her education in bachelors from Sir. J. J. School of Art, Mumbai, and her Master’s in Ceramic and Glass Design from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India. She is the founder of YellowSpiders Pottery (est. 2009,) a pottery studio of eminence. The talented staff at the studio work extremely hardworking to help nurture & cultivate the inner artist in all the students and guests who come into the studio. The YellowSpiders community serves as an educational branch and support system for all artists, a unique place where their creative juices flow freely. The studio is committed to success and developing the skills of artists and young talents. It is the studio’s mission to ensure that the arts remain a strong influence, and to offer classes to students of all levels – introducing newcomers to art and creativity and refining the techniques of even the most veteran artists.

Priyankar Gupta

Visiting Faculty

Raju Hittalamani

Visiting Faculty

Raju Hittalamani has carved a niche in media, communications, film production, and documentary filmmaking. His academic background, which includes an MA in Media and Cultural Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and a Visiting Fellowship in International Relations from Sciences-Po, Paris, provides a sturdy foundation for his practical engagements in cinema. As the co-founder of Kabes Media Private Limited, Raju has been instrumental in bringing film projects with profound global and cultural narratives to the fore. His foray into documentaries has yielded works such as “Breaking Chains”, “Anicca”, and “Kali-Kalisu”, with “Breaking Chains” gaining notable recognition at the LAMPA Retrospective, United Nations, Geneva. Adding to his diverse portfolio, Raju is developing a documentary on the Holocaust.

Over the years, Raju’s professional journey has seen associations with reputable institutions like the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, the Public Health Foundation of India, and the Indian Institute for Human Settlements. He has collaborated with national and international organizations in these roles, broadening his horizons in program execution, media strategy, research, and content creation. His stint as a Media Lab Director and Fellow at the Cairo Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences was marked by innovative course design and a focus on fostering cultural exchange. Raju’s academic engagements have led him to share insights on film and documentary filmmaking at various platforms, including the United Nations, reflecting his dedication to storytelling and the medium’s potential.

Joining Whistling Woods International, Mumbai, as a visiting faculty in Cultural Studies (for Visual Communication Design,) Raju merges his extensive experience with a deep-rooted passion for the field. His pedagogical approach emphasizes the importance of cultural studies as a tool to comprehend the sources and contexts from which texts, media, and designs originate. Through this understanding, Raju aspires to cultivate a more conscious media practice across varied forms, enhancing the depth and awareness of the content.

Akshaya Thombre

Visiting Faculty

Akshaya has been practising calligraphy for over 11 years and specialises in Roman calligraphy. Her calligraphy exhibition in 2017 at the Nehru Centre Art Gallery, Worli, was based on the development and modification of letters as design composition and presented it in a painting form. Her various experiments in the art led to the development and modification of her own variation of a style called ‘Blackletter’, which has a lot of variations internationally. She bases her creation on her sense of identity, space, design forms, and the grace of each letter. She has furthered the idea and presented it in wall paintings, chocolate engravings, and more. She is presently working on various other letters and styles with different perspectives to look forward towards calligraphy and take it to a new level.
A former student of the Achyut Palav school of Calligraphy, she is currently visiting faculty at Whistling Woods International (Visual Communication Design), I.E.S. College of Architecture, Rachna Sansad College of architecture, and MGM University. She also freelances as a Calligrapher and is associated with Artico Enterprises for designing projects. She has participated in representing India in various international exhibitions, and in 2021 she won The Excellence Award at the 18th Cheongju Jikji World Calligraphy Association, South Korea.

Rituparna Sarkar

Visiting Faculty

Wasim Saiyed

Visiting Faculty

Wasim is a creative professional working in the television industry for the past 15 years. He is alumnus of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, (Visual Communication – Animation Film Design.) He was Executive Producer, English Cluster at Star India Pvt. Ltd.(WALT DISNEY COMPANY,) where he headed the on-air promos team for the English movies business at Star India – Ideate and create brand campaigns; collaborate with the marketing team for stunts, new launches, campaigns and  execute them; manage daily workflow of on-air promos, manage the OAP budgets and liaise with external production houses/animators/graphic artists/voice-over artists/music composers for promos. He is a passionate storyteller and visual communications buff.