Our faculty body comprises of leading industry professionals & instructors from renowned global film schools and is augmented by a body of highly successful guest faculty.
Subhash Ghai
Chief Mentor,
Actors’ Studio
Subhash Ghai
Founder & Chairman
Mr. Subhash Ghai is a globally renowned filmmaker having directed 18 films over a four decade career, with 14 of them being blockbusters. Recipient of many national and international awards, he has also been honoured by the United States Senate. He has been appointed as the Chairman of Media and Entertainment Skills Council (MESC). He was also the former Chairman of the Entertainment Committee of the trade body, CII and a member of FICCI, NASSCOM and TIE Global and its alliances. He has been invited to address various forums and seminars on corporate governance and the growth of the Media & Entertainment industry, globally and in India. He is presently serving as the Chairman of Media & Entertainment Skills Council (MESC).
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Ravi Gupta
Dean
Ravi Gupta
Dean
Mr. Ravi Gupta, as Managing Director, National Film Development Corporation, India, he has nurtured new talent but also worked with masters such as Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal, Mira Nair, Aparna Sen, Ketan Mehta among many others. He represented India on the Governing Board of FIAPF and was on the Board of International Emmy. He was editor of ‘Cinema in India’ and continues to be on the Organizing Committee of the Pune International Film Festival. He was the founder CEO of B4U Television Network and has served on the Boards of companies in the UK, USA, Middle East, Africa. He was CEO of Mukta Arts and is now Dean of Whistling Woods International. His book ‘When God went to Hell’ was published recently.
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Rahul Puri
Head of Academics
Rahul Puri
Head Academics
Mr. Rahul Puri is the Managing Director of India’s leading entertainment company Mukta Arts Ltd. & Head of Academics of India’s finest creative education institute, Whistling Woods International. A business graduate from Kings College London, Rahul started his career as an investment banker at UBS Warburg. Rahul moved to Mumbai in 2002 and worked in the sector of Corporate Finance & Strategy before he joined Mukta Arts Ltd. to produce and distribute Indian films.
Rahul is now involved in all aspects of the company including financing, distribution, production, exhibition and marketing. He was keenly involved in the set-up of Whistling Woods International and now is setting up and building out a chain of Cinemas under the
brand name of Mukta A2 Cinemas.
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Filmmaking
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Ashwini Kaul
Head of Department
Ashwini Kaul
Member of ISC (Indian Society of Cinematographers)
Head of Department
Mr. Ashwini Kaul is a graduate from Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. He began his career by working on various advertising TVC and corporate films before he began his journey in films. He has worked on various award-winning fiction, non-fiction feature films, short films and also shot films in 3D. He went on to conduct workshops at FTII and Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT) and has authored article on photography for photography magazines. His association with Whistling Woods International has been more than a decade old where he heads the department of cinematography.
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Chandrashekar Iyer
Faculty
Chandrashekar Iyer
Faculty
Mr. Chandrashekar Iyer has studied BSc from RUIA college, Mumbai. He is an active member of W.I.C.A (Western India Cinematographers Association) managing committee and Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Chitrapat Mahamandal. For the past 18 years, he has been a member of the Indian film and television industry, working as a cameraman and assistant cameraman over feature films, documentaries, AD Films, and TV Series. Mr. Iyer has also done TV serials in Marathi, Gujrati Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, and Kannada. He has won state award and zee award for the Marathi movie he worked. His remarkable portfolio includes films for Dubai Duty-free, AD films for Johnson’s baby brand, promotional films for Europe Tourism and much more. For many years now, he has been affiliated with Whistling Woods International and is a sought-after professor in the department of cinematography.
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Krishhnamurthy
Faculty
Krishhnamurthy
Faculty
Mr. Krishhnamurthy has spent over 39 years in the Indian film industry and has had a remarkable career throughout. He holds a Diploma in Cinematography from Pune Film Institute. He kick-started his career as a director of photography and worked with industry-stalwarts like Pramod Chakravorty, Hema Malini, Jeetendra (in the movie Dream Girl) at the beginning of his career. He has worked with numerous incredible Indian films as First Assistant and an Operative Cameraman and worked with some of the best actors of Indian film industry like Dharmendra, Dev Anand, Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna, Rekha, Sharmila Tagore and many more. His area of expertise extends to the Televisions series and Corporate films as well. Mr. Krishhnamurthy has worked on about 200 ad movies too.
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Manoj Peter
Faculty
Manoj Peter
Faculty
Mr. Manoj Peter holds a Postgraduate Degree (Science) and Postgraduate Diploma in Cinema from Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, specialising in cinematography. Before joining FTII he was actively involved in theatre. His diploma film ‘A Brief Journey’ at FTII, directed by Kavita Joshi, was selected in the 6th International Student Film Festivities-Aviv, in France in 1997 & for Indian panorama screening (International Film Festival of India, 1997). Having experience of 26 years in the industry, he began his career as an associate cameraman with India’s leading award-winning cinematographers in various Indian and international productions including feature films, commercials, documentary films, multi-cam shoots for Disney, POGO, Sab TV, BBC, NGC, MTV, and other channels. He has worked in award-winning feature films and contributed to Karan Johar’s ‘KKHH’. Some of his notable work includes promotional Film on Polio Vaccination for WHO featuring actor Amitabh Bachchan for BBC, and ‘Pride of India’ series, for StarPlus.
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Sanjana Oswal
Faculty
Sanjana Oswal
Faculty
Sanjana has a BSc. Degree in Physics and Photography from Fergusson College, Pune, and an Advanced Diploma in Filmmaking, with a specialisation in Cinematography, from Whistling Woods International, Mumbai. She has worked as an Assistant Cinematographer with notable DOPs from the industry on feature films, web series, commercials, TV promos, and music videos for production houses like T series, Tusshar Kapoor Entertainment, Alt Balaji, OML Entertainment, etc. She won the Best Cinematographer award at the Madras Independent Film Festival in 2021 for her film ‘The Nightingale’.
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Venkatesh Pilla
Faculty
Venkatesh Pilla
Faculty
Mr. Venkatesh Pilla is a Whistling Woods International alumnus, and has worked on various short films, music videos, fashion online promos and AD films. He also possesses knowledge about film lights, key grips for motion picture camera and operating motion picture cameras.
Mr. Abhijit Mazumdar is a direction alumnus of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. His portfolio includes some the award winning regional short films and tele films. One of his directorial venture won a National Award for Sound Design. Couple of his films were showcased at some of the renowned film festivals across the world like Glasgow Short Film Festival, Karlovy Vary Short Film Festival, Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, Torino Film Festival He has also been a jury member for Short and Non-Fiction films at the Indian panorama Film Festival in 2016. His association with Whistling Woods International started more than a decade ago as a faculty and now he heads the Department of Direction.
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Koel Sen
Faculty
Koel Sen
Faculty
Ms. Koel Sen is Filmmaker, Artist and an Academician who has graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) with a Postgraduate Diploma in Film Direction. Ms. Sen won a scholarship from the Université d’été (Summer Program) at La Fémis, Paris, specialising in French Documentary Cinema. During her tenure as a filmmaker, she has scripted and directed several short films that have been received at various Asian and International film festivals of repute. Ms.Sen has also directed and produced ad-films, PSA’s and short documentaries in the past and worked at various production houses in Mumbai.
She is often a presenter and moderator at different film panels to discuss cinema. Ms. Sen has also been working in the field of video art with live performances at various Art and Music events. Ms. Sen is currently working on her first feature-length script.
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Paresh Kamdar
Faculty
Paresh Kamdar
Faculty
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Sharad Raj
Faculty
Sharad Raj
Faculty
Mr. Sharad Raj has more than 20 years of experience in the identification and development of TV assets of high quality. From conception to telecast, he has successfully powered several projects. Mr.Sharad Raj has been an integral member of the core team of Zee TV and one of the two Indian consultants to Channel 9, the Australian television giant. He holds a Film Direction degree from Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune and a New York Screenwriting diploma. He started his career as a director and worked on many short films and feature films, and as a senior creative director, he has successfully conceptualised and released 24 shows. Mr. Raj has just completed his debut feature film, ‘Ek Betuke Aadmi Ki Afrah Raatein’ starring Adil Hussain and the film is currently doing rounds of film festivals. It premiered at Toulouse Indian Film Festival and will be released in France early next year.
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Sudipto Acharyya
Faculty | Head of Affiliations & Academics, Short Course Unit
Sudipto Acharyya
Faculty
Mr. Sudipto Acharyya is and alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, in direction and screenplay. He further pursued his master’sdegree in Film Studies from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. His independent work portfolio includes a wide range of movies for both Hindi and Bengali Cinema, including Film, TV, and Corporate Films. Mentoring students on their dialogue and diploma film scripts, Sudipto Acharyya has been at the forefront of conducting numerous workshops across the country for his students. He was an active participant in recent CILECT conferences in Lithuania, North America, and Johannesburg. He is part of an Artistic Research project involving BRICS nation that looks at social interstices with the help of cinematic practices.
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Vedanti Chandrakant Dani
Faculty
Vedanti Chandrakant Dani
Faculty
Ms. Vedanti Chandrakant Dani holds a diploma in Film Directionfrom Whistling Woods International. She started her career as a writer, director, and editor working on Marathi feature films and continued to assist with various short films, web shows, and ads. She has written and directed 32 short films and two movies; at various film festivals, many of which have been awarded forbest screenplay, best director and best film. Vedanti Dani has been a panelist at the Jaipur International Film Festival and a member of the jury. She also takes workshops throughout in theater and screenwriting on an ongoing basis.
Mr. Prashant Naik, a reputed National Award-winning Film Editor, is a working professional as well as Head of Department, Editing, School of Filmmaking at Whistling Woods International. Prashant, specialised in Editing at the FTII, Pune, after completing a Graduate degree in Law and a Post-graduate degree in Commerce. His FTII Diploma film Punaravritti received the National Award in the Best Short Fiction category.
Prashant won the National Award for Best Editing for the film Harvest of Hunger in the Non-Feature Film category from President Dr. Abdul Kalam. He has done live editing for Cricket World Cup match between India and Australia in Wankhede Stadium in the year 1996.
Over the years he has edited several corporate films, ad films, promotional films and documentaries and feature films. He has been one of the curators for MAMI, an International Film Festival in Mumbai attracting films from all over the world. He was a former Board Member – Syllabus Committee for Editing at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad and KIIT, Bhubaneswar.
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Ashif Ahmed
Faculty
Ashif Ahmed
Faculty
Mr. Ashif Ahmed has worked as a Supervising Editor for StarGold, Utsav Movies, Movies OK and StarGold Select. He has also done Projects for Barclays Premier League, Serie A, LA Liga, Ashes, Formula 1, Wimbledon etc. His past associations include Star Sports, Star TV Network and Doordarshan.
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Rajesh Parmar
Faculty
Rajesh Parmar
Faculty
Mr. Rajesh Parmar is a two-times winner of the National Awards in Non-Feature Film Editing as Best Editor for Sanchari (1991) and Colors of Absence (1993), both films directed by Arun Khopkar. He then worked as an editor on several award-winning feature films and non-feature films. One of such film ‘Art in Exile’, was an opening film at IFFLA, Los Angeles. An FTII alumnus with an editing degree, Rajesh Parmar has previously been a member of the jury, Non-Feature Films for the 46th National Film Awards, IDPA (Indian Documentary Producers Association), and curator of a few MAMI Film Festivals. In addition, Mr. Parmar created AD films for Visa, FIFA World Cup, Taj Hotels, Mercedes and edited 150 odd ads. He recently has also written the script for an Odiya feature film, ‘Spandan’.
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Vivian Pimenta
Faculty
Vivian Pimenta
Faculty
Mr. Vivian Pimenta has been associated with Whistling Woods International, since 2006. He has extensive experience in instruction on Avid Media Composer Editing Workflow, and DaVinci Resolve Colour Correction.Mr. Pimenta is an official Avid Certified Trainer- Media Composer Editing 101/110, and also a DaVinci Resolve Certified Trainer.
He was previously employed with Film and Television Institute, Pune, in the Editing Department over a period of 4 years.He is presently involved in training film school students on Avid and Resolve workflow, coupled with project support. His industry experience includes working with Sony Broadcast and Professional Group, in the area of Television studio business.
Ms. Rabiya Nazki is a versatile and seasoned professional with rich experience in creative producing, script writing, direction, film production, account management and strategic planning. Working with well-known organisations across arts and entertainment, she has produced ad films, corporate AVs, fiction and non-fiction shows. Before joining Whistling Woods International, she launched the HS18 Channel of Network18 and headed the programming department. Her association with Whistling Woods International began more than a decade ago where she began as a senior professor – Producing Department and now heads the department. She mentors students’ projects from ideation till the final execution.
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Rahul Puri
Head Academics
Rahul Puri
Faculty
Rahul Puri is the Managing Director of India’s leading entertainment company Mukta Arts Ltd. & Head of Academics of India’s finest creative education institute, Whistling Woods International. A business graduate from Kings College London, Rahul started his career as an investment banker at UBS Warburg. Rahul moved to Mumbai in 2002 and worked in the sector of Corporate Finance & Strategy before he joined Mukta Arts Ltd. to produce and distribute Indian films.
Rahul is now involved in all aspects of the company including financing, distribution, production, exhibition and marketing. He was keenly involved in the set-up of Whistling Woods International and now is setting up and building out a chain of Cinemas under the brand name of Mukta A2 Cinemas.
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Jyoti Nisha
Faculty
Jyoti Nisha
Faculty
Ms. Jyoti Nisha is an independent writer and filmmaker based in Mumbai. She is an experienced journalist, a trained academic writer, screenwriter and filmmaker offering 10 years of work experience in print, radio and TV.
She introduced a new theory – ‘Indian Cinema and the Bahujan Spectatorship’ in the Economic and Political Weekly opposing the popular Indian culture’s twisted and casteist male gaze and its stereotypical representation of the marginalised; earlier called as untouchables, on the silver screen. Bahujan Spectatorship explores the consumption and experience of spectatorship of popular cinema’s representation of caste, gender & sexuality by the marginalised Bahujans of India.
Jyoti has written for Economic and Political Weekly, The Times of India, The Indian Express, NDTV and also academic articles with major focus on cinema, entertainment, caste, gender and media. She also worked as a Director’s Assistant to filmmaker Neeraj Ghaywan for a short titled Geeli Pucchi (that explores gaze, caste, gender & patriarchy) released on Netflix in an anthology – Ajeeb Daastaans, produced by Dharma Productions. Her crowdfunded film, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Now & Then’ which she is co-producing with Pa. Ranjith’s Neelam Production is to release soon.
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Prakhya Vasudeo
Faculty
Prakhya Vasudeo
Faculty
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Sagar Malkar
Faculty
Sagar Malkar
Faculty
A passionate Media Producer & Entrepreneur, is Whistling Woods International alumni with a specialisation in TV & Film production. He is the Founder and Director of ‘The Juvenile Media’, a boutique Production and Marketing agency that concentrates on Digital Marketing, Digital and Television Media Production, TVC’s, DVC’s, Animation, Talent Management, and Influencer Marketing. As the Director of The Juvenile Media, Sagar has produced live action as well as animated TV commercials for 50+ Clients, some of which are for Brands like LIC, RPG, UPL, ICICI Bank, MARS, ASUS. He has also assisted brands Like Axis Bank, Amazon, Paytm, Bajaj Finserv, Croma, KFC and many others with Marketing solutions, Live/ Digital Events, and Influencer Marketing activities.
Sagar has produced 15+ Short Films which have won awards at film festivals like Critics Choice Award, International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Bangalore Indie Film Award, Sydney Film Week, IFH National Film Awards, Missouri Independent Film Award.
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Sumant Abhyankar
Faculty
Sumant Abhyankar
Faculty
Mr. Sumant Abhyankar has over 12 years of academic as well as film production experience. He completed his engineering in Electronics and Telecommunication and holds a master’s degree in Mass Communication and Electronic Media. His vast experience includes, having worked with institutes such as Reliance Education and Seamedu, he has also worked as a Creative Associate in Feature films, assisted in writing for film and television, and written for corporate videos, animation explainer videos, and other short films.
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Sukruth Sudhakar
Visiting Faculty
Sukruth Sudhakar
Visiting Faculty
Sukruth Sudhakar is currently working as Producers’ Executive Assistant at Guilty By Association Media to Producers Amar Butala and Garima Mehta. He is an Alumni from the Producing Batch of Whistling Woods International, where he topped his batch bagging the special commendation medal and was also the first-ever Producing student to bag the Sunanda Murli Manohar Producing Scholarship. He did multiple projects that were part of the curriculum, and his films were selected for various film festivals such as the Lift Off Film Festival, USA, KIFFI, Jaipur, River to River Florence Festival and so on.
He was also part of various projects outside of the curriculum during his course, such as Pink Power for Inorbit mall and a project in association with Motion Pictures Association- all as a Creative Producer. He then moved on to Dharma Productions where he worked on various feature films like Good Newz, Shershaah and the pre-production of Karan Johar’s Takht as a Production Assistant. He has been actively doing Commercials and Promo shoots as a Freelance Production Executive for Clients like Netflix & Amazon Prime. He is currently working on several projects with his current company, Mission Majnu, BULL, A Netflix Original to name a few.
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Vishnu Tenkayala
Visiting Faculty
Vishnu Tenkayala
Visiting Faculty
A birth-child from his many travels, Vishnu Tenkayala intends to encapsulate the many stories he encounters through his lens. Not shying away from shooting with different mediums, Vishnu is always keen to experiment. Highlighted by his films often shot on Drones or even an iPhone apart from conventional cinema-grade cameras.
A double scholarship awarded, Vishnu graduated from Whistling Woods International, Mumbai in the year 2020 at the top of his class and is currently working as a freelance Cinematographer based out of Bangalore, India.
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Vineeja Suresh
Visiting Faculty
Vineeja Suresh
Visiting Faculty
Vineeja Suresh is a wide-ranged media professional with experience in entertainment journalism, casting for ads and movies, script writing for fiction and non-fiction, ads, television and films, and creative producing for short format digital content. She specializes in all forms of creative writing, particularly in fiction. She, currently, works as a freelance writer, experimenting with the different ways storytelling can be effectively used in different fields of work. She runs 2 youtube channels; a food channel and a channel for storytelling.
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Mrinalini Tiwari
Visiting Faculty
Mrinalini Tiwari
Visiting Faculty
Mrinalini Tiwari is a Producer with over 16+ years of experience in the Media and Entertainment space. She Recently produced a viral ad under her company Mystic Eye Entertainment.
With a certification in Producing from Whistling Woods International and associations with notable names like Raj Kanwar, Ashutosh Gowarikar and Youtube, under her belt, she has donned different hats each time, including direction, acting and PR, and producing number music videos and ads, the experience of which cumulatively make her the immensely effective Producer she is.
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Shraddha Thorat
Visiting Faculty
Shraddha Thorat
Visiting Faculty
Shraddha Thorat began her career in 2017 with Dharma productions. She worked on various films such as Dhadak, Made in China, Hum Do Humare Do, and Bheidya. Currently, she works as a line producer with Maddock Films.
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Rashmi Alag
Visiting Faculty
Rashmi Alag
Visiting Faculty
Presently working for Yash Raj Films in Production. Just completed her work in the film Bunty Aur Babli 2. Former Internship at Balaji Motion PicturesPast: Perfect Relations Pvt Ltd and Wonder Welders. Studied at Whistling Woods International Film School Mumbai.
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Medha Khanna
Visiting Faculty
Medha Khanna
Visiting Faculty
Medha Khanna is an independent filmmaker from Chhattisgarh, presently based in Mumbai, India. She is a graduate of Whistling Woods with a specialization in film producing. Medha also has a diploma in screenwriting from Anupam Kher’s Studio and psychology from the University of Pittsburgh. She has switched roles and been part of many short films and music videos as a producer, writer, editor, and production designer.
Self-taught, she is also an exhibited contemporary artist. Her single-line drawings were displayed at Tiraf, Delhi, followed by White Space, Chennai. Her recent work, Lockdown Learnings, a collection of polaroid photographs, was a part of Q417, Bhilai.
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Abha Talesara
Visiting Faculty
Abha Talesara
Visiting Faculty
Abha Talesara is a producer with a decade of experience in the international and domestic media industry, across platforms such as Films, TVC, OTT, Documentaries, Theatre, VR, etc. She also consults on creative development, legal, production, marketing, and distribution strategy. She is on the advisory board for Lekh-Haq – a Cultural Impact Company and has been on the selection committee for Film festivals including Kashish International Queer Film Festival. As a mixed media artist, her works have been exhibited at Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, Sadhna Dell’Arte, Dumas Art Project, Whitefield Art Collective among others. She has been an Inlaks Scholar and participated at various artist residences and labs. Abha is a visiting Faculty at Whistling Woods International and K. C. High. International and Associate Professor of Media Studies at L. V.
Prasad Film and TV Academy. Her current research interests include gender and cinema, marginal spectatorship and law, ethics, and New Media
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Nilakshi Sengupta
Visiting Faculty
Nilakshi Sengupta
Visiting Faculty
A postgrad in English literature, trained at Mashav Israel, London film school, and Sundance Co Lab, Nilakshi Sengupta is a director-producer for over 20+ years and has worked in Entertainment, FMCG, Banking, Healthcare, Hospitality, Travel-Tourism, Railways and Agriculture industries. She has directed-produced TV commercials, corporate content, documentary films and short content that are both scripted and unscripted. Her advertising work has been for Hindustan Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Monsanto, Tata Rallis, Times group, Indian Railways and Tourism, Godrej and Andre Agassi’s Square Panda. Her Television work has been for BBC India, CNN India, Times Network International, Sony and Doordarshan. Nilakshi is the Indian films Curator of the New Castle UK International film festival. She is a jury of Bengali Filmfare awards in India and the 47th Boston Sci-Fi film festival. Her 30 minutes short film ‘Meeting in the Mountains’ was selected in Kerala and LA short film festivals and is live on Shorts TV. Her podcast ‘Just One Question’ interviews technicians and actors across India. Her books ‘Tina and her Magic Kettle’ and ‘Tina goes to Pompeii’ are available as E & Audiobooks. Currently in pre-production are her debut feature film BLUE: The Colour of Guilt and documentaries GRIT, English language theatre of India and The Indian Carnival.
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Yugshrestha Karpatne
Visiting Faculty
Yugshrestha Karpatne
Visiting Faculty
Yug presently heads ad-film production house Boathouse Media as the Producer of 400+ TV / Digital Commercials working with 100+ brands, associating with various celebrities. Having a desire to share his filmmaking knowledge with upcoming filmmakers, he is a Visiting Faculty member in WWI, where he has conducted 30+ short workshops on Budgeting, Scheduling, Film Finance, etc. He spearheaded a team that created online filmmaking courses for Virtual Academy.
His passion for movies had made him quit his business and study Film Producing. While as a student in WWI – he topped his batch, won the best producer award along with a scholarship, worked on a Hindi feature film & episodic documentary, and produced around 30 short films with one of them shot in the USA. His short films currently on OTT viz. 500 Rupees, Binodini, Dhachka, Baashinde, etc. have earlier won numerous prizes in film festivals internationally including nominations in Filmfare.
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Anupama Bose
Visiting Faculty
Anupama Bose
Visiting Faculty
Anupama Bose is a Producer – Curator. She has set up Makhijafilm with filmmaker Devashish Makhija to make independent spirited genre films that traverse universal themes, and engage in strong, uncompromised narratives rooted in people, cultures, identity conflicts and human dilemmas. Over the years she has designed and produced short and long-form content, campaigns, events, community programs. She has been Head of Development, Phantom Films (2012), and was with the National Film Development Corporation’s Film Bazaar as the Curator–Producer, Knowledge Series & the Producers’ Workshop (2014-2018). Her last stint was as COO, MovieSaints – a Philadelphia based Online Box Office & now a Distribution Solutions Provider for curated Indies. They have pioneered Hybrid releases in India. She enjoys teaching and has been Adjunct Faculty for the Producers’ Programs at the Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute, Kolkata and Whistling Woods International School for Film & Television, Mumbai. In all her engagements she endeavours to create opportunities, solve problems and mentor talent. I believe that every little job well done goes a long way in adding to the foundation and eventually nurturing an ever-evolving edifice.
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PRODUCTION DESIGN
Sabyasachi Bose
Head of Department
Mr. Sabyasachi Bose
Head of Department
Mr. Sabyasachi Bose graduated from the Government College of Art and Craft, Calcutta (now, Kolkata) in 1992. In 1994, he began working in the field of Production Design first with Bijon Das Gupta, then Sanjay Dhabade and finally with late Samir Chanda.
He has been involved in film projects that include ‘Raja’ (1995), ‘Barsaat’ (1995), ‘Gupt- The Hidden Secret’ (1997), ‘Judaai’ (1997), ‘Chocolate – Deep Dark Secrets’ (2005) and ‘Krrish’ (2006), besides TV serials such as ‘Chandrakanta’, the theatre production ‘Legend of Rama’, along with shows such as ‘Manikchand Filmfare Awards’, ‘Hum Ek Hai’, and ad shows for companies like Samsung, Onida, BPL, Tata, Britannia, MRF Tyres, Apollo Tyres, Times of India, Anandalok, etc.
Simultaneously, he has participated in art exhibitions such as, ‘Exhibition’ organised by ‘Indian International Art Centre’ at Kolkata in 1992, ‘Annual Art Exhibition- 1996-97’ organised by ‘The Art Society of India’ (Mumbai), ‘9th Harmony Show’ organised by the ‘Art Trust’, co-organised by the ‘Textile Division, Reliance Industries’ at Mumbai (2004) and ‘Art Watch’ organised by ‘Galerie 88’ at Kolkata (2004) etc.
He has been associated with Whistling Woods International for more than a decade and currently working as the HOD in the Production Design Department, WWI. At WWI, he also teaches History of Art courses.
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Rohit Kumar
Faculty
Rohit Kumar
Faculty
Mr. Rohit Kumar a graduate from the Asian Academy of Film and Television, Noida with 17 years of extensive experience in the industry in almost all aspects of the business. His knows 360° approach to Media & Communications and has experience in taking a project right from conceptualisation down to its final execution. His portfolio ranges from TV channels, production houses, to filmmaking and all working with the stalwarts of the industry. He works in multiple format of filmmaking both technically and creatively.
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Santosh Raut
Faculty
Santosh Raut
Faculty
Mr. Santosh Raut who passed out from “Model Art Institute” Mumbai in 1992, soon started working in the field of Production Design first with Nitin Chandrakant Desai and then with Sanjay Dhabade. He has been involved in film projects and TV serials that includes “Chanakya”(1990), “Mriganayani” (1993), “1942: A Love Story” (1994), “Akele Hum Akele Tum” (1995), “Baazi” (1995), “Katha Doan Ganapatravanchi” (1996), “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001), “The Hero: Love Story of a Spy” (2003), “Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyo” (2004), “Chocolate: Deep Dark Secrets” (2005), “Vivah” (2006), “Ek Vivaah… Aisa Bhi” (2008), “Khulay Asmaan Kay Neechay” (2008), “Veer” (2010), and an international project named “The Other Side of the Door” (2016). Simultaneously he was also involved in shows like “Manikchand Filmfare Awards”, “Sansui Film Awards”, “Zee Film Awards”, “Hum Ek Hain”, “Zee Music Awards”, “Lata Mangeshkar Sangeet Rajani”, “Aasha Bhosle Show”, “A. R. Rahman Show” at Dubai besides promotion shows for companies like “BPL, Samsung, LG, and Britannia”. He is currently working as the “Set Construction” faculty in the Production Design department, WWI.
Mr. Anjum Rajabali is a veteran screenwriter, with films like Drohkaal, Ghulam, The Legend of Bhagat Singh, Raajneeti, and Toofaan (under production) to his name. He has also been a script consultant and advisor to numerous films, most recently Mulk, Article 15, Thappad.
In 2004, he designed and created India’s first full-fledged Screenplay Writing department at the Film and Television Institute of India at Pune and was its Honorary Head for 12 years. Since 2006, he has been the Founder-Head of Screenwriting at Whistling Woods International, Mumbai.
He regularly conducts screenwriting workshops and masterclasses in India and abroad, and has convened several national screenwriting conferences, seminars, fellowships, script contests for Indian screenwriters.
He was chosen for the ‘Leading International Teacher’ 2019 award by CILECT, the association of more than 180 major film schools across the world.
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Ashwini Malik
Faculty
Ashwini Malik
Faculty
Mr. Ashwini Malik went to India’s premier film school, Film & Television Institute of India (FTII), to study Film Direction. His graduation film, The Waiter in Slow Motion, was in official competition at the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 1995. Ashwini began his career in television, and wrote, directed and produced many fiction and non-fiction shows, including several hour-long thrillers in the popular Saturday Suspense series. In 2002, he directed his first feature film, Clever & Lonely, which was shown at many international film festivals. Since 2004, Ashwini has been involved in teaching Screenwriting and regularly conducts masterclasses and workshops in India and abroad. He has been a mentor at several script labs, including New Voices Fellowship for Screenwriters (by Asia Society), Mumbai Mantra Cinerise Screenwriting Programme, the MAISHA film labs in East Africa, NFDC’s script development workshop and the Indo-German Screenwriting programme. Most recently, he presented a paper at the CILECT Congress 2019, in Moscow. His screenwriting credits include I Am, Road, Movie and Sorry Bhai.
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Ipek Ghashghaie
Faculty
Ipek Ghashghaie
Faculty
Ms. Ipek Ghashghaie has undertaken her bachelor’s degree in Direction from Sooreh Art University, Tehran, Iran and diploma in Screenwriting from Whistling Woods International.
She started her career directing documentary films in Iran and acting in theatre.She wrote a couple of short screenplays that have been made by her along with other directors. The same were screened at international short film festivals,of which the latest wereZinebi Bilbao International Festival of Documentary and Short Films 2019.
Ipek has proven expertise in writing short and feature scripts and developing original ideas.Currently, she is writing series for Iranian TV and working on featuresand short scripts as a freelance writer.She has taken part in various international filmmaking workshops and has the experience of seeing and being a part of the filmmaking process in different cultures.
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Juhi Shekhar
Faculty
Juhi Shekhar
Faculty
Ms. Juhi Shekhar has had an outstanding career in the film and television industries. She has written scripts for major banners such as Anil Kapoor Productions, Planman Motion pictures, Ram Gopal Verma, and Yellow Pictures by Anand Rai. In television, Juhi has written screenplays for Gumrah, the show was awarded the best crime show at ITA and Favorita crime Drama at Peoples’ choice. Her contribution to Star Plus’s Arjun got nominated for ITA in the best screenplay category. Ms. Shekar also developed scripts and creatives for a Marathi show Tanishka for Saam TV. She worked as 2nd assistant director on a serial produced by UTV called ‘Bombay talking’ directed by Anand L Rai and telecasted on Z café, and even directed 26 episodes of a talk show called, “Yaadein” for Door Darshan. Her directorial experience includes working as an assistant director on Manish Jha’s feature film Anwar and on Anand L Rai’s “Thodi life thoda magic”. Her rich portfolio includes writing, co-production and acting in a 15-minute short film on female child abuse named “MOAM” shown on NDTV Profit- The Indie Film Club. Juhi also collaborated with Mr. Shahrukh Khan on an Ad film for Nokia.
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Vikas Sharma
Faculty
Mr. Vikas Sharma
Faculty
Mr. Vikas Sharma is a professional screenwriter of the Hindi film industry, a freelance script consultant, and a full-time senior faculty of Screenwriting at Whistling Woods International since January 2016. Before Whistling Woods, he taught scriptwriting at the Film and TV Institute of India, Pune, from April 2011 to December 2015. He conducts screenplay writing workshops in India and abroad for Film Schools, Media Colleges, Universities, Film Festivals, Skill India Programme, etc.
Vikas has also been a mentor and an advisor for various script labs and fellowships such as Asia Society’s New Voices Fellowship for Screenwriters, 100 Storyteller Programme, Cinerise Screenwriting Programme, Cinestaan India’s Script Contest, to name a few.
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Visiting Faculty
Aarambhh Mohan Singh, Pooja Varma, Smita Sahay
SOUND RECORDING & DESIGN
Sudipta Basu
Head of Department
Sudipta Basu
Head of Department
Mr. Sudipta Basu is a Sound Recording and Engineering Diploma graduate from Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. He is the first Indian engineer to successfully design and fabricate the first Indian made Forward-Reverse projector to run in Interlock with Westrex Rock & Roll recording system in standard speed reverse. He singlehandedly installed the first such system at the studios in India. He has worked as a sound recordist for some renowned directors. Twice he was a member of the Technical Committee of IFFI (International Film festival Of India; held in Kolkata). He was also a member of the Technical Committee and Academic council of The Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), Kolkata. He has been associated with Whistling Woods International for more than a decade and now heads the department of Sound Recording & Design.
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Bhaskar Roy
Faculty
Bhaskar Roy
Faculty
Mr. Bhaskar Roy, a graduate from FTII, Pune, is a professional sound editor, location sound mixer, film sound mixer, and system integrator. He has worked with renowned professionals of the Indian Film Industry like Yash Chopra, Subhash Ghai, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Konkana Sen Sharma, Rituparno Ghosh, Sudhir Mishra to name a few. His notable projects include films like Black, Bluffmaster!, Kaanchi, Rang Desh among others.
Bhaskar Roy is an Avid Certified Trainer and has also worked as a part-time instructor with Fairlight Inc.
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Rakesh Ranjan
Faculty
Rakesh Ranjan
Faculty
Mr. Rakesh Ranjan has over 43 years of working experience in Hindi Cinema and has worked with leading Producers & Directors in over 170 Features. Some of the stalwarts that he has worked with include names like Sunil Dutt, Subash Ghai, Ramesh Sippy, Saawan Kumar, Mahesh Bhatt, Prakash Jha, Raj Santoshi, Sunny Deol, David Dhawan, Dharmendra, Abbas Mustan, Ajay Devgan, Vikram Bhatt, Mani Ratnam, Aziz Mirza, N Chandra, Anees Bazmee, Simmi Garewal, Rohit Shetty, Prabhudeva and many more. He has worked in projects like Souten, Naam, Sadak, Ghaayal, Andaaz Apna Apna, Ghatak, Mrityudand, Damini, Barsat, Paredes, Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha, Taal, Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani, Yaadein, Ashoka, The Legend Of Bhagat Singh, Aitraaz, Main Hoorn Na, Guru, Race, A Wednesday, Dillagi, Aks, Black & White, Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahani, Paan Singh Tomar, Raavan, Golmaal, Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster, Singham, Chennai Express, Satyagrah, Phata Poster Nikla Hero, Singham Returns, Action Jackson, Jai Gangajal, Golmaal Again, Simmba, etc. He has received a number of accolades and recognition for his work which include 4 Filmfare, 2 Screen, 1 Zee, and 1 IIFA. AUDEUS, a recording division of Mukta Arts was designed by him, bringing digital audio post-production into the Hindi Motion Picture Industry. He also designed DHWANI, a recording division of Prakash Jha Production.
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Tanmoy Basu
Faculty – Sound & Design
Tanmoy Basu
Faculty – Sound & Design
Mr. Tanmoy Basu has an academic background of BSc in Economics, Masters in Sociology and PG Diploma in Audiography from FTII Pune. As a sound student in FTII he learned to love sound and since then he has been working as an independent sound designer for films, many of which have got numerous awards in national and international film competitions. He has also learned Indian classical Music from pandit Rajendra Kulkarni and has been working as a music composer as well for various Ads, short films, Animated films and TV shows. He is also a founder member of a Mumbai based musical band named GANGOTRI. His research work ‘Violin Making and challenges’ is a published matter in LENSIGHT magazine and opens out the a scientific understanding of how global warming can affect the acoustical musical instruments. Mr. Basu is currently member of Governing Council of Media and Entertainment Skill Council.
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VFX
Kshitiz Sharma
Head of Department – VFX
Kshitiz Sharma
Head of Department – VFX
Mr. Kshitiz Sharma, a CG artist and an academician in the field of Visual Effects and Animation, his career spans over a period of over 16 years. A CGI expert, he has donned several roles including that of a technical supervisor, modelling supervisor, 3D supervisor and have worked with various animation production houses across the globe on national & international projects.
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Avik Chakraborty
Faculty
Avik Chakraborty
Faculty
Mr. Avik Chakraborty is a CG Compositor expert with 7 years of industry experience with specialisation in Lighting. His expertise also includes Stereo Conversion, Matchmoving& Keying to create & execute projects of various capacities.
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VIRTUAL REALITY & VIRTUAL PRODUCTION
Chaitanya Chinchlikar
Head of the Department
Chaitanya Chinchlikar
Head of the Department
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Vivek Kandasamy
Faculty & Creative Technologist
Vivek Kandasamy
Faculty & Creative Technologist
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Sumedh Sawant
Creative Technologist
Sumedh Sawant
Creative Technologist
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Karan Taley
VFX Supervisor
Karan Taley
VFX Supervisor
He is the VFX Supervisor at the Emerging Media Lab. He also overseas and creates workflows for virtual production and VR to train the upcoming generation of filmmakers with all emerging mediums. A VFX artist responsible for creating, managing, and optimising visual effects and animations for VR and Virtual productions, Karan completed his graduate degree in filmmaking with a focus on visual effects. Due to his extensive knowledge and expertise in this area, he joined the Whistling Woods International research team to look for new opportunities and processes to speed up and simplify the filmmaking process. He began his career in visual effects with AD films, short films, and a few feature films. Several of his films have been shown at prestigious film festivals around the world, including the Cannes Film Festival, the Chicago Film Festival, Jio MAMI, and the IFFSA Toronto.
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Rushikesh Hande
Lab Technical Associate
Rushikesh Hande
Lab Technical Associate
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Aadhithya Sindol
Project Coordinator
Aadhithya Sindol
Project Coordinator
An alumni of Whistling Woods International, Aadhithya Sindol, graduated from the School of Media & Communication. Currently, he is a trainee in the department of Emerging Media Lab as a Project Coordinator and is pursuing to become a creative technologist in Virtual Reality and Virtual Production sector.
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Deepkumar Borude
Production Assistant
Deepkumar Borude
Production Assistant
Deepkumar Borude is an Independent Producer and Assistant Director. He completed his filmmaking degree from Whistling Woods International with specialisation in Producing. He has worked in various advertising, television and film production houses. He has a knack for software’s, movie magic scheduling and movie magic budgeting. He has also produced various short films that have gone and done rounds of many international film festivals. He has also pitched projects at Film Bazaar, National Film Development Corporation of India and been a part of events at Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry.
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CULTURE STUDIES
Salim Arif
Head of Department
Salim Arif
Head of Department
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.
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Anushka Jadhav
Faculty
Anushka Jadhav
Faculty
Anushka Jadhav is an Educator and Artist who conducts workshops, talks and teacher-trainings — along with developing curriculum — on Gender and Sexuality in educational institutions around the country.
She majored in Anthropology & Literature from St. Xavier’s, Mumbai, and holds a Master’s in Education from SNDT University. She’s the curriculum in-charge at Whistling Woods International along with being the faculty for Culture Studies.
As an educator focused on gender inclusion, she has been invited to conduct sessions at institutes such as BITS Hyderabad, IIT Mandi, IIITM Gwalior, IIITDM Jabalpur, PESIT Bangalore, Mallya Aditi International, UWC Mahindra among others and have been featured in publications such as Hindustan Times, Homegrown, Scroll, YouthKiAwaaz, LiveMint, TheBetterIndia etc.
In the past, she’s worked on the planning and program-curation of on-ground conferences and conventions on issues of gender and identity, such as Gaysi Family’s Zine Bazaar (in association with Max Mueller Bhavan) and has also co-founded an educational trust aimed at situating gender advocacy within education and bridging the gap between activism and academia.
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Media & Communication
Laili Dutta
Head of Department
Laili Dutta
Head of Department
Laili Dutta, the head of WWI School of Media and Communication, is an independent documentary filmmaker, musician, and a media trainer with over two decades of experience. An alumna of Lady Shri Ram College & MCRC Jamia, she started her career with NDTV. She has taught & held media workshops in some of the most prestigious institutions like IP College for Women, Delhi University, Times School of Journalism, Lady Shri Ram College and NDTV Indiacan. As a consultant, she has also trained senior level television producers in international channels like Astro Awani, Malaysia and ITV Bangladesh.
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Utkarsha Kotian
Faculty and Senior Manager – Academics
Utkarsha Kotian
Faculty and Senior Manager – Academics
Utkarsha Kotian has worked as a reporter and a consulting editor for leading national dailies and has been an interpreter and translator on multiple international projects. She has a varied academic background that spans the fields of journalism, literature, English language teaching and comparative mythology. Her research interests and publications lay in the field of gender, public policy, and narratives surrounding welfare and politics.
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Oindrilla Purohit
Adjunct Faculty
Oindrila Purohit
Adjunct Faculty
Oindrila Purohit is an entrepreneur, children’s author, and a communication coach. An alumna of the Xavier Institute for Communications, Mumbai, she has over 20 years of experience in entertainment PR, corporate communication, internal communication, international marketing, and content creation. She began her career with PR agencies where she successfully led campaigns for television channels, telecom companies, and consumer brands. She also spent 7 years with HDFC Ltd. in her role ofCorporate Communication. As an entrepreneur, she creates live content and experiential events for children. She has been teaching for over 12 years in various media colleges.
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Kapil Tandon
Adjunct Faculty
Kapil K Tandon
Adjunct Faculty
Kapil K Tandon is a postgraduate in chemical engineering and an MBA with over four decades of multi-faceted experience in business/corporate planning, strategy, entrepreneurial ventures, project development, project finance and marketing areas. He has worked in multiple positions, right from middle management to profit centre-head in both public and private sector, financial institutions and multi-national corporations. He has also handled a wide range of consultancy assignments and special studies in industrial and social sectors.
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Milind Dedhia
Adjunct Faculty
Milind Dedhia
Adjunct Faculty
Milind Dedhia is an accounts and finance professional. He has worked for 15 years with a chartered accountancy firm and teaches at various educational institutions in Mumbai. Apart from his two decades of work, his interests also lie in the areas of audit, business planning, budgeting, economics and taxation.
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Manisha Rajadhyaksha
Adjunct Faculty
Manisha Rajadhyaksha
Adjunct Faculty
Manisha Rajadhyaksha has more than 30 years of experience in the corporate sector, management consulting & research, academic teaching in Business Schools in India and international markets. Her educational qualifications include postgraduate degrees in mathematics and statistics, business management, and international relations and strategy from Indian and American Universities. Her teaching and research interests include business research, strategy, international relations, culture, economics, entrepreneurship, organisational behaviour, marketing and consumer behaviour, and management.
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Kajol Bangera
Faculty
Kajol Bangera
Faculty
With a post graduate degree in Sociology, Kajol has worked as a teacher in Akanksha NGO for two years. She currently does freelance work in writing, translating and editing and is also an online private tutor, teaching English to adult learners and internet basics to senior citizens.
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Asha D’Souza
Adjunct Faculty
Asha D’Souza
Adjunct Faculty
After completing her MBA from Symbiosis, Asha joined the advertising industry in the account management sector. She has worked with some of the top agencies in India such as Mudra and Grey worldwide as well corporates such as Emirates, TCS and Times of India. Her last stint with TOI was heading the CSR division for the western zone running the ‘Teach India’ program.
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Anagha Mayekar
Visiting Faculty
Anagha Mayekar
Visiting Faculty
Anagha Mayekar is a visual story telling artist based in Mumbai. Graduated from The One School Goa, a renowned photography institute in Goa, she specialises in portraits, still life and weddings. Her work has been exhibited along international photographers at the Goa International Photo Festival, 2015, and Dali International Photo Festival, 2015. Anagha has been teaching as a visiting faculty at the School of Media & Communication, Whistling Woods International, since 2019.
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Anita Naidu
Visiting Faculty
Anita Naidu
Visiting Faculty
Anita is a seasoned media professional and worked in the media industry for more than 20 years, she brings with her an all-round perspective of Radio Management, Digital and TV in the Broadcast Segment right from radio-jockeying, content-writing, creative services, business, production, branding, marketing & PR.
Anita started training hosts and producers on AIR-Bangalore in the early years, went on to join the Times Group’s Radio Mirchi for nearly 10 years, set up Radio One’s International format radio station and was with them for 9 years as the Programming Head and Radio Host for various shows. Currently she designs and delivers workshops on communication, content and conducts Masterclasses in leading professional talent institutes in India, from Wilson College to Whistling Woods International (Mumbai).
Anita is armed with a bachelor’s degree in science (maths, physics, electronics) and a masters in English Literature. It was her love for reading and literature that earned her an MPhil in English Literature. She loves creating workshops and training programs in Radio, Education, Communication, and Literature and regularly conducts Public Speaking and Podcasting workshops for children and young adults. Anita was nominated by the US Embassy for the prestigious IVLP International Visitors Leadership Program to the USA to speak and communicate on the Relevance of Media making a Social Change in our lives today.
She was on the panel for Mount Holyoke College Shakti Leadership Program on STEM education for children, its importance in life and various fields of education. She has also worked with UNICEF’s & Teach for India’s education programs.
Anita recently was featured in the book Let’s Talk on Air – Conversations with Radio Presenters by Rakesh Anand Bakshi, an insight into the lives of 14 eminent radio presenters from across India, its their stories and challenges and Anita was an integral part of the book by means of contributing and guiding on radio and publishing.
Anita’s passion for reading and books leaves no stone unturned, she has curated the LITERATI for High Street Phoenix (Mumbai) which gives a stage to authors publishers, writers etc. From Book Launches to Flag Ship writing workshops, from book readings to Storytelling with Crossword and Penguin and various literature festivals for kids, it’s all here part of her repertoire.
She’s interviewed many an author from Sudha Murty to Ruskin Bond, Ashwin Sanghi to Ravi Subramaniam, Christopher Paolini to Jeff Kinney. Anita presently is a consultant training head with G Corp Media for their corporate communication programs – Communicate Right, Public Speaking and Voice Coaching workshops for kids, adults, and corporates.
Anita is your true media professional, where music and literature is her soul, give her a radio, a cup of tea and a book, that’s enough to make her day, while her passion is to teach and train in the field of radio and communication, she loves to travel, discover cultures, and talk, she believes, “lets speak to influence, influence to make a change.” If you can’t find Anita reading a book or telling a story, rest assured she’s interviewing an author or interesting people with a story.
She believes everyone has a story to tell, let’s tell it well!
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Indranil Kashyap
Visiting Faculty
Indranil Kashyap
Visiting Faculty
Indranil Kashyap is a young Indian Screenwriter and Director, who has worked on numerous film productions ranging from full length features, documentaries, music videos to ad-films. The most mentionable is the role of Chief Assistant Director for the Netflix film ‘Firebrand’ in 2018. Enchanted by the ‘Crime and Thriller’ Genre right from the era of Byomkesh Bakshi on Doordarshan, Indranil loves working on thrilling dramas, slow burn mysteries, and quirky satires. He has worked in multiple Indian languages. His short feature ‘Kula’ has been exhibited in more than 20 international film festivals and won him the prestigious Jury Special Cinema Experimenta Award at SiGNS – The Indian Festival of Documentaries and Short Features for John Abraham National Awards in 2016.
He is currently working on a Murder Mystery to be filmed in Assam. Indranil has been a part of several documentary research and production, his documentary ‘Tales of Manasa’ is in the process of funding. Apart from film production, Indranil takes active interest in film academics. He is a former faculty of the Direction department at Whistling Woods International and he continues to conduct filmmaking workshops in the prominent film and media institutions across the length and breadth of India.
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Mona Kothari
Visiting Faculty
Mona Kothari
Visiting Faculty
Mona, a business management professional, with 20+ years of experience, has led large strategic and critical transformation initiatives across strategy, business planning, sales, distribution, performance management, human resources, & talent management.
Ability to seamlessly transition from blue sky thinking to operational nuances, result orientation, cultivation of productive working relations, are some of the key attributes she embodies. Personal drive, integrity, and her ability to communicate and influence, lends her an edge. She has also played a pivotal role in developing and executing specialized training program for sales channels and senior leadership.
She is presently essaying the role of an Enabler for businesses, along with creating her footprint in the academic world.
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Naziya Khan
Visiting Faculty
Naziya Khan
Visiting Faculty
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Nikhil Rao
Visiting Faculty
Nikhil Rao
Visiting Faculty
A marketing consultant with over 26 years of industry experience, Nikhil Rao holds a B.E in Electronics and MMS in Marketing degree. He has worked with numerous well-known brands in consumer electronics such as Videocon, MIRC Electronics (ONIDA), JVC etc. As an educator, his interests lay in teaching marketing, management, business planning, and international business.
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Suparna Sengupta
Visiting Faculty
Suparna Sengupta
Visiting Faculty
Suparna Sengupta has worked with the Leading Media agencies and comes with a rich media planning experience of 10-12 years. She has worked on Brands like ICICI, Loreal etc.
She has been associated with teaching since the last 6 years. When she’s not teaching, she loves to travel and try her hand at art.
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Sweksha Bhagat
Visiting Faculty
Sweksha Bhagat
Visiting Faculty
Sweksha Bhagat is an alumnus of the Screenwriting Department, Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. She taught Screenwriting as an Assistant Professor at FTII (2019-2020) and is at present the Program Lead for Online Weekend Web Series Writing Course at Whistling Woods International, Mumbai. She has written award-winning television shows – Qubool Hai, Chakravartin Ashok Samrat, Peshwa Bajirao, Kullfi Kumaar Baajewala to name a few.
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Yugshrestha Karpatne
Visiting Faculty
Yugshrestha Karpatne
Visiting Faculty
Yugshrestha Karpatna presently heads an ad-film production house, Boathouse Media, that has produced over 400+ TV / Digital Commercials working with 100+ brands, associating with various celebrities. Having a desire to share his filmmaking knowledge with upcoming filmmakers, he is a visiting faculty member in WWI, where he has conducted 30+ short workshops on budgeting, scheduling, film finance, etc. He spearheaded a team that created online filmmaking courses for Virtual Academy.
His passion for movies had made him quit his business and study film Producing. While as a student in WWI – he topped his batch, won the best producer award along with a scholarship, worked on a Hindi feature film & episodic documentary, and produced around 30 short films with one of them shot in the USA. His short films currently on OTT viz. 500 Rupees, Binodini, Dhachka, Baashinde, etc. have earlier won numerous prizes in film festivals internationally including nominations in Filmfare.
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Zahir Mirza
Visiting Faculty
Zahir Mirza
Visiting Faculty
A veteran of the advertising industry, Zahir Mirza comes with an experience of 27 years of decorated excellence with some of the top agencies, across a portfolio of top-tier clients.
Retired with the primary objective of specialising in training in creativity and innovation, dedicated to revolutionizing the way learning and development is perceived.
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Sports & Esports Management
Laili Dutta
Head of Department
Laili Dutta
Head of Department
Laili Dutta, the head of WWI Sports & Esports Management, is an independent documentary filmmaker, musician, and a media trainer with over two decades of experience. An alumna of Lady Shri Ram College & MCRC Jamia, she started her career with NDTV. She has taught & held media workshops in some of the most prestigious institutions like IP College for Women, Delhi University, Times School of Journalism, Lady Shri Ram College and NDTV Indiacan. As a consultant, she has also trained senior level television producers in international channels like Astro Awani, Malaysia and ITV Bangladesh.
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CP Thomas
Faculty
CP Thomas
Faculty
Thomas is a senior professional with over 30 years of experience in the business of sports, esports, media, communication, and publishing industries. He started his professional career as a sportswriter for Indian Express and then moved on to business journalism with The Economic Times, Dow Jones, Outlook, and India Today groups. In the communication industry, he was the media strategist in Roger Pereira Burson-Marstellar for high-profile national and international brands and then went on to head corporate communication in Reliance Infocomm. In his entrepreneurial journey, he co-founded the communication consultancy Zzebra, which in a short period became a national brand and was acquired by a leading advertising group. Thomas also co-founded 42, a book publishing and distribution company, SportzPower, a B2B sports business media company, ConnectIn Esports, an athlete and content management company, and The Fan Garage (TFG), a brand focused on building a community of sports fans. Thomas comes with deep knowledge about the sports and esports industries and businesses, and a wide network of professional contacts, which, along with his mentorship skills will provide the foundation for students to derive the desired value from this program and become successful professionals and leaders in the sports and esports industries.
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Rahul Puri
Head Academics
Rahul Puri
Faculty
Rahul Puri is the Managing Director of India’s leading entertainment company Mukta Arts Ltd. & Head of Academics of India’s finest creative education institute, Whistling Woods International. A business graduate from Kings College London, Rahul started his career as an investment banker at UBS Warburg. Rahul moved to Mumbai in 2002 and worked in the sector of Corporate Finance & Strategy before he joined Mukta Arts Ltd. to produce and distribute Indian films.
Rahul is now involved in all aspects of the company including financing, distribution, production, exhibition and marketing. He was keenly involved in the set-up of Whistling Woods International and now is setting up and building out a chain of Cinemas under the brand name of Mukta A2 Cinemas.
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Jateen Rajput
Faculty
Jateen Rajput
Faculty
Mr. Jateen Rajput comes with vast experience in event education and management. He started working in the advertising and direct marketing field at the early age of 18 and moved multiple agencies to eventually create ‘Consumer Links’, which is a 24-year-old Experiential and Event Management Company. His 29 years of experience involves managing events across the globe and as an academician, he was involved in teaching and curating the Event Management Course at EMDI. As a core faculty member, he also curated the event management module at MICA, FLAME and Empire School of Learning.
He is experienced in understanding trends and his vision of what the industry expects for the future makes him a formidable member of the core team that would build ‘Future Leaders of the Experiential and Event Management Industry’.
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Kapil Tandon
Adjunct Faculty
Kapil Tandon
Adjunct Faculty
Kapil K Tandon is a postgraduate in chemical engineering and an MBA with over four decades of multi-faceted experience in business/corporate planning, strategy, entrepreneurial ventures, project development, project finance and marketing areas. He has worked in multiple positions, right from middle management to profit centre-head in both public and private sector, financial institutions, and multi-national corporations. He has also handled a wide range of consultancy assignments and special studies in industrial and social sectors.
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Milind Dedhia
Adjunct Faculty
Milind Dedhia
Adjunct Faculty
Milind Dedhia is an accounts and finance professional. He has worked for 15 years with a chartered accountancy firm and teaches at various educational institutions in Mumbai. Apart from his two decades of work, his interests also lie in the areas of audit, business planning, budgeting, economics, and taxation.
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Sukriti Sachar
Visiting Faculty
Sukriti Sachar
Visiting Faculty
An event professional with 11-year industry expertise, Sukriti has created a niche in the presentation design space. She’s worked with some of the best brands, empowered their teams, and given a visual direction to their ideas and goals. Her experience is enhanced with knowledge of on-ground realities.
She has conducted her dynamic PowerPoint workshops ‘SculPPT with Sukriti’ for esteemed advertising, event, and marketing organizations along with teaching students at the Whistling Woods International School of Event Management, Pearl Academy, Sushant School of Design.
She is also the PowerPoint Expert Faculty on Swayam Central, an initiative by the Ministry of HRD.
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Rajan Gunabalan
Adjunct Faculty
Rajan Gunabalan
Adjunct Faculty
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Bhavesh Kapadia
Visiting Faculty
Bhavesh Kapadia
Visiting Faculty
Bhavesh Kapadia has worked with prominent brands such as Accenture, TATA Interactive System (TIS/MPS), Lionbridge, Technologies Inc, Hurix Technologies, Arena Multimedia (Aptech). He has 11 years of experience in educational multimedia production and 4 years of experience in HTML5, Java Script, CSS 3, Articulate Storyline 360. He has extensive knowledge of computers, internet technology and exploring new technology. He has over 20,000 hours of training experience for 30+ different institute centres and has also been a part-time faculty and visiting faculty for 5 years for various reputed institutes.
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Dhiraj Malhotra
Visiting Faculty
Dhiraj Malhotra
Visiting Faculty
A veteran professional in the cricket industry for more than two decades, Dhiraj has held senior positions at the International Cricket Council (ICC) and has been responsible for overseeing cricket operations of various ICC events. For BCCI, he is in charge of game development and operations. Before joining BCCI, Dhiraj was the CEO of Delhi Capitals, and during his stint the IPL franchise had two of their best seasons, including a playoff position and a second-place finish.
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Gaurav Bahal
Visiting Faculty
Gaurav Bahal
Visiting Faculty
Co-Founder, Sportzworkz, Gaurav has been associated with Sports Television for more than two decades. Starting his career with TWI, Gaurav was Manager-Programming (South Asia) in ESPN-Star Sports and Vice President – Operations in Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited. Adding another chapter to his sports television career, Gaurav moved to the acquisition side of things and has been involved with, among others, the ICC bidding in 2007, FIFA world cup bidding 2010, English Premier League.
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Gaurav Mehta
Visiting Faculty
Gaurav Mehta
Visiting Faculty
Gaurav is the co-founder of Quidich innovation Labs, a leading Sports Broadcast & Filming Solutions company catering to both the Indian and international markets. Gaurav works with some of the major sports properties, including the Indian Premier League (IPL). A professional racer for Volkswagen Motorsport GmbH, Gaurav was a competitive racer in the Volkswagen Polo Cup, and trained with Andrew Jordan, the British Touring Car Champion.
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Neha Kandalgaonkar
Visiting Faculty
Neha Kandalgaonkar
Visiting Faculty
Neha, currently Head – Media & Public Relations at Procam International, is a senior communication professional with more than 12 years of experience in the sports industry with extensive and diverse expertise in the entire gamut of communication activities, including public relations, content creation and management, crisis management and strategic planning. Proficient in developing and implementing innovative and exhaustive communication plans for clients across multiple sectors, Neha has worked closely with multiple high profile national and international sports companies, brands, and properties.
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Rakesh Rajendran
Visiting Faculty
Rakesh Rajendran
Visiting Faculty
Mr. Rakesh Ranjan has over 43 years of working experience in Hindi Cinema and has worked with leading Producers & Directors in over 170 Features. Some of the stalwarts that he has worked with include names like Sunil Dutt, Subash Ghai, Ramesh Sippy, Saawan Kumar, Mahesh Bhatt, Prakash Jha, Raj Santoshi, Sunny Deol, David Dhawan, Dharmendra, Abbas Mustan, Ajay Devgan, Vikram Bhatt, Mani Ratnam, Aziz Mirza, N Chandra, Anees Bazmee, Simmi Garewal, Rohit Shetty, Prabhudeva and many more. He has worked in projects like Souten, Naam, Sadak, Ghaayal, Andaaz Apna Apna, Ghatak, Mrityudand, Damini, Barsat, Paredes, Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha, Taal, Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani, Yaadein, Ashoka, The Legend Of Bhagat Singh, Aitraaz, Main Hoorn Na, Guru, Race, A Wednesday, Dillagi, Aks, Black & White, Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahani, Paan Singh Tomar, Raavan, Golmaal, Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster, Singham, Chennai Express, Satyagrah, Phata Poster Nikla Hero, Singham Returns, Action Jackson, Jai Gangajal, Golmaal Again, Simmba, etc. He has received a number of accolades and recognition for his work which include 4 Filmfare, 2 Screen, 1 Zee, and 1 IIFA. AUDEUS, a recording division of Mukta Arts was designed by him, bringing digital audio post-production into the Hindi Motion Picture Industry. He also designed DHWANI, a recording division of Prakash Jha Production.
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Sambit Bal
Visiting Faculty
Sambit Bal
Visiting Faculty
A well-known name in the media world, Sambit Bal, Editor-in-chief of ESPNcricinfo, has three-and-half decades of experience of which he has been in leadership roles for 25 years. He spent 15 years in mainstream journalism, working in some of India’s leading publishing houses before joining Wisden in 2001. He was the first editor of Wisden Asia Cricket and the Asian editor of wisden.com. He has edited three popular magazines and three websites, each of which has been known for the high quality of its journalism and editing standards.
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Sandeep Bazmi
Visiting Faculty
Sandeep Bazmi
Visiting Faculty
Sandeep Bamzai, CEO of IANS, is a veteran media and sports professional and has held editorial leadership positions right through his 32-year career. With domain expertise, both on the revenue side and editorial side, he was earlier the Profit Centre Head in Mail Today, and in Financial Chronicle he was the CEO and Editor-in-Chief. He has authored multiple bestselling books including Guts and Glory: the Bombay Cricket Story, and Gavaskar & Tendulkar: Shaping Indian Cricket’s Destiny.
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Thomas Abraham
Visiting Faculty
Thomas Abraham
Visiting Faculty
A journalist of repute with over 30 years of experience in a wide range of capacities and media organisations, Abraham is currently a promoter and Editorial Director in Sportz Network Private Ltd, a full services media company focused on the business of sports. SportzPower is the media brand from the company, which is the pioneer in single sports business conferences and sports sponsorship research reports. Before setting up SportzPower, Abraham was Editorial Director of Indian Television Dot Com, where he led all content verticals. He started his career in The Times of India, and then was part of the core team that relaunched The Gulf Today.
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Event Management
Deepak Choudhary
Chief Mentor
Deepak Choudhary
Chief Mentor
Mr. Deepak Choudhary, an entrepreneur, has seen the changing face of the events industry and has been an intrinsic part of the overhaul in the span of 16 years. After pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in management from IIPS Indore and a Master’s in Management from IES Management College Mumbai, he started carving a niche for himself in the events industry. With his educational institute venture, publications and event IPs he has successfully diversified business opportunities for flourishing start-ups and created bankable LIVE event IPs across genres.
He co-founded one of India’s first Event Management school in the year 2002 and then went on to collaborate with Roshan Abbas for India’s first-ever Radio Management School. He also joined hands with cricketer Nilesh Kulkarni for India’s first Sports Management School. Divesting his stakes in the education business, he decided to pursue a higher ground and involve himself in a bigger way in the event management business.
In 2007, he co-founded EVENTFAQS, India’s first B2B business portal/publication for the events industry. Over time, EVENTFAQS has branched out in various IPs and publications in the event space, WOW Awards being the biggest of them. In 2013, he went on to establish Event Capital, India’s leading Live Event Intellectual Property rights company with Laqshya Media Group which is India’s leading OOH media company. Over the years, Event Capital has partnered or createdproperties like Bollywood Music Project (Largest Bollywood Music Festival in India), WindMill Festival (India’s only International Kids Festival), Bike Festival of India with MS Dhoni, India Kids Fashion Week (largest kids fashion event), Edutainment Show (festival of design & media education), Big Boys Toys (Men’s lifestyle exhibition), Times Travel show (India’s largest travel B2C Festival with the Times of India), India Bridal Fashion Week (ultimate in bridal) and Indian Festival League. Event Capital now runs the branded IP & content division as well.
In 2016, Deepak also co-authored ‘Staged’ – the first-ever book on the Indian live event Industry.
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Jateen Rajput
Head of Department
Jateen Rajput
Head of Department
Mr. Jateen Rajput comes with a vast experience in event education and management. He started working in advertising and direct marketing field at an early age of 18 and moved multiple agencies to eventually create ‘Consumer Links’, which is a 24 years old Experiential and Event Management Company. His 29 years of experience involves managing events across the globe and as an academician, he was involved in teaching and curating the Event Management Course at EMDI. As a core faculty member, he also curated the event management module at MICA, FLAME and Empire School of Learning.
He is experienced in understanding trends and his vision of what the industry expects for the future makes him a formidable member of the core team that would build ‘Future Leaders of the Experiential and Event Management Industry’.
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Jimmy Choudhary
Business Head
Jimmy Choudhary
Business Head
Ms. Jimmy Choudhary’s passion for education and teaching made her choose this path as her chosen vocation, she started her career as Junior Faculty and Head of Cultural Events at IES Management College. And soon, she along with two other colleagues, founded Asia’s largest school of Event Management, with branches in India and Dubai. After several years in the industry and witnessing success, she moved on to her next love for “food” and started Fat Cat Café, a premium fine dining restaurant.
The draw of being associated with events and being a facilitator for the industry soon drew her to join EVENTFAQS, where she handled the Artist Division and Overall Finance Planning for the business. She believes she has a lot more to give back to event education and hence her years of experience of running and managing the event school makes her a formidable team member of Whistling Woods International School of Event Management.
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Bhavesh Kapadia
Visiting Faculty
Bhavesh Kapadia
Visiting Faculty
Mr. Bhavesh Kapadia has 21 years of experience of working in various corporations, including 11 years of teaching experience with reputed institutes, schools and classes as various senior positions like Lecturer, consultant, and curriculum designer. During his corporate journey, he worked across various major eLearning companies like TATA Interactive System (TIS), Accenture, LionBridge Technologies Inc., Hurix Technologies, Arena Multimedia (Aptech Ltd.). His expertise spans across web developers, software engineers, technology consultants, eLearning Solution, Technical Architect. His role includes guiding IT projects from start to finish, managing technical support operations and introducing new technologies to promote operational efficiency. And it also includes learning a new concept of eLearning and implementing the same concept in the courses and training the different team members about the new concept.
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Clyde Affonso
Visiting Faculty
Clyde Affonso
Visiting Faculty
A Multi-talented individual with his roots from the Travel and Tourism Industry. He is a people’s person and has a positive attitude in life. He has worked both In India and overseas and applies his ideation in his work.
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Harshavardhan Pathak
Visiting Faculty
Harshavardhan Pathak
Visiting Faculty
With a passion for theatre and love for art, he was a part of theatre groups like Jagar as an actor and even did acting workshops of the one and only – Satyadev Dubey. The first lesson was to fit bulbs into the lights that needed to be mounted. The next lesson was to go to the light room and find him in a sea of dimmers and not a single clue as to what is to be done with all the switches and buttons. So, with an overwhelming experience and a feeling of confusion, all that was left to do was observe, learn, and remember! This gradually led to setting up the lights as per the design and then actually operating the lights under Raja Bhau’s guidance. This hands down experience was the teaching process that Raja Bhau made Harsha go through in a very short span of time. He used to accompany his mentor to lectures in Lalit Kala Academy, SPPU and that is how he gained the academic knowledge. Later Harsha started to accompany Raja Bhau when he met dancers, prominently, Guru Pandita Rohini Bhate (Nrityabharati-Kathak) and Vasundhara Shridharan (Bharatnatyam) for discussing light designing specifically for dance productions. During this span of 4-5 years, Harsha worked as an assistant to Raja Bhau and was familiar with certain dance productions. After the sad demise of Raja Bhau in 1994, Harsha, at the age of 24yrs, got an opportunity to do lights for Tanmatra, a Nrityabharati production. With much hesitation and a lot of encouragement from Rohini tai, Harsha successfully did the lights and was professionally paid! But, more than the happiness of getting paid, he was more excited about the triggered feeling of confidence and responsibility that was shown upon him!
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Hemant Matai
Visiting Faculty
Hemant Matai
Visiting Faculty
Participated in highly complex projects alongside some of the most brilliant marketing minds in over 15+ years of my career. My previous key roles have allowed me to work as Head Marketing & Client Relationship for Procam International (India’s oldest Sports Marketing & Management firm), Marketing Manager with Reliance Brands for Diesel, Hamleys, Quiksilver, Timberland, & Super Dry, Event Marketing Specialists for Red Bull India & Programming Producer at STAR India (Disney). Founder of a firm in India called Trinity Entertainment & Strategic Consultants in 2009 (www.trinityentertainment.in) which continues to grow & work with globally renowned brands on a day-to-day basis. Our daily client roster would include Red Bull, Tinder, Abinbev, Pernod Richard, Marriott Group, Linkedin, Volkswagen group (Lamborghini, Porsche, AUDI, Skoda) & Macleran to name a few. Trinity Entertainment & Strategic Consultants (TEASC): is one of India’s leading experiential marketing agencies. Here we combine brand insights and innovation with on-ground expertise. The company’s secret to success is its marketing intelligence across all media platforms coupled with its passion for creating revolutionary experiential marketing ideas that put the brand at the center of strategic thought. We’ve created award winning campaigns for brands that have helped them cut through clutter time & again. In 2019, taking a leap of faith, putting my education & prior work experience to use, we added a content division to our business called Trinity Content labs. Initiating with voluntary ideas of capturing content from our projects with existing roster, we’ve added additional clients for which we finish work that goes on to various platforms namely Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime, Flipkart, Cred, Pharmeasy ELSA Speak, etc. We help them with a bucket of promotional videos monthly & have a full-fledged team working round the clock to deliver the same. Trinity Content Labs (TCL) – is a creative production house helping in creating content for clients/agencies/production houses with a focus on advertising and marketing. Producing expertise and end to end production and postproduction service to design and develop campaigns, still shoots & videos for products, branding, websites, television (commercial videos, brand videos, and explainers) and digital / OTT platforms.
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Khushroo Kekobad
Visiting Faculty
Khushroo Kekobad
Visiting Faculty
With a background in Hotel Management and an experience of over 2 Decades and more in Event Management Live On-Stage Entertainment Private Limited was born. He started his career in Event Management with Wizcraft Entertainment where he started working with Goblins (Wizcraft’s Birthday Party division) and then gradually got into Production of large-scale Concerts namely the famous Lata Mangeshkar Concert at Andheri Sports Complex, Human Aids Concert on Girgaum Chowpatty Beach, He was also part of the prestigious Michael Jackson Concert in India. At Wizcraft he was also part of a long list of Corporate Events such as 555 series and International Concerts of Shaggy, Noble Savages etc. Later he moved to Cineyug run by the famous Morani’s and Soorma and handled their Fireworks and Pyrotechnics division Morani Fireworks and Morani Fireworks & Sfx executing the biggest of Firework display in India. We also pioneered in producing the first Stage Pyrotechnics (now known as Cold Pyro or Close Proximity Pyrotechnics). Have executed produced and designed Pyrotechnic displays for most of the Event management and Wedding Planning companies in India along with Tv Channels namely Star Tv, Sony Tv, Viacom, Zee Tv, Sab TV, Government Events, Leading Newspapers, Leading Business Houses, Advertising Agencies, Hotels & Airlines, Clubs, Gymkhana’s, Amusement Parks. He was also instrumental in Producing the First ever Rooftop Display in India at the 1st IPL Opening Ceremony through Morani Fireworks & Sfx. With Cineyug He has been part of most of the large-scale events in India in the past 15 years. With Cineyug he was also part of Bollywood Concerts & Film Award Nites such as Filmfare Awards, Zee Cine Awards, Screen Awards, Sansui Awards, Star Parivar Awards, Colors Golden Petal Awards, to Sahara Bharat Parva, National Games. He also coordinated international talents with Cineyug and was instrumental in sourcing and designing the biggest Fire Pyrotechnics performance show for IPL Closing Ceremony in South Africa with 30 professional Fire artists Including Fire Drummers, Stilt Pyro performers from Vienna and 20 Local Fire performers from South Africa. Total of 50 Fire Artists performing together. Since then, there was no looking back. He ventured in the field of International Talent Management by starting his own company Live On-Stage Entertainment Private Limited and started collaboration with Award winning performing artists from around the Globe to create and produce bespoke and live entertainment for Opening and Closing Ceremonies for Sports and Stadium events, Theatrical Arenas, Live Concerts, Weddings, Corporate Events and innovative Product launches. He has also authored THE HEALTH AND SAFETY EVENT HANDBOOK which was launched at Eemagine (biggest gathering of Event managers and Wedding Planners in India) by Mr. Rajiv Kumar (Vice Chairman Niti Aayog) Thanks to EEMA (Event Entertainment Management Association which is the premiere Event Managers Association of India. He is now in the process of structuring an Event Insurance Policy for the Event, Wedding, Exhibition and Media Industry in India.
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Mini Ribeiro
Visiting Faculty
Mini Ribeiro
Visiting Faculty
An alumnus of Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi, Mini Ribeiro is a reputed independent writer and food critic with over 33 years of experience. Currently, Mini is the State President of the WICCI Rural Tourism Council Goa. As an established food & beverage writer, Mini contributes to several leading publications across India. She also has her own YouTube channel called Mini’s Food Fundas. She is Visiting Faculty at VM Salgaoncar Institute of International Hospitality Education, Raia, Goa. She has also authored textbooks for Mumbai University. Passionate about cooking and baking, Mini held her first pop-up – Mini’s Repertoire of Goan Sunday Specials at the Hyatt Regency Mumbai in February 2020 where she showcased her family recipes – both classics as well as, some with a contemporary twist. She is the founder of ‘Flavours from Home’, a platform for home talent, which aims at helping them and organized a Home Chefs Mela at Westin Mumbai Garden City in 2015. She authored her first cookbook in September 2020- Magical Twists: East meets West, which explores how ingredients from Goa and Bengal can be skillfully woven into the other, introducing an interesting twist. She is a regular speaker and judge at several food events across the country. She is also a Theatre actor and model and a trained Kathak dancer with a Gold Medal from Allahabad University.
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Nicky Badani
Visiting Faculty
Nicky Badani
Visiting Faculty
With over 13 years of amalgamated experience within the fields of Digital Marketing, Advertising, Communications, Promotions and Events coupled with my academic qualifications surely puts me in a position where I could not only meet but also exceed the expectations for the given role. Academically, in addition to a bachelor’s degree in Commerce (specialization in Business Management), I also have a Post-Graduate Diploma and a Master of Science in the field of International Events Management & PR, which taught me the significance of a strong foundation, responsibility, and the know-how in brand building. Professionally, my experience in the Integrated Marketing Communication fields such as Project Management, Product/Brand communication, Digital Marketing, social media, Venue/Entertainment management, Promotions, liaising as well as other strategic on-line & off-line marketing solutions taught me the significance of managing my time, team and temperament. Personally, I consider myself a duty-bound individual having a reasonable balance between confidence & competence. It is the flexibility that I apply in learning and unlearning things that gives me the competitive advantage in various situations. I really think that my skill set; academic and professional experience is what your organization is seeking, and it would be a true honor to be affiliated with such an esteemed league of individuals
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Nikita Chokshi
Visiting Faculty
Nikita Chokshi
Visiting Faculty
Ms. Nikita Chokshi, is currently working as Vice President – Corporate Marketing & Public Relations. She leads the design and implementation of Digital Marketing, Website, and Public Relations and optimises the internal / external communications.
She manages the Event Agencies, Creative agencies, Travel Agencies and Digital Agency and works closely with Sales team to understand the end-to-end customer-experience and design.
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Payal Shah Karwa
Visiting Faculty
Payal Shah Karwa
Visiting Faculty
Ms. Payal Shah Karwa, recipient of ‘One of the top 50 Content Marketing Influencers’ by the World Marketing Congress, is also a published author, creative professional and a content maven. As a creative professional, she is evolved in experiential marketing and events conceptualisation, creative content for events and other media, presentation skills, etc. In 2009, she ventured to establish an award-winning agency – The Word Jockey Content Studio and is currently the Content Director there. The agency specialises in 360-degree content solutions.
Payal Shah Karwa has been featured in media platforms like DNA, iDiva, Mid-Day, and the likes. Besides being a specialist in brand communication and content, she is also a communication trainer/ speaker and has trained communication professionals at ICICI Pru, Chamber of Tax Consultants, World Marketing Congress, Times Lit Fest, Kala Ghoda Fest, etc. She has also been a visiting faculty in top institutes like NMIMS, Symbiosis, EMDI, IES, XIC as well as the Founder of The Content Campus.
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Sapna Gupta
Visiting Faculty
Sapna Gupta
Visiting Faculty
Ms. Sapna Gupta, born in Mumbai in 1980, has spent her formative years in Kolkata before moving back to Mumbai. Her alma mater is La Martiniere, Kolkata, after which she did her graduation at Presidency College, Kolkata. She started working in Mumbai after finishing her post-graduation studies from ISBM (International School of Business and Media) in Pune.
Published author of ‘Staged’, a book on the live entertainment industry of India, and content enthusiast who believes there is a story behind everything. With over a decade of domain expertise in live experiences and creating medium-agnostic communication, Sapna believes in journeying with brands and consumers. Currently running a successful and award-winning content start-up, The Word Jockey Content Studio, she has worked on content strategy and execution for some of the biggest brands in India and overseas including Godrej, Nielsen, Essar, LinkedIn, Bajaj Finserv and more, thereby carving out a distinct space for herself in the sunrise industry of content creation and marketing.
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Sukriti Sachar
Visiting Faculty
Sukriti Sachar
Faculty
An event professional with 11-year industry expertise, Sukriti has created a niche in the presentation design space. She’s worked with some of the best brands, empowered their teams, and given a visual direction to their ideas and goals. Her experience is enhanced with knowledge of on ground realities. She has conducted her dynamic PowerPoint workshops ‘SculPPT with Sukriti’ for esteemed advertising, event, and marketing organizations along with teaching students at the Whistling Woods International School of Event Management, Pearl Academy, Sushant School of Design. She is also the PowerPoint Expert Faculty on Swayam Central, an initiative by the Ministry of HRD.
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Suresh Kurapaty
Visiting Faculty
Suresh Kurapaty
Visiting Faculty
A Power-packed 2 decades Experience in BFSI & Media in steam of Sales, Marketing, Strategy, Training. Also, a Startup Specialist. After gaining rich experience in BFSI for 11 yrs. in Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Business Development made a move to Media Solutions. Worked as regional head west for LAQSHYA digital helped brands to foray in digital media around 2008. Also worked as Sales Director (India) with Space and People Plc, UK, specializing experiential marketing & retail. Expanded Space and People to 10 new locations with successful profit-making Operations. Founded Umbrella Aegis Pvt. Ltd. in Nov 2013. Created IPs like Auto Circuit in 2014 and The Activation Venues Forum (TAVF) in 2016. TAVF today is the leading IP in Integrated Marketing and has hosted brand CMOs from the likes of LinkedIn to Fashion by Big Bazaar and most of the shopping centers across India.
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Rahul Karwa
Visiting Faculty
Rahul Karwa
Visiting Faculty
Rahul is a seasoned Integrated Marketing Communications professional with an experience of over 18 years in the advertising & communications industry. Having worked with WPP, Ogilvy, DDB Mudra and VML Y&R Commerce (Geometry), Rahul has a well-rounded experience on building brands. He has been in leadership roles since more than a decade and is credited with multiple successful start-up and business turnaround stories. Currently he’s managing his independent creative consulting & Training set-up.
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Tanaz Basrur
Visiting Faculty
Tanaz Basrur
Visiting Faculty
Ms. Tanaz Basrur, with years of work experience in the Media, Service, Sports, MICE and Entertainment industry, is currently a Business and Project Management Consultant apart from being a wedding designer and planner. She has been an integral part of planning Isha Ambani’s wedding in coordination with E-Factor and the planning of Priyanka Chopra’s wedding with MEW.
Tanaz began her career in 1981 with the Welcome Group of Hotels, as a Management trainee and took on a higher position at The President, a Taj Group of Hotels. She joined The Times of India Group during its sesquicentennial year, 1988-89. She was an integral part of the organizing team of some major in-house events like the Times Cricket Shield, Jnanpith Awards, Economic Times Awards, Filmfare Awards and Femina Miss India. Her work tenure further includes serving conglomerates such as UTV group of companies, Zee Network, Rapport Global events, Growel Group of Companies, Cineyug Entertainment and Sport 18, a Network 18 group company. Having worked with the best of organizations in diverse fields, she has a strong network within the Service, Media and Entertainment industry.
Tanaz has also authored a book named–The Art of Successful Event Management.
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Animation & Game Design
Vivek Nag
Head of Department – Animation
Vivek Nag
Head of Department – Animation
Mr. Vivek Nag, a professional working in the industry for the past 7 years, his expertise consists of Pre-production, Comic Book Design, Conceptual Art, Digital Art, Character Design & Illustrations. He also specialises in environment modifications and is adept at working with references.
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Jaydev Dhakan
Head of Department – Game Design
Jaydev Dhakan
Head of Department – Game Design
Mr. Jaydev Dhakan has over 12 years of experience in game development and has worked in various roles with some the most prominent game development studios in India. He started his career as a game tester, worked in several roles, ranging from Game Designer to Producer. Recently, he has become an independent game developer, and teaches game development at Whistling Woods International.
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Gaurav Trivedi
Programme Head, 3D Animation
Gaurav Trivedi
Programme Head, 3D Animation
Mr. Gaurav Trivedi is a CG Generalist with more than 10 years of experience, supporting key aspects of CG, production pipeline, cinematography & films along with education & training. Adept in various 3D Software, Compositing Software, Rendering Engines & Design Programmes. A professional experienced in working with several award-winning production houses on national & international projects.
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Jasbinder Singh
Programme Head 2D & Creative Head – Animation
Jasbinder Singh
Programme Head 2D & Creative Head – Animation
Mr. Jasbinder Singh, an Animation Filmmaker, Production Designer (Animation) and Artist with a bachelor’s in fine arts& Diploma in Animation Filmmaking, he has worked with some of the best organisations on several prestigious projects in the industry. His expertise includes 2D Animation Filmmaking & Stopmotion Animation, Pre-production & Production Design.
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Manish Kaushal
Faculty
Manish Kaushal
Faculty
Mr. Manish Kaushal, a 2D Animation artiste with an industry experience of 14 years, he started his professional career with 2D Cell Animation then moved on to Flash and Toon Boom Harmony software. He has worked on many professional projects, some of which were from reputed companies like Disney, Warner Bros. and Nickelodeon channel.
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Yogesh Gaikwad
Faculty
Yogesh Gaikwad
Faculty – Game Design
Mr. Yogesh Gaikwad, during 7+ years of his career, most of the time he has worked as a character animator. Being a CG Generalist, he has worked in the field of Modelling, Pre-visualisation, Logo Reveals, Image Editing, Video Editing, Product Teasers and Trailers and much more.
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Simran Tapadia
Assistant to Faculty
Simran Tapadia
Assistant to Faculty
Simran is a narrator, illustrator and author with over seven years of experience. She has collaborated with renowned businesses like Jabong, Snapdeal, Amazon Prime, Lakme, and Hindustan Unilever. Scholastic published her book, “How to Survive College,” which she authored and illustrated. Her areas of expertise include publishing, Indian folk art, colour theory, and narrative art.
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Tanay Vaibhav
Assistant to Faculty
Tanay-Vaibhav
Assistant to Faculty
Watching anime and cartoon propelled Tanmay to become a storyteller. A 3D Generalist, with more than 4 years of relevant work experience, he has founded his own production studio called ‘Freak House’. He has worked on several international and national projects in his role as a 3D artist, an entrepreneur, and an academician. Tanmay’s expertise lies in 3D Modelling and Texturing, Production Management, Business Development, and Human Resources.
Jewellyn Alvares is a Fashion Designer and has been a couture and pattern-making enthusiast exploring the subject in the classroom as well as in the customisation of bridalwear for more than a decade. The women’s line goes under the brand name ‘Jule Bridal.’ He recently launched his eponymous label Jewellyn Alvares at the Lakme Fashion Week 2018; this is the menswear line in indigenous fabrics and innovative &unsculpted silhouettes.
As a shoe designer, Jewellyn has customised and designed footwear for several national and international brands like Catwalk, Pavers England to name a few and for large-format shows including Femina Miss India participants.
Jewellyn designs for his clientele across the world and has showcased his work in Australia, garnering praises.
An alumnus of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Bengaluru, he has been associated fashion design schools and is with Whistling Woods International since July 2019.
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Anushka Jadhav
Faculty
Anushka Jadhav
Faculty
Anushka Jadhav is an Educator and Artist who conducts workshops, talks and teacher-trainings — along with developing curriculum — on Gender and Sexuality in educational institutions around the country.
She majored in Anthropology & Literature from St. Xavier’s, Mumbai, and holds a Master’s in Education from SNDT University. She’s the curriculum in-charge at Whistling Woods International along with being the faculty for Culture Studies.
As an educator focused on gender inclusion, she has been invited to conduct sessions at institutes such as BITS Hyderabad, IIT Mandi, IIITM Gwalior, IIITDM Jabalpur, PESIT Bangalore, Mallya Aditi International, UWC Mahindra among others and have been featured in publications such as Hindustan Times, Homegrown, Scroll, YouthKiAwaaz, LiveMint, TheBetterIndia etc.
In the past, she’s worked on the planning and program-curation of on-ground conferences and conventions on issues of gender and identity, such as Gaysi Family’s Zine Bazaar (in association with Max Mueller Bhavan) and has also co-founded an educational trust aimed at situating gender advocacy within education and bridging the gap between activism and academia.
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Indrilla Varma
Faculty
Indrilla Varma
Faculty
Indrila Varma holds a Masters in Fashion Technology and is currently pursuing her PhD in the area of green manufacturing environmental sustainability in the textile and apparel sector. With combined corporate and academic experience of more than 15 years, she has worked in the corporate sector as an Export Merchandiser and Retail Buyer. She has also worked with premier retailers like Pyramid Retail and Shopper’s Stop. Her expertise lies in the fields of Retail Buying and Merchandising, Marketing, and Textiles. She has also published several research papers in various journals and participated in international conferences in India and abroad.
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Kali Rawat
Faculty
Kali-Rawat
Faculty
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Lancy D’silva
Faculty
Lancy D’silva
Faculty
Lancy D’silva has worked with the Italian brand ‘Brioni’ as Manager, made-to-measure and later worked with the brand ‘Camessi’ as Bespoke Consultant. He has been designing and crafting clothes for people since late 90s. He has also conducted masterclasses at DSK Institute and Symbiosis, Pune.
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Saloni Shukla
Faculty
Saloni Shukla
Faculty
Saloni Shukla, a creative director and consultant, is an alumna from NYFA and Whistling Woods and NYU currently running her own incubator and media company. In her 15 years of working in the industry she has played multiple roles – that of a producer, director, creative head, and business developer and been instrumental in setting up companies like Netflix, digital Nirvana, and talent next – India’s first online talent platform. She is a documentary and fashion filmmaker and a theatre personality. Her vast knowledge in multiple disciplines of content creation, filmmaking and arts has helped her create her own approach to the arts and performing arts. Constantly working on various fashion, art, and film projects she teaches communication through visual arts and production design and conducts workshops for the same.
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Upasna
Faculty
Upasna
Faculty
An Alumni of the prestigious London College of Fashion and School of Fashion Technology, Upasna has earned a BA Honors in Womenswear, specialisation in Pattern Making and Under Graduation in Fashion Technology respectively.
She has received accolades for being a finalist in British Fashion Council Illustration Awards and Nina De York Awards. She established her label SUVAN DESIGN for which she featured her collections at the Scotland Fashion Show and Bangalore Fashion Week. Upasna has featured her designs in exhibitions the world over. Having been a Senior Design Consultant with LIVA Fluid Fashion (Birla Cellulose), her designs have been published in magazines like Business of Fashion, Grazia, Vogue, Papercut, and a multitude of others.
Her endeavour is to enhance the process of design pushing boundaries by encouraging students to explore new ideas and techniques through illustration and Pattern Making, subjects that she is most passionate about.
Believing that learning never stops, especially for a tutor, upgrading skills continuously is essential, hence she is currently pursuing an executive Masters in Illustration from Falmouth University, UK.
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Shilpa Soneji Davda
Adjunct Faculty
Shilpa Soneji Davda
Adjunct Faculty
An international design school alumni specialised in illustration, Shilpa Soneji Davda has to her credit over 2 decades of experience in guiding design aspirants in developing acute hand and digital illustration and rendering skills using multimedia tools. As an academician, having worked in leading institutes of the country, she has developed a unique mode of delivering her lectures that are effective and produce commendable outcomes. Besides academics, she has illustrated children’s storybooks, works as an illustrator for designers and brands and is a portfolio curation expert.
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Aaron Nath
Adjunct Faculty
Aaron Nath
Adjunct Faculty
Aaron Nath graduated in Fashion Design and has 7 years of experience in the industry. He has worked with several Fashion retail brands & labels with a focus in menswear. Aaron transitioned to academics and has been educating learners on Fashion CAD, Portfolio Development, and Design Processes. His core abilities lie in Retail based fashion portfolio with technical designs and print development for textiles.
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Anamika Banerjee
Visiting Faculty
Anamika Banerjee
Visiting Faculty
Anamika Banerjee, a fashion faculty since 21 years, has been working with various colleges of Mumbai as a visiting faculty. She has an expertise in surface ornamentation, traditional and contemporary embroidery, History of costume, textile, and many other stands of fashion.
A visharad in music, loves singing and lives to create different types of mandalas which is her passion.
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Dr. Rugmani Venkatadri
Visiting Faculty
Dr. Rugmani Venkatadri
Visiting Faculty
Dr. Rugmani Venkatadri has over 22 years of experience in academics, and holds a Doctorate from Banasthali University, after her master’s in History and Ancient Indian Culture from the University of Mumbai. With a mastery in handcrafted jewelry, and research, her area of expertise lies in History of Art, Textile, Costume and Fashion, Cultural Anthropology, and Jewelry/Accessory crafting techniques. As an avid backpacker, she takes interest in ethnic cultures and their manifestations, besides being a voracious reader.
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Sabira Fernandes
Visiting Faculty
Sabira Fernandes
Visiting Faculty
Sabira Fernandes has taught English Literature and Communications at graduate and post-graduate levels in three colleges in Mumbai.
As a Consultant, Sabira plays the role of a catalyst in evangelizing and growing brands. Having spent almost two decades heading Marketing and Corporate Communications functions, she now is a Creative Writer and works in the field of communications. She writes for clients and agencies in strategy, branding and content & marketing communication development. This includes brochures, websites, social media marketing and ghost-writing articles, in diverse fields including Telecommunications, Power, Fashion, Packaging, CSR and Sustainability, among others.
Sabira has post-graduate degrees in English Literature (Mumbai University), History (SNDT Women’s University), and Marketing Management (Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai University). She has also trained to be a Counsellor.
Sabira is also an academic author with a couple of published papers.
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Design
Milindo Taid
Head of Department
Milindo Taid
Head of Department
Mr. Milindo Taid is a former faculty in Communication Design at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad and former head of New Media, NID. He is also one of the founding faculty members of the Communication Design programme at the MIT Institute of Design, Pune. He has taught in various design, communication, and media education organisations across India and abroad, and several student projects that he has guided, have had national as well as international recognition. He is the recipient of the prestigious Erasmus Mundus European Union scholarship in conducting his doctoral research in the ethics of communication practices at the Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain. He has also been variously associated with the Sarojini Naidu School of Arts & Communication, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad; School of Communication, Manipal University, Manipal; DAIICT, Gandhinagar; Annapurna International School of Film and Media, Hyderabad; and the North Eastern Hill University, Shillong. His students have gone on to establish independent design studios, consultancies, production houses, as well as take up design intervention and communication related roles in reputed companies and organisations, both national and global.
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Devyani Arya
Faculty
Devyani Arya
Faculty
Ms. Devyani Arya hails from a background in information technology. She went on to receive a master’s degree in New Media Design from the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad. With a zealous intent to stay away from run-of-the-mill work, her take on most subjects is refreshingly quirky and borderline oddball. Her work collaborations include but are not limited to, the Mumbai Film Festival, Habitat for Humanity International, Naandi Foundation, Grandmother India, the Ranthambore Festival, Nariyal Paani. With over thirteen years of experience in Branding, Graphic Design, UI/UX design – her focus lies in edgy storytelling through design. Her future projects include a children’s book, a collaborative art project and research on Indian Art and tribal jewelry.
Fueled by a fierce passion for the Arts, at the Whistling Woods International, she teaches various subjects related to Art, such as Art and Aesthetics, Classical Indian Art, Western and Oriental Art.
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Achyut Palav
Visiting Faculty
Achyut Palav
Visiting Faculty
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Alpi Jain
Visiting Faculty
Alpi Jain
Visiting Faculty
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Anirban Dutta Gupta
Visiting Faculty
Anirban Dutta Gupta
Visiting Faculty
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Caran Thammaiah
Visiting Faculty
Caran Thammaiah
Visiting Faculty
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Chaitanya Modak
Visiting Faculty
Chaitanya Modak
Visiting Faculty
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Darshan Gandhi
Visiting Faculty
Darshan Gandhi
Visiting Faculty
Darshan is a post-graduate from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, and an alumna of the Harvard Business School’s executive education in the General Management Programme. Ms. Gandhi is former 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 she was instrumental in applying design led thinking to transform brands with delightful product offerings (in a Godrej way) for a rapidly evolving Indian market. GCPLDesignLab was awarded ‘India’s Best Design Studio Award 2017′ and ‘India’s Best Product Design Award 2019′.
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Dhriti Dhaundiyal
Visiting Faculty
Dhriti Dhaundiyal
Visiting Faculty
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Himanshu Agrawal
Visiting Faculty
Himanshu Agrawal
Visiting Faculty
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Kartik Mistry
Visiting Faculty
Kartik Mistry
Visiting Faculty
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Kruti Saraiya
Visiting Faculty
Kruti Saraiya
Visiting Faculty
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Lavanya Asthana
Visiting Faculty
Lavanya Asthana
Visiting Faculty
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Neha Ramaiya
Visiting Faculty
Neha Ramaiya
Visiting Faculty
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Noopur Datye
Visiting Faculty
Noopur Datye
Visiting Faculty
Alumnus of the Sir J. J. Institute of Applied Art, Mumbai, Noopur is the Co-founder, Type Designer at EK TYPE. Ek Type is a collaborative type design studio focused on designing typefaces for Indian Scripts. Designs fonts in Bengali, Gurmukhi, Gujarati, Devanagari and Latin Scripts. Previously she was Consultant, Type and Graphic Designer with WHITECROW where she designed custom typefaces in Hindi and Bangla for Star TV for their Regional Indian television channels Life Ok & Star Jalsa. She also did custom typography for Coca Cola, South-East Asia, Barista, Flipkart and Mother Dairy. She was also Graphic Designer with GRANDMOTHER INDIA, where she did Brand Identity Design and collaterals for clients like Asian Paints, Taj Group of hotels, Game4u, Blue Frog, CBC etc.
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Nupur Bhargava
Visiting Faculty
Nupur Bhargava
Visiting Faculty
Nupur Bhargava Kewalya is an Animation film alumnus of NID, Ahmedabad. She has been working as a Designer & Animation Director for the past 15 years. She worked at Cornershop Entertainment as an art director & then as Animation Director/ associate producer at MTV India where she created several award-winning broadcast films. 11 years ago, she Co-Founded Invisible Rabbit, an award-winning boutique animation studio in the heart of Mumbai. She is the only Animation Director in India who has designed and directed three feature film songs in stop-motion. She Directs commercials, Film songs, Music Videos, Title sequences, short films, & content for Film, broadcast & OTT. She recently directed the title sequence for Feature film Coolie no.1. Over the years she has worked with the biggest agencies & best of Brands in India, like the Yashraj Films, Color yellow Productions, Mondel Mondelez international, Perfetti, Mtv India, Pritish Nandy Communications, Lowe Lintas, Amazon, Netflix, lays, IDFC Bank, Metlife, Dabur to name a few. She is also the founder & artist of her brand Ooee Ma! Nupur loves Stop-motion, caricatures, and all kinds of storytelling. She also enjoys teaching & mentoring young designers & storytellers. Currently she is in the process of co-writing and directing her first Animation feature length film.
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Pooja Shinde
Visiting Faculty
Pooja Shinde
Visiting Faculty
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Poulomi Das
Visiting Faculty
Poulomi Das
Visiting Faculty
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Priyankar Gupta
Visiting Faculty
Priyankar Gupta
Visiting Faculty
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Prosenjit Ganguly
Visiting Faculty
Prosenjit Ganguly
Visiting Faculty
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Rajesh Thakare
Visiting Faculty
Rajesh Thakare
Visiting Faculty
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Ravi Ranjan
Visiting Faculty
Ravi Ranjan
Visiting Faculty
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Rituparna Sarkar
Visiting Faculty
Rituparna Sarkar
Visiting Faculty
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Rohit Goyal
Visiting Faculty
Rohit Goyal
Visiting Faculty
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Samidha Gunjal
Visiting Faculty
Samidha Gunjal
Visiting Faculty
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Sheroy Katila
Visiting Faculty
Sheroy Katila
Visiting Faculty
Mr Sheroy F. Katila currently works as an Innovation & Industrial Design consultant. He completed his dual master’s degree in Innovation Design Engineering from the Royal College of Art & Imperial College, London. He has worked as an industrial/product designer both, in India and in the UK on a variety of projects ranging from new product development and furniture designs to unconventional larger than life metal sculptures. Apart from other accolades, Sheroy has also been the recipient of the prestigious Royal College of Art Innovation Scholarship Programme (2014-2016); which is the largest international scholarship in the creative postgraduate sector.
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Sulekha Rajkumar
Visiting Faculty
Sulekha Rajkumar
Visiting Faculty
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Swati Chandak Sharma
Visiting Faculty
Swati Chandak Sharma
Visiting Faculty
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Tripti Sahni
Visiting Faculty
Tripti Sahni
Visiting Faculty
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Upasana Nattoji Roy
Visiting Faculty
Upasana Nattoji Roy
Visiting Faculty
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Vandana Dedhwal
Visiting Faculty
Vandana Dedhwal
Visiting Faculty
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Vinay Goenka
Visiting Faculty
Vinay Goenka
Visiting Faculty
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Actors’ Studio
Oorvazi Irani
Head of Department – Acting
Oorvazi Irani
Head of Department – Acting
Ms. Oorvazi Irani has a multifaceted career and wears many hats like that of an acting coach, an actor, a filmmaker, a film educationalist, an entrepreneur, and a film critic. She runs her own home production company SBI Impresario Pvt. Ltd which has been active in the Indian and international filed for more than four decades. Oorvazi Irani is a Graduate in Arts from Jai Hind College, Mumbai and further trained at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) & National Film Archives of India (NFAI) for teacher’s training. In 2015, Ms. Irani successfully produced, directed and acted in her debut independent feature film “The Path of Zarathustra”. The film was successfully released in PVR theatres in 5 Indian cities. She has been a pioneer in introducing The Michael Chekhov Acting Technique in India, a technique practiced internationally by Anthony Hopkins, Jack Nicholson, Ingrid Bergman, Clint Eastwood, Johnny Depp, to name a few. Oorvazi has been in the teaching field for the past 14 years and her experience includes teaching at the Film and Television Institute of India, an International Baccalaureate school and is an International Baccalaureate Examiner. She is also a member of the Film Critics Circle of India and has been instrumental in writing books on cinema and been a jury for prestigious film festivals in India and abroad.
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Arvind Pandey
Faculty
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.
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Nivedita Bhargava
Faculty
Nivedita Bhargava
Faculty
Nivedita Bhargava has over 19 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 Rukmani Attai in the feature film Meenakshi Sundareshwar produced by Dharmatic, the digital content company by Dharma Productions on Netflix. She also has featured in the popular series “Sacred Games” on Netflix and Aarya Season 2 produced and directed by Ram Madhwani for Disney+ Hotstar. Apart from other projects, she also features in forthcoming projects of Mukta Arts and Yashraj Films.
Her well known commercial theatre plays as a singer-actor include Ladies Sangeet, Bandish and Zoon for Aadyam Theatre, an Aditya Birla Initiative.
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Sonali Bhardwaj
Faculty
Sonali Bhardwaj
Faculty
Ms. Bhardwaj is an alumnus from the National School of Drama and trained in dramatic arts. She is trained in various art forms like Koodiyattam (a traditional performing art form of Kerala), Kalaripayattu (a famous martial art form of India), Silambam (a log fighting art of south India), Devarattam (a folk-dance form of Tamilnadu) and Clowning among many others. As an artist, she has performed in various theatre festivals across the country. One of her acclaimed work incorporates working with R. Balakrishnan in Ki& Ka. Besides acting and teaching, she has also directed plays and conducted so many workshops including kids acting workshop. Sonali Bhardwaj has been awarded a Research Fellowship by the Ministry of Culture on Folk Games and Performances.
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Atul Bali
Faculty
Atul Bali
Faculty
Mr. Bali started working in plays for INT (Indian National Theater) and has also worked with Marathi theater artists. He was a full-length play co-writer that was performed in the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA). Atul Bali has completed Advance Actors training under Mr. Barry John and has worked in experimental plays under the guidance of Pandit Satyadev Dubey. Through his years of journey, he gained experience in various fields like writing, acting, filmmaking, etc. Thereafter, he explored working in the industry behind the camera in various ad films, films with the likes of Rajkumar Hirani films, Vinod Chopra Films. His love for the art pulled him back towards acting after which he got trained to become a professional acting mentor and chose the path of spreading his knowledge. When not teaching he is busy writing and directing his own short films and his current experimental film is in the post-production stage. Atul has a strong knowledge of various acting methods and has been teaching for 9 years now. He believes that we all are students of life.
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Anushka Jadhav
Faculty
Anushka Jadhav
Faculty
Anushka Jadhav is an Educator and Artist who conducts workshops, talks and teacher-trainings — along with developing curriculum — on Gender and Sexuality in educational institutions around the country.
She majored in Anthropology & Literature from St. Xavier’s, Mumbai, and holds a Master’s in Education from SNDT University. She’s the curriculum in-charge at Whistling Woods International along with being the faculty for Culture Studies.
As an educator focused on gender inclusion, she has been invited to conduct sessions at institutes such as BITS Hyderabad, IIT Mandi, IIITM Gwalior, IIITDM Jabalpur, PESIT Bangalore, Mallya Aditi International, UWC Mahindra among others and have been featured in publications such as Hindustan Times, Homegrown, Scroll, YouthKiAwaaz, LiveMint, TheBetterIndia etc.
In the past, she’s worked on the planning and program-curation of on-ground conferences and conventions on issues of gender and identity, such as Gaysi Family’s Zine Bazaar (in association with Max Mueller Bhavan) and has also co-founded an educational trust aimed at situating gender advocacy within education and bridging the gap between activism and academia.
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Kenneth Desai
Visiting Faculty
Kenneth Desai
Visiting Faculty
Kenneth Desai has been teaching acting at Whistling Woods International since its inception in 2006 as a part of the original core team formed by Naseeruddin Shah. He has also been a visiting faculty at the FTII and the Stardust Academy.
Kenneth Desai has an acting career spanning over four decades and he’s been an acting coach for the last 15 years as well. He’s an alumnus of St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, from where he graduated with a degree in English Literature and Psychology and the National School of Drama where he finished as class Valedictorian. He has been working on the Mumbai stage since 1980 and also across different mediums like film, OTT, television and as a voice artist. He teamed up with Whistling Woods International’s alumnus Abhishek Jain for the acclaimed Gujarati film, Kevi Rite Jaish (2012) which earned him the award of Best Actor in a Supporting role, conferred by the Government of Gujarat. Other significant works of his include Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), Munnabhai M.B.B.S (2003), Mother Teresa of Calcutta (2003), Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014), Raag Desh (2017) and Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story (2020) to name a few. He has been part of international projects on stage and on screen and has worked in multiple languages. He’s been associated with Naseeruddin Shah’s theatre group Motley since 1981.
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Amod Bhatt
Visiting Faculty
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).
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Salim Arif
Head of Department- Culture Studies
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.
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Shiamak Davar Dance Academy
Visiting Faculty
Shiamak Davar Dance Academy
Visiting Faculty
Professional trained instructors from the Shiamak Davar Dance Academy conduct classes for the students from the Actors’ Studio. A specially designed program that forms a part of the school’s regular curriculum, SHIAMAK Dance Education Program (SDE) reaches out to students empowering them with the power of the performing arts at the convenience of their school premises. Its objective is to offer every student, training, knowledge of fundamentals, styles, and techniques. It also helps students to de-stress and develop well-rounded personalities.
Students are taught the various aspects of musical theatre and stage performance. They are empowered with technical knowledge, spatial awareness, and performance guidelines. The complete performing arts experience helps students overcome stage fright, become more confident, learn to work in teams and feel a great sense of achievement.
The essence of the program is in dance expression, knowledge, and creativity; this goes beyond the periphery of dance movement. Using Jazz technique, Ballet exercises, Yoga Asanas, Dance Therapy activities, Theatre arts; each class has a well-defined syllabus for skillful progression to improve fitness levels, confidence, focus, concentration, team spirit, positive thinking, discipline, all round development, posture, and body language.
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Rupesh Tillu
Visiting Faculty
Rupesh Tillu
Visiting Faculty
Rupesh Tillu is an actor, director and independent filmmaker, born in Mumbai India. He holds MFA in Physical Comedy from The National School of Dramatic Arts, Sweden. He has received several international theatre awards such as Outstanding Artist/Act – Stockholm Fringe Festival 2012, A Special Jury Award – Best of Prague Fringe Festival 2013 and many more. He played the title role of Boicheck in a feature film directed by national award winner Santosh Sivan. The film is a Hindi adaptation of Georg Buchner’s Woyzeck. He played the character of ‘Yorick’ in a Hollywood production ‘Ophelia’, directed by Claire McCarthy, where he got an opportunity to do scenes with Clive Owen and Naomi Watts. He has also played the character of Ajay in the national and international award- winning feature film Ship of Theseus. His new work Har Och Nu is commissioned by Tyst Teater/Riksteatern (Swedish National Theatre), which premiered in March 2017 in Sweden, followed by a national tour.
He has worked with several theatre companies such as Avikal Theatre Company (India), Urban Theatre Company (Sweden), Teater Slava (Sweden), Bananteatern (Sweden). He has done expeditions with Clowns without Borders to Moldova, Palestine, Israel, India, Jordan, Nepal, Bhutan and Egypt. He is a part of Drömställe – A clown trio, which toured nationally in all renowned theatres of Sweden in 2013, and since then the play has been touring in Europe’s prestigious theatre festivals. His vocational training includes one-year Physical Theatre at Fhsk Vårdinge By. Professional Clown training with Clowns without Borders Sweden. He has also worked for UNESCO Centre for Peace, Frederick M.D, USA. His debut documentary feature film ‘The Living Gods’ is co-produced by the Swedish National Television which premiered on SVT- Kspecial in the autumn 2017. He is the founder and artistic director of Theatreact.
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Tamara P Nedungadi
Visiting Faculty
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.
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Sahil Vaid
Visiting Faculty
Sahil Vaid
Visiting Faculty
Sahil Satish Vaid is an Indian voice actor and who is known for his screen film roles in Bittoo Boss (2012), Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014), Bank Chor (2017), Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017), Dil Bechara (2020) and Coolie No. 1 (2020). Sahil has starred in a number of plays over the past 25 years. He started his career with school theatre, professionally acting for stage since 1997. He made his Bollywood debut in 2012 with Bittoo Boss. Early in his career, Sahil was recognised for portraying a variety of roles in the first online standup comedy show Jay Hind!. He then rose to prominence after starring in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014), where his character Poplu was much appreciated.
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Ankit Varshneya
Visiting Faculty
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.
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Ashok Kumar
Visiting Faculty
Ashok Kumar
Visiting Faculty
Ashok Kumar studied Acting at the National School of Drama, Delhi. Founder of Actoghraphers, theatre organization active in India, he has been involved in the productions of plays and conducting workshops from 2014 till 2020. He conducted numerous Performance Oriented Workshops and also wrote the play Mirage. He has been the associate director for plays such as King Lear and Romeo and Juliet in the National School of Drama, while he also taught Physical Theatre. He also acted in Bose: Dead or Alive, a web series on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. He has done extensive research on different acting styles and schools of thought during and after graduating from the National School of Drama. Ashok has also taught and practiced ‘Konstantin Stanislavski’, ‘Stella Adler’, ‘Lee Strasberg’ techniques of acting. His international collaborations include, co-directing the play Tum Kaun at the NAPA International Theater festival, participated and performed in the Asian Theatre Festival conducted in Beijing, China in 2012, and performed as an actor and Assistant Director of the play Raddi Bazaar at the NAPA International Theater festival conducted in Karachi, Pakistan.
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Aru Verma
Visiting Faculty
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.
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Anil Mange
Visiting Faculty
Anil Mange
Visiting Faculty
Anil Charanjeett, an alumnus of Whistling Woods International, Actors’ Studio, is an Indian film actor, who predominantly performed in the Hindi Film Industry. Anil has acted in several movies such as PK, Raees, Singh Is Bling, Hasee Toh Phasee, Shershaah, Sooryavanshi, Mubarakan, Golmaal Again, and more and made an appearance in the song “Main Badhiya Tu Bhi Badhiya” from the movie Sanju the biopic of actor Sanjay Dutt.
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Kashish Bharti
Visiting Faculty
Kashish Bharti
Visiting Faculty
Kashish Bharti is an actor/singer working in the Indian film industry. She was born and brought up in Delhi and after high school moved to Mumbai to pursue Fine Arts and graduated in Acting from Whistling Woods International. Her short films have been featured on various OTT platforms and she also received numerous awards and accolades for the short film she has done at many film festivals. She has done a feature film; various web shows and has featured in numerous commercials.
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Valentine Fernandes
Visiting Faculty
Valentine Fernandes
Visiting Faculty
Valentine Fernandes is an alumnus from Bhavans College Mumbai, trained NCC cadet, a ‘C’ Certificate Holder, and has also done theatres. He has performed across India, in the famous plays name Code Mantra and Bharat Bhagya Vidhata. He also worked as an actor in the TV series name Diya Aur Bati Hum and in a film named I.M.A Gujju. Beside teaching & acting he also focuses on fitness and is a known athlete who has won many medals in Athletics. When it comes to work, he is very disciplined as he has maintained that discipline in his personality itself. Apart from this, he loves to indulge is the sport, cricket.
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Dipika Pandey
Visiting Faculty
Dipika Pandey
Visiting Faculty
Dipika Pandey is a trained Kalaripayattu martial artist, actor and Salsa dancer. She has been performing, training, and teaching for many years now. Her mentors in physical and psychophysical theatre have been Abani Biswas (founder and director of Theatre house, Shantiniketan) and John Britton (director of Duende school of arts), to name a few. As an artist, she aims to incorporate the understanding and awareness of the performer’s body into storytelling. She has directed a few movements based plays as well. Her last project as a Kalaripayattu and movement artist was a collaborative production of the US consulate and University of Florida.
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Vandana Trivedi
Visiting Faculty
Vandana Trivedi
Visiting Faculty
Vandana Trivedi is a Wellness coach and owner of YOGVAN FOR HEALTH & HAPPINESS ®, an organization that is committed to extending holistic health and happiness. She was initiated into Yoga at a very early age at The Yoga Institute, which is more than a century old, and in the very heart of Mumbai. Her mentors Dr Jaydeva and Hansa Jaydeva Yogendra are her inspiration to offer Classical Yoga as a lifestyle rather than just a form of exercise. It is this education that is being extended to the students at Whistling Woods International.
Now for more than two decades, Vandana has been teaching & spreading the goodness of Yoga through versatile platforms, workshops and retreats and has had the opportunity to see lives being transformed in amazing ways. She has taught people of all ages, backgrounds, and to people from all over the world.
She regularly conducts workshops for expecting and aspiring parents through her programme called Enlightened Pregnancy and Parenthood which helps parents to nurture their child’s inherent genius, vision, and intuition with help of holistic, scientific and traditional approach.
Vandana was on the panel of Yoga examiners of TQcert, an organisation which certifies Yoga teachers-to-be. She has majored in MA Philosophy and has also released 2 Yoga DVD’s, ‘YOGVAN for EVERYONE’ and ‘YOGVAN for PRENATAL CARE.’
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Music
Mandar Deshpande
Head of Department – Music
Mandar Deshpande
Head of Department – Music
Mr. Mandar Deshpande is an educator, playback singer, and performer from Mumbai, India. Innovation in music education and industry aligned technology is something drives him. Holding a post graduate Business Management degree, Mandar is dedicated to skill based & employable music education curricula for India’s most popular music institutions. Mandar is driven by different music styles and have been influenced by sounds of India. He is been in music education since 2013. He is certified with Berklee College of Music online and Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was recently honoured with the membership of ISME (International Society for Music Education) which is, working for music education along with UNESCO. His work in background scores and songs for Indian theatre is appreciated and awarded in experimental as well as commercial sector.
Milestones:
1. Author and Developer – Bachelor’s degree program in Hindustani playback and performance.
2. Author and Instructional designer of a certificate program ‘Art of voice in Bollywood music’
3. Author and Content creator – Indian Music content for music learning app ‘Learn to Sing’
4. Playback singer – T-Series and Times Music
5. Independent work and collaboration – Symphony of India, Tips Music, Eros Now, Spiritual Mantra and YouTube
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Ajeet Pathak
Faculty
Ajeet Pathak
Faculty
Mr. Ajeet Pathak is an eminent Tabla player, who began his training at the tender age of six under the guidance of his father Shri Deochandra Pathak. Thereafter, he had the privilege of learning under the guidance of Tabla Maestros Padma Vibhushan Pt. Kishan Maharaj and Ustad Sabir Khan.
Ajeet Pathak has performed at various national and state-level musical events and is a recognized artist by All India Radio and Doordarshan. He has performed extensively in India, Europe, the Middle East, and the USA and has accompanied many world-renowned artists such as Pt. Siyaram Tiwari, Pt. V.G. Jog, Dr. N. Rajam, Pt. Ramnarayan and Ghazal singer Ghulam Ali. He has been awarded Taal Mani from Sur Singar Samsad Mumbai, HMV Golden Talent award, and Taal Ratan from Los Angeles, USA.
