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.

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.

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.

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.

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.