Aakash Prabhakar is an Actor, Filmmaker, Writer, and a Theatre Director who runs a Film and a Theatre Production company of his own by the name of Here And Now. He has a Post Graduate Diploma in Theatre Making and Performance Arts from The Drama School Mumbai and a degree in Mass Communication from The Mumbai University.

After Acting in, Writing, and directing 50 Odd theatre productions , short films , tv shows and winning accolades in theatre festivals across the country, he pursued film making from NYFA and made his first feature Freddie’s piano in 2019. Freddie's Piano, which he directed and acted in was the official selection of the New York Indian Film Festival 2020 and 20 other International Film Festivals across the world. The film won the Best Director Award for Freddie’s Piano at the Indian Film Festival Of Cincinnati , Best Film Jury- Indigo Moon Film Festival , North Carolina and several other awards.

Since 2005, Aditi Banerjee has worked as a director, writer, producer, and a teacher. Her filmmaking is not bound by genres.

Aditi has a post-graduate degree in Film & Video Communication from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, M.A. in English Literature from Jawaharlal Nehru University and a B.A.(Honours) in English Literature from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University.

Her work has been telecast on Hotstar, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Al Jazeera and Fox and has won awards in India as well as abroad. She has worked on projects for AXN, Network 18 and Star World.

Her last project was an indie web series titled Love at Fifth Floor, which was shown in festivals in US, Canada and France and is available to watch on Hotstar. She sold a web series idea to a major streaming platform and is currently developing a feature script in Writer’s Ink Script Lab.

Akshata Dalvi is an architect, writer, and director based in Goa, Mumbai, and Dublin. She started her journey assisting filmmakers Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukthankar with their Marathi features and short films. She has received film fellowships for her two documentary films. She has received recognition internationally for her first documentary film ‘Avashesh’. She has majorly worked in production design teams with eminent production designers in India for various films, web series, and TV commercials for the last 8 years. Akshata is developing her first feature fiction film.

Ambarien is an award-winning writer-director. She was trained as a filmmaker at Jamia Millia Islamia, India and Temple University, USA, where she was a Fulbright-Nehru Fellow.

Ambarien's feature screenplays have been selected for the Athena Screenwriters Lab, New York, Stowe Story Lab, 1497 and shortlisted at Sundance. Her films have screened at top festivals such as Indian Panorama, International Film Festival of India, Mumbai International Film Festival, New Filmmakers New York, Queens World Film Festival, British Film Institute and others.

She lives between New Delhi and Chicago where she teaches Film Directing at The School of Cinematic Arts, DePaul University.

Anita Balagopalan has over 20 years of experience in Television Production and Journalism. A lifelong learner, she is a double postgraduate with degrees in Mass Communication and English Literature. She also has training and certifications in digital marketing, creative writing, and teaching English as a foreign language. Anita has worked across many industries, using her love for writing and storytelling in each role. She has been a Producer, Anchor and Correspondent at CNBC-TVB18, run her own production house in Mumbai, taught English to primary school students in Hong Kong, written teacher guide notes for Americans teaching Indian mythology, created English enhancement curriculums for foreign learners, freelanced as a scriptwriter and researcher for TV infotainment shows, headed Communications and Social Media Strategy for a social enterprise and been the Senior Editor for a leading digital lifestyle magazine in Hong Kong. This is her first foray into feature film writing.

Anureet Watta is a 22 year old screenwriter, filmmaker, lyricist and poet living in Delhi. Fairly new in the industry, they created their debut short film, ‘Kinaara’(2021) independently on a zero budget in 2021. The film traveled to 14 international film festivals and several universities, including the Oscar Qualifying BISFF; and bagged a myriad of awards. Their second short film, ‘Oranges in the Winter Sun’(2022), was produced by Lotus Visual Productions and had its North American Premiere in IMAGES Festival, Toronto. It has traveled to 8 film festivals so far.

Previously, they co-wrote a feature film with Faraz Arif Ansari (Sheer Qorma) that is yet to go into production. Prior to their encounters with filmmaking, they practiced theater, focusing on street theater, through their college dramatics society. Their works largely involve queerness, politics and identity vis vis abstract concepts such as memory, the gaze and the boundaries of language.

Born and raised in the small hill station of Haflong, Arijit is a filmmaker with a passion for storytelling. Having grown up in a culturally diverse environment, he has always been fascinated by the stories that people have to tell. After completing his graduation in digital media from Bangalore, he discovered his interest in filmmaking as he explored world cinema.

Determined to pursue a career in filmmaking, Arijit enrolled in a diploma program in Filmmaking from Mumbai. It was during this time that he began working on my first feature script, which took him two years to complete. Since then, I have written two screenplays, both of which explore the daily struggles of human life and the moral and psychological needs that drive us.

As a filmmaker, Arijit is deeply committed to telling stories that resonate with audiences on a personal level. He believes that films have the power to inspire, challenge, and transform us, and we strive to create work that reflects this belief.

Arshaly Jose is a Software developer, writer and Film maker. She was selected for a mini-MFA program by Anita Nair. She has co-written an Indie thriller film and made a short film. Her stories and articles have been published or are upcoming in Film companion, Prosererity Literary magazine etc. She is interested in exploring the confluence of gender, politics, and culture in India through stories. She has recently completed her first feature film script with Writer’s Ink lab. When not writing, she can be found in her room in Hyderabad snuggled up with a book or watching a film or endlessly scrolling Insta to “research” pop culture.

Bidhidatta is a Psychology graduate with a Liberal Arts diploma. She has freelanced as a film critic for film pages online and worked with a local film society called Lost The Plot in Pune and a theater society called International Association for Performing Arts and Research in Pune. She recently dabbled into advertising with OnlyMuchLouder, Mumbai.

Devang is a professional screenwriter and researcher based in Mumbai with 3 years of experience. He is a writer and a researcher on Anurag Kashyap’s adaptation of Suketu Mehta’s Maximum City. Additionally, he is also a part of writer’s room for an Indian adult animation show and the researcher and co-writer of a Hindi film adaptation of a non-Hindi language Indian film.

Previously, he has worked as a journalist and writer whose work has been published in BuzzFeed, The Hindu, Quartz, Film Companion, FirstPost, and Homegrown..

A passionate cinephile, he is the founder of Mumbai Subtitles Database, a volunteer social media account which has been posting about the subtitled shows of non-Hindi films in Mumbai for nearly 4 years. He maintains a keen academic interest in film history and its evolution, in India and around the world.

The Shapes We Take is Devang's first solo feature film screenplay.

Dhruv Solanki is a writer /director based in Vadodara. After Graduating in electrical engineering, he worked as a chemistry faculty for six years before quitting his job to pursue filmmaking. He was one of the finalist (Top 20) of TAKE TEN organised by Netflix India and Film Companion. He has written and directed several short films, some of which have played in several Indian film festivals. His debut feature as writer/ director, IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD, is currently in post production.

Gowtham has completed his Digital Film Making course from LV Prasad Institute. He is a Teach For India alumnus and a graduate from Amrita School of Engineering. He currently works as an incubation manager with Villgro, India’s oldest & largest social business incubator. He supports social entrepreneurs to develop better businesses and has worked on Agri, Dairy, Climate spaces and with government agencies, policy think tanks and self-help groups. These experiences have led him to connect meaningfully with people from remote corners of India and abroad. Time & again, facts have proved to be more fascinating than fiction.

Kanishk Devgan, or Kandy, is an interdisciplinary creative whose work spans prose, poetry, satire, short films, the occasional music video, and over 40 pieces of film criticism for Film Companion, recognised by Rotten Tomatoes. Their first professional screenplay, 'Suttabaazi', was nominated for ‘Best Short Film’ at the Filmfare Awards. Their short film 'Qabil’s Quarantine' won the Jury prize for ‘Best Film’ at India Film Project’s Quarantine Film Challenge, and their music video 'Goldfish, Goldfish' won ‘Best Music Video’ at the Tagore International Film Festival. Their debut poetry collection 'Please Glue This Book Together' was published in 2016. Kanishk studied Media Studies, Creative Writing, and Political Science at Ashoka University, where they founded and led the satire publication Kalinga. They currently work as an editor for Deloitte. You can find them @yikeskandy on Instagram and Twitter, or asleep in their bed.

Karuna’s first film as writer - director ‘Kadavu’, produced by the Ford Foundation, was a part of festivals BISFF, IAWRT, and was invited to be a part of the Indo-German Film Week at Berlin. She started her career as Associate Creative Producer at Balaji Motion Pictures. She went on to head Content at Drishyam Films. She was a part of films like ‘Newton’, ‘Rukh’. Her film as Creative Producer - ‘Ghaath’ was nominated for the GWFF award at Berlinale. She was Senior Supervising Producer on 'Sherni', Associate Producer on 'Jalsa' and recently the untitled Hindi remake of 'Soorarai Pottru' directed by Sudha Kongara. Karuna wrote and directed ‘Kukbi’, produced by Abundantia Entertainment, official selection at the BISFF, won an honorable mention at the Radiance film festival, won best Actor and Actress awards at JISFF - Korea, received an honorable mention at Roshd Film Festival, Indian Premiere at IDSFFK - Kerala. Karuna is signed by Abundantia Entertainment for her debut feature.

Manasvini, from a young age, had an interest in stories as they enabled her to create visual worlds in her mind.Being an absolute movie buff, her path eventually led her to take up filmmaking as a career.After graduating with a degree in Visual Communication in 2019, she was given an opportunity to work in a Tamil feature film Boomika as the 2nd Assistant Director.Working in the field taught her a lot and made her confident about her career decision. She enjoyed the process thoroughly from the pre-production stages till the release.The movie was released on Netflix. After Boomika, she also worked on the episode "Inmai" in the series Navarasa, produced by Mr Mani Ratnam and Netflix, in its pre-production and postproduction.Following this, she got to direct a few smaller projects. At the beginning of 2022, she applied for Netflix and Film Companion's Take Ten initiative and was funded to direct her short film, Bijli. Her goal now is to create content that is entertaining and impactful.

Neel is a screenwriter based out of Navi-Mumbai. He is currently developing a coming-of-age feature at The WritersInk Screenwriting Lab under Sushma Khadepaun’s guidance, a renowned educator at Columbia University and Sundance Collab. Neel's diverse experience includes serving as a 'Story Producer' on the independent documentary 'KASHMIRI NAZARIYA', mentored by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Aviva Slesin. In his early years, Neel's short film script 'Overdose' was a top 5 finalist at IFP, and he was shortlisted in the top 60 writers out of 900 for the Star Writers Programme in 2017. Before pursuing screenwriting, Neel spent over three years as a talent manager at Tulsea, where he worked with some of India's leading filmmaking talent behind titles like SACRED GAMES, HOUSE OF SECRETS, and FEELS LIKE ISHQ. He started his media career eight years ago making YouTube sketches and corporate videos. When he's not busy writing, you can find him experimenting with music at his home studio.

Nishant’s first short film Daaravtha (2016) got him the coveted National Award for Best Debut Film of a Director. The film also won 'Best Short' each at Indian Film Festivals of New York, Houston, and Los Angeles and was in Official Selection at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF Kids) and Palm Springs Shortfest. Thereafter, he worked as a Script Reader for Fox Star (2017-20). His second short film Gair (2022) is now doing its festival rounds. At Zee Studios (2013-16), he worked on successful and critically acclaimed Marathi films like Sairat (Berlinale, 2016), Killa (Crystal Bear, Berlinale, 2014), Elizabeth Ekadashi (National Awards, 2015) and Fandry (London Film Festival, 2013) as an Executive Producer. He worked as an Executive Producer for Zee TV (2010-2013) on several successful shows and headed Digital Media promotions for films at Zee Studios (2013-2016). He has written two feature films which are under development and is currently working as an independent screenwriter.

Pournima is a career police woman, presently working as Commandant of an armed battalion with the Maharashtra police, and mother to a 10 year old girl. She had taken a sabbatical from work and studied screenplay writing at FTII Pune. She has worked as a consultant for police procedural films, and with well known filmmakers on developing crime dramas. She had also written a commissioned screenplay for the pilot of a true life crime limited series. Her decades of experience as a cop offers a unique perspective in telling stories that deal with human nature at its extremes. Having lived and worked in the hinterlands of India gave her a first hand experience of what it means to be a woman in a deeply patriarchal society where religion, caste and class still play a very important role in everyday lives, and shaping of our destinies. She wants to tell stories that draw from her personal experiences and have left a deep impact on her.

Priyanka Banerjee is a Filmfare award-winning writer-director and Founder of Leogirl-Productions, a boutique production company specialising in branded content for clients. Over the 5 years of running Leogirl, she has written-directed commercials for Nykaa, Google, Dell, VIVO, IBM, Bumble, Sunsilk and many more. She has also written-directed the fiction short films Commas (2017) and Dayalu (2018) which found recognition at festivals such as River to River Florence India Film Festival, Indisches Film Festival (Stuttgart, Germany), International Film Festival of South Asia- Toronto, New Delhi International Film Festival and several others. Priyanka's latest fiction venture as a writer-director was the powerful short on women and sisterhood starring Kajol, Neha Dhupia, Shruti Haasan and 6 other dynamic artists called Devi. The film won Best Short Film (People’s Choice) at the Filmfare Awards 2021 and has over 20 million views as of today, one of the highest ever for an Indian short film.

Her first screenplay ‘A Brown coat’ was an NFDC Screenwriter’s Lab selection 2020, and a quarter-finalist at the Atlanta Film Festival Screenwriting competition 2020. She won the Pocketwala-Cinestaan Web Series Idea Contest 2021 for ‘Anthology of Bombay Stories: slice-of-life’. Her poetry film Skirt showcased on Shonda Rhimes’ Shondaland. Her poetry readings feature on Disney+ Hotstar/ Shorts-English. She participated in the SWA contest with her 3-Season mythology action drama. Besides project 'Ranjani', she has 5 other feature screenplays ready for production. Rochelle Potkar is the author of four books of poetry, a story collection, and a novel. She has a cacophony of characters and story worlds in her head.

Rohan Shyam Chowdhury is a writer and a filmmaker based in Calcutta and Mumbai. He holds a degree in Engineering, and the Young India Fellowship in Liberal Arts from Ashoka University. His first stint as a filmmaker was in collaboration with a Delhi-based NGO for whom he directed short films and multimedia campaigns around gender, sexuality, and body positivity. In 2022, Rohan was one of the 10 filmmakers chosen for the TakeTen Short Film Competition, a pilot initiative by Film Companion in partnership with Netflix. Written and directed by him, his short titled 'Lokkhon Rekha' is currently available on Netflix India’s YouTube channel.

Going forward, Rohan hopes to tell stories that have, at their heart, people, and the issues that plague us and yet often go unheard. He hopes to visually narrate them in ways that cater to and are relatable at most to the ordinary middle class, as he believes they are the ones truly capable of bringing about change.

Sagar Saurabh is a lyricist, actor and filmmaker who hailed from a remote village of Sonitpur, Assam (India) and is currently based out of Mumbai. Growing up in the pristine countryside of Assam, he focuses on the languid ease of Assamese rural life and the essence of a delicately touched land of the past.

He has been actively involved in filmmaking: co-written and played a major role in Bhaskar Hazarika’s feature film ‘Aamis’ (Ravening) (2019), which premiered in Tribeca. He also has co-written The Headmaster’s Son (2022) which is in the last leg of post-production. His short film 'An Afternoon With A Stranger' (2022) is his directorial debut which was selected for the short film market in the prestigious Clermont Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2023 and is recently selected for the SiGNS Film Festival 2023. His feature-length project 'A Pistol' is selected for the Writers INK Feature Film Screenwriting Lab 2022.

Sai Pradyumna is a management graduate, currently working with Accenture, as a Senior business integration and Architecture analyst. Previously he worked with two major MNC's including Accenture, in the Fin-OPS domain.

Samhita started out in Vir Das’ Comedy Company for 5 years as a Senior Writer. She has written 10+ projects (TV & Film) over the span of her 7-year career. Having graduated with her MFA in Creative Writing from The New School in New York City, Samhita brings a strong grasp of Character Work, Story Building, and organic Dialogue Writing to the table. Some of Samhita’s completed work includes Non-fiction Comedy Writing like “Jestination Unknown” on Amazon Prime, a segment on Conan O’Brein’s show called “Rest of the World, and “POTCAST”, a new-comedy Youtube Show.

More recently, Samhita has been in a handful of Writers’ Rooms. A few of them are:
- A web-series with Shakun Batra, Vir Das & Kavi Shastri.
- A mockumentary with Sikandar Kher produced by Anupam Kher Studios.
- An American Comedy Feature Created and Produced by Vir Das with FeigCo.
- A Multi-Season Sitcom Produced by Emmay Entertainment.

Soma grew up in Kolkata. MBA and work-life brought her to Mumbai.She built much-loved brands, for local & global consumers; for eighteen years as Chief Marketer in MNC companies.Soma received many awards including Economic Times Top 25 Leaders of India Inc. She’s trained at:Mckee’s Story, MET film school, WWI. In 2016, Soma quit her CMO job in a Fortune 50 company. Since then, she’s written 3 feature specs that placed in top 2% in CINESTAAN Competition in both 2018&2019. Her series pitch placed in top 3% in MX player pitch-fest(2019). In 2021, battling kidney failure in hospital-beds, Soma found community in a Writing podcast. Consequently, Soma became integral to a group of 5 writers/directors(US based) who meet daily online to write.This keeps her focused and evolving. Despite genre & form, Soma’s stories are always authentic; with a spiritual underpinning, that make us question our set paradigms.Now, after a successful kidney transplant, Soma is excited to start her second career.

Sukriti is a screenwriter and author. She is currently developing a web-series with Oscar-nominated director Ashutosh Gowariker. She also writes originals for film and web, and is represented by the agency Exceed. She was the Virtual-Reality film critic for YouTube platform Film Companion.

Sukriti holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Columbia University. Her writing has been featured by Vox, Quartz, Bustle, The Hindu, and The New Statesman. She was the book researcher for The Power of Bad (2019), by New York Times’ columnist John Tierney.

Sukriti is a graduate of the London School of Economics, and Dhirubhai Ambani International School. She has lived and worked in New York City, Denver, London & Singapore. She is now based in Mumbai.

Sulagna Chatterjee is a 26-year-old Mumbai-based screenwriter, who started writing in 2018 and as an associate writer, having worked on shows like Code M and Verdict for AltBalaji and multiple non-fiction shows.

Her independent writing career started in 2020 with the third season of Firsts, for DICE Media. Her second independent project is an episode on Netflix India's anthology series Feels Like Ishq, produced by Mutant Films, titled ""She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not"" and was directed by Danish Aslam. In September 2020, she ventured into direction and directed her first short film: a dark comedy called The Visit.

In 2021 November, her third show Adulting s03 released on Amazon MiniTV. Her fourth show that is slated to release in mid-2023 is a legal thriller.

Drama and romance come naturally to her, but her love for the twisted nature of life gives her the drive to write thrillers as well.

After completing a screenwriting course at Film and Television Institute of India, Supriya Prasad Rauniar directed Portrait of a Willow Woman single-handedly. The film has been part of official selection at the Indian Film Festival of Stuttgart, Germany 2021, Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, Australia 2021, Tasveer South Asian Film Festival, US etc. and was recently screened at Nehru Centre London, UK. She is passionate about telling stories of minorities, children, women’s sexuality, and coming of age stories. Her debut feature project, The Honeybee Girl was part of the Journey to Europe: Scriptwriting Development Lab organized by the European Union Film Festival in association with the Dharamshala International Film Festival and Cineuropa. She is also among the top ten finalists of Doc Commune 2022 organized by PSBT India. Currently, she is working as a writer on an Amazon web series.

Utpala Barve dreamed of working in movies ever since she was a kid. With that goal, she got a MA in Costume Design for Performance from London College of Fashion, after her Bachelors in Fashion design. Once in Mumbai, she told her stories through the medium of costumes. In the last 9 years, she has worked in films and web series across India, in Hindi, Marathi and Tamil. As a Costume Designer, her work has been seen in prestigious international film festivals.

After having worked with some of the masters in the industry, Utpala turned to writing in 2020 with a desire to expand her means of storytelling and really own the narrative. She co-wrote a web series for Dice media that is being pitched around and is developing her first feature script for this lab.

In the course of her work and as a hobby she loves to travel, and the places she travels and people she meets greatly inspire and inform her writing.

Uttara is a writer and director. She has an MA in Filmmaking from Kingston University (2010) and a certificate in Creative Writing from Simon Fraser University (2020). Her early career encompasses a background in TV production, branding and copywriting and as an assistant director with Rising Sun and Aamir Khan Productions. Uttara wrote, directed and produced her first short film called “The Twist” (2020) which has 8 million+views on YouTube . She went on to make music videos for Rochak Kohli, Rasika Sekar and Anicia Kohler. Uttara has directed episodes for a web series called “Adulting, S3 '' for Amazon Minitv x Dice Media. She has also directed comedy sketches for Civic Studios and Filter Copy.