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
Director – Academics
Rahul Puri
Director – Academics
Mr. Rahul Puri is the Managing Director of India’s leading entertainment company Mukta Arts Ltd. & Director – 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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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.
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Raman Iyer
Faculty
Raman Iyer
Faculty
Raman S Iyer, alumni of FTII (Film & Television Institute of India, Pune) from the batch of 1994, has been working as a Director of Photography for audio-visual productions in Television and Film Industry since 1999. During the interim period he gained experience, as an assistant to ace cinematographers of the Indian film industry namely Mazhar Kamran, Vijay Khambatti, Attar Sing Saini, Anoop Jotwani, Anil Mehta, Santhosh Sivan, Ramachandra Babu and S. Kumar.
Starting off his independent career – shooting short/tele-films telecasted by regional television channels in Kerala, which won him the Best Cameraman Award (instituted by the KERALA FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION) twice over in (2003 and 2005), his repertoire includes documentaries and promotional films for various departments and quasi government agencies as an empaneled cameraman produced by the Public Relations Department of the Government of Kerala, including an award winning documentary film on the legendary painter K. C. S Panicker. He ventured into the Malayalam film industry as an independent DP in the year 2005 and has six feature films, numerous short films, advertising, and corporate films shot on film, analogue and digital video formats to his credit.
He took upon the role of a lecturer at Mindscreen Film Institute situated in Chennai, upon invitation by the ace cinematographer Rajeev Menon for a brief period in 2011. He also served as a visiting faculty and as external expert in cinematography, at K. R. NARAYANAN NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF VISUAL SCIENCE AND ARTS, Kottayam (Kerala) since its inception in 2014. He worked as a senior faculty and as the H.O.D of Cinematography (September 2018 to March 2021 & April 2021 to June 2023) at Annapurna College of Film and Media, Hyderabad.
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Visiting Faculty
Binitesh Baruri, Fareeda Mehta, Hiroo Keswani, Pankaj Rishi Kumar, Rafey Mehmood, Smriti Nevatia, Tripti Sahni
DIRECTION
Abhijit Mazumdar
Head of Department
Abhijit Mazumdar
Head of Department
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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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.
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Sahil Gada
Faculty
Sahil Gada
Faculty
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Visiting Faculty
Abhimanyu Kanodia, Anik Ghosh, Arya Mehta, Haridas, Indranil Kashyap, Karandeep Chhabra, Madhu Apsara, Puspender Singh, Samagat
EDITING
Prashant Naik
Head of Department
Prashant Naik
Head of Department
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.
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Visiting Faculty
Akkshay Mehta, Anik Ghosh, Arjun Mogre, Maanavi Bedi, Manik Dawar, Neil Sadwelkar, Niraj Voralia, Niranjan Thade, Nitin Baid, Rahul Gupta, Rahul Srivastav, Raj Zutsi, Ramchandra PN, Ranjan Das, Sanjay Kumar Patel, Sankalp Meshram, Shan Mohammed, Shweta Venkat, Suvir Nath
PRODUCING
Rabiya Nazki
Head of Department
Rabiya Nazki
Head of Department
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
Director – Academics
Rahul Puri
Director – Academics
Rahul Puri is the Managing Director of India’s leading entertainment company Mukta Arts Ltd. & Director – 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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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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Anuj Gulati
Faculty
Anuj Gulati
Faculty
An Alumni of New York University Tisch School of Arts, Anuj’s narrative work has screened at over 45 international festivals, which include the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival, the Director’s Guild of America, Palm Springs & Sydney Film Festival. His last short film, The Manliest Man, won 7 awards globally, and a previous short was released in India by PVR cinemas, as well as in France by the French Ministry of Culture. He completed his first feature, titled WingMan, in 2021. Anuj’s work spans across documentaries, fiction, music videos and commercials. He has directed for brands such as Honda, Whisper, Tanishq, eBay, Infosys, TVS, Close Up.
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Jasraj Padhye
Visiting Faculty
Jasraj Padhye
Visiting Faculty
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Sagar Malkar
Visiting Faculty
Sagar Malkar
Visiting 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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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.
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Visiting Faculty
Abhay Mehta, Anik Ghosh, Harshda Nirgun, Gagandeep Singh, Mohammad Khalikh, Shripad Hirlekar
SCREENWRITING
Anjum Rajabali
Head of Department
Anjum Rajabali
Head of Department
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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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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Deepanjjan Roy
Faculty
Deepanjjan Roy
Faculty
Deepanjjan Roy transitioned from being a banker to a storyteller, embarking on a fulfilling journey after a successful seven-year tenure in the financial industry across three continents. Making a bold career shift at the age of 30, he pursued his dream of becoming a screenwriter. Despite his academic background in Mathematics (Honors) from Delhi University, he considers his true graduation to have occurred at Whistling Woods International, where he received mentorship from veteran screenwriter Mr. Anjum Rajabali.
Following his graduation, Deepanjjan immersed himself in the television industry, playing a pivotal role in the writer’s room under the guidance of showrunner Mr. Zama Habib. His contributions to hit shows like “Nimki Mukhiya,” “Nimki Vidhayak,” and “Ishaaron Ishaaron Mein,” where “Nimki Mukhiya” consistently garnered 17 million viewers per original airing, showcase his storytelling prowess. Recently, he led a writer’s room for a crime series, guided by the creative expertise of Mr. Sanjay Chouhan. Deepanjjan has collaborated with industry legends such as Mr. Subhash Ghai, Mr. Ram Gopal Verma, Dr. Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, and Mr. Goldie Behl, further enriching his storytelling journey.
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Dinkar Sharma
Faculty
Dinkar Sharma
Faculty
An alumnus of Screenwriting department, FTII, Dinkar Sharma is an experienced screenwriting educator and script mentor. He went on to serve as a full-time faculty for screenwriting at FTII, at the position of Associate Professor. While he’s creatively inclined towards exploring the spectrum of popular cinema for dramatic storytelling possibilities, his teaching styles focuses on mastering the craft of telling stories for screen through intensive hands-on experience. His feature film as a screenwriter was released in 2012, namely Second Marriage Dot Com. He has worked as a screenwriter, developing and writing for TV and OTT shows, for production companies including Contagious Online Media Private Limited (TVF), Prakash Jha Productions and Drishyam Films. Simultaneously, he has worked as a story writer for radio and Ad films while making his own short films. In past, he has also been a film reviewer and at administrative positions for the Screenwriters Association, the biggest trade union for screenwriters and lyricists in India.
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Visiting Faculty
Aarambhh Mohan Singh, Pooja Varma, Smita Sahay
SOUND RECORDING & DESIGN
Rakesh Ranjan
Head of Department
Rakesh Ranjan
Head of Department
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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Sudipta Basu
Faculty
Sudipta Basu
Faculty
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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Tanmoy Basu
Faculty
Tanmoy Basu
Faculty
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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Shashank Sahu
Adjunct Faculty
Shashank Sahu
Adjunct Faculty
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VFX
Kshitiz Sharma
Head of Department
Kshitiz Sharma
Head of Department
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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Vijay Sawant
Faculty
Vijay Sawant
Faculty
Above 20+ Years of experience in industry and handled animation and vfx projects from commercials to Films. Love the Virtual production tools and Unreal. Very passionate working towards it. Always want to reach out for new possibilities where I can gather new knowledge, stretch technical & Creative horizons and keep myself busy towards my passion.
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VIRTUAL REALITY & VIRTUAL PRODUCTION
Chaitanya Chinchlikar
Head of Department
Chaitanya Chinchlikar
Head of Department
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Vivek Kandasamy
Faculty & Creative Technologist
Vivek Kandasamy
Faculty & Creative Technologist
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Saloni Shukla
Creative Technologist & Faculty
Salon
i Shukla
Creative Technologist & Faculty
Saloni Shukla an Alumina of Whistling Woods International, NYU and NYFA.
Is a part of the Emerging Media Lab at the institute . A Cinematographer, Creative Technologist , Researcher, Saloni is committed to pushing the boundaries of creativity and innovation. With over 18 years of experience in the media and entertainment industry, she has worked as a producer, cinematographer, and creative director in films, fashion, advertising, and theatre. Beyond traditional filmmaking, She has a passion for technology-based startups and business development. She founded Sasmas Ventures (OPC) an incubator in 2020 that identifies and mentors small tech startups, and her keen eye for identifying promising ventures has allowed her to successfully disrupt the industry with new talent and ideas. As a creative technologist Saloni is exploring the intersection of art, technology, and culture. Her current work as a A.I. researcher and prompt engineer is informed by her deep understanding of the craft of filmmaking, and she is committed to leveraging cutting-edge technologies to push the boundaries of storytelling and immersive experiences. Saloni’s innovative and experimental approach to filmmaking is rooted in her belief that art and technology have the power to transform the world around us. She is hailed as an asset to the filmmaking community and the technology startup ecosystem, and her expertise and vision are shaping the future of both industries.
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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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Rohit Boonlia
Project Coordinator
Rohit Boonlia
Project Coordinator
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Deep Kumar Borude
Production and Research Assistant
Deep Kumar Borude
Production and Research Assistant
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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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Media & Communication
Laili Dutta
Head of Department
Laili Dutta
Head of Department
Laili Dutta is also an independent filmmaker, media consultant, and educationist. She began her career as a video journalist with NDTV, covering politics, business, films, and the arts over six years. Transitioning to media training, she has helped young media students master mass communication while producing her own films. She holds a Master’s degree in Mass Communication from Jamia Millia Islamia and has participated in the prestigious Film Appreciation course conducted by FTII and NFAI, Pune. Her notable projects include the PSBT-PD fellowship-winning documentaries “Ocean of Melody I & II” on Indian classical music, and various other films and series exploring cultural and musical themes. As a consultant, she has trained senior television producers at international channels like Astro Awani in Malaysia and ITV in Bangladesh, and consulted for NDTV Worldwide for launching channels both in the domestic market as well as overseas.
Laili Dutta is a distinguished expert in music and media with over two decades of experience. A student of Hindustani music, she trained under Padma Vibhushan Late Ghulam Mustafa Khan and Srimati Sikha Dutta. She holds a BMus in Vocal from Bhatkhande University and is celebrated for her repertoire of Assamese contemporary and folk music. A published artist with HMV, she has performed internationally in England, Australia, the US, and Oman. As a music consultant, she has contributed to BBC and Australian Television, lent her voice to films and ads, and has performed for the Sangeet Natak Academy. Married into the family of Bharat Ratna Late Dr. Bhupen Hazarika, she continues his musical legacy with her husband.
Laili Dutta’s diverse and accomplished background in both music and media makes her an invaluable asset to Whistling Woods International, where she continues to inspire and mentor the next generation of media and music professionals.
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Utkarsha Kotian
Faculty & Sr. Manager – Academics
Utkarsha Kotian
Faculty & Sr. 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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Neha Rajan
Faculty
Neha Rajan
Faculty
Neha has an interdisciplinary academic background covering areas of literature, media, and psychology. As former Research Assistant at The Kabir Project, she has worked closely on enabling an interface between folk artists and schools across India. Having also engaged with writing and journalism, her interests lie at the intersections between culture, social behaviour, politics, and pedagogy.
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Rutika Yeolekar
Faculty
Rutika Yeolekar
Faculty
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Oindrila Purohit
Visiting Faculty
Oindrila Purohit
Visiting 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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Milind Dedhia
Visiting Faculty
Milind Dedhia
Visiting 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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Kajol Bangera
Visiting 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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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
Adjunct Faculty
Anita Naidu
Adjunct 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 is also an independent filmmaker, media consultant, and educationist. She began her career as a video journalist with NDTV, covering politics, business, films, and the arts over six years. Transitioning to media training, she has helped young media students master mass communication while producing her own films. She holds a Master’s degree in Mass Communication from Jamia Millia Islamia and has participated in the prestigious Film Appreciation course conducted by FTII and NFAI, Pune. Her notable projects include the PSBT-PD fellowship-winning documentaries “Ocean of Melody I & II” on Indian classical music, and various other films and series exploring cultural and musical themes. As a consultant, she has trained senior television producers at international channels like Astro Awani in Malaysia and ITV in Bangladesh, and consulted for NDTV Worldwide for launching channels both in the domestic market as well as overseas.
Laili Dutta is a distinguished expert in music and media with over two decades of experience. A student of Hindustani music, she trained under Padma Vibhushan Late Ghulam Mustafa Khan and Srimati Sikha Dutta. She holds a BMus in Vocal from Bhatkhande University and is celebrated for her repertoire of Assamese contemporary and folk music. A published artist with HMV, she has performed internationally in England, Australia, the US, and Oman. As a music consultant, she has contributed to BBC and Australian Television, lent her voice to films and ads, and has performed for the Sangeet Natak Academy. Married into the family of Bharat Ratna Late Dr. Bhupen Hazarika, she continues his musical legacy with her husband.
Laili Dutta’s diverse and accomplished background in both music and media makes her an invaluable asset to Whistling Woods International, where she continues to inspire and mentor the next generation of media and music professionals.
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Rahul Puri
Director – 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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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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Chandresh Narayanan
Adjunct Faculty
Chandresh Narayanan
Adjunct Faculty
Chandresh Narayanan is the former cricket writer of The Indian Express and The Times of India. He was then Assistant Editor of Neo Cricket and cricketnirvana.com as well as former content head of IPL’s official website. He then moved to Dubai as the media and communications and media rights officer at the International Cricket Council (ICC) in Dubai. He is now an independent consultant on media relations, talent management apart from being a cricket TV commentator, broadcaster, and an author.
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Mona Kothari
Visiting Faculty
Mona Kothari
Visiting Faculty
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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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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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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
Faculty
Simran Tapadia
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
Faculty
Tanay Vaibhav
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.
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Vijay Sawant
Faculty
Vijay Sawant
Faculty
Above 20+ Years of experience in industry and handled animation and vfx projects from commercials to Films. Love the Virtual production tools and Unreal. Very passionate working towards it. Always want to reach out for new possibilities where I can gather new knowledge, stretch technical & Creative horizons and keep myself busy towards my passion.
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Visiting Faculty
Abhijit Kini, Arvind Chudasama, Chinmay Bhandari, Mohammad Khalikh, Ninad Chaya, Rohina Devan, Sangram Borse
Fashion & Costume Design
Jewellyn Alvares
Head of Department
Jewellyn Alvares
Head of Department
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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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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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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Reyaz Ahmad
Faculty
Reyaz Ahmad
Faculty
Reyaz Ahmad is a graduate from National Institute of Fashion Technology, Mumbai. He is a designer and mentor specializing in Couture techniques, Structured wear as well as Lingerie. Teaching Draping and Pattern Making at the School of fashion, Reyaz brings with him immense industry knowledge which he shares in the classroom.
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Nidhi Pancholi
Faculty
Nidhi Pancholi
Faculty
Nidhi Pancholi is an alumnus of National Institute of Fashion Technology, Mumbai. Having over 7 years of Industry experience as well as in academia, her core skills lie in Fashion illustration and Textile Rendring using digital and traditional media. Design Culture is another subject that Nidhi teaches with a method of meticulously structured classes using innovative teaching materials. Her illustrations have been published in Harpers Bazaar Arabia amongst other digital media platforms. She has to her credit being an illustrator for leading Indian designers.
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Aaron Nath
Faculty
Aaron Nath
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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Sayli Sawant
Assistant Faculty
Sayli Sawant
Assistant Faculty
Sayli Sawant has been a tutor for over 2 decades in the subject of garment construction with specializations in sewing finishes, in surface ornamentation techniques like dyeing and hand embroidery. Well versed in draping sarees in the way it’s done across states of India she is also a master at cotemporary styles.
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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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Visual Communication 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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Prachee Batra
Faculty
Prachee Batra
Faculty
Prachee Batra is a practicing visual artist and educator based in Mumbai. She has completed her master’s in visual arts from Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara.
She has showcased her art practice in several exhibitions, workshops and residencies nationally and internationally like Tender Buttons and a Bellyache at ApreArt House, Mumbai, Painting workshop with Artist T.V. Santosh with Kochi Biennale, That’s what she said at Edwin Zoller Gallery in Pennsylvania, USA, Questions with and around Art History – Workshop at Rachana Sansad to name a few.
With over 5 years of experience as an educator, she inspires students to push creative boundaries and develop their unique voices fostering a dynamic learning environment. Certified by UGC NET to teach Visual Arts and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) via Coursera, Prachee integrates a profound understanding of Visual Arts. Her interest and experience in art, art education, and museums enriches a curriculum, offering students a comprehensive view of art bridging the gap between historical context and contemporary artistic practices.
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Achyut Palav
Visiting Faculty
Achyut Palav
Visiting Faculty
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Alpi Jain
Visiting Faculty
Alpi Jain
Visiting Faculty
Master’s in Industrial Design From School of Planning and architecture, 2004 batch. Hailing from Mumbai, Architect Alpi Jain is a practicing researcher, designer & educator. She has a portfolio of variety of projects in Interior – Corporate offices, residences, retail, furniture design and exhibitions. She has worked on a variety of Luxury retail stores, residence design, furniture design and office projects. Flagship stores of Christian Dior, Emporio Armani, Salvatore Ferragamo, Phillips, Bharti Realty office etc are few of them. As an instructional designer she has created engaging training content used for up-skilling school dropout students & craftsmen from economically weaker section in collaboration with organisations like IGNOU & Labournet respectively. As a researcher she conducts a user centric study for national & international clients like Wolterkluwers etc. She wrote books on ‘Ballia ki Virasat’ & ‘Benaras ki Virasat’ where rural built & unbuilt heritage are listed, a project for Uttar Pradesh Government by ITRHD. She has served as an academic at many top architecture & design schools like Ansal University in New Delhi, ARCH – Jaipur, SVVV- Indore, IICD- Jaipur, Whistling Woods International – Mumbai, IIT Kanpur etc.
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Anirban Dutta Gupta
Visiting Faculty
Anirban Dutta Gupta
Visiting Faculty
Anirban Dutta Gupta is a visual communication designer, documentary filmmaker, conservationist with a keen interest in ethnography. He is based out of Mumbai and works on both public and private commissions ranging from ethnographic and wildlife films, websites and graphic design, design for the digital spaces, strategic design amongst others. Clients range from Central and State Governments agencies, international and national corporates and NGO’s. Also active as a visiting faculty conducting advanced courses in video, multimedia, photography and graphics at various national institutes of higher learning. Recipient of multiple awards, including the prestigious The Scientific Exploration Society Neville Shulman Film Award 2017, the ‘Green Oscar’ Panda Award for natural history documentary at Wildscreen 2012, the Conservation Leadership Award 2008 & 2010 and British Film Institute (BAFTA) Award (Documentary Category) in 2006 [As part of production team]. He has also been nominated for the Omega Resilience Award in 2023.
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Caran Thammaiah
Visiting Faculty
Caran Thammaiah
Visiting Faculty
With more than a decade of experience in product, interaction & visual design, Caran has worked on creative strategies & innovation across varied industries. He is a post-graduate in Product Design from the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad. Over the years, he has worked extensively on design for consumers in the areas of bicycles, luggage & banking transaction products. Apart from serial entrepreneurship, he currently leads his design consultancy ’Two People Company’ in Branding, Packaging & UI/UX Design. At Whistling Woods, he conducts the elective Interaction Design for Visual Communication students in their 3rd year.
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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 Gandhi is Global Head – Design, Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL).
Darshan believes in inclusive design principles; that all good design should be accessible. She joined Godrej & Boyce’s Interio division in 2006, where she was a catalyst in introducing design thinking, by creating and showcasing a diverse range of products under one platform, with a unique design philosophy. This led her to work for Godrej Industries in 2008, where she was assigned to design SPACE, a prototype office to create a young work culture that inspired the exchange of ideas, innovation and change at Godrej. This was the start of design driven thinking at GCPL.
She formed the GCPLDesignLab in 2009, and was instrumental in applying design led thinking to transform brands with delightful product offerings (in a Godrej way) for a rapidly evolving Indian market. This created a great impact and value for consumers across categories, with reinvigorated brands like Expert, aer, Cinthol, Goodknight and BBLUNT. By leveraging the design tools of need based user-centric segmentation, prototyping and product mapping, Darshan led the development of a unique collaborative approach in line with GCPL’s overall objectives. Today, she and her team of highly skilled designers have extended the same approach to GCPL’s brands and categories across Africa and Indonesia. The recent ‘designification’ of Africa’s leading hair extensions brand, Darling, marks a milestone in GCPLDesignLab’s journey of inclusive design thinking practices as a leading in-house design studio. GCPLDesignLab was awarded ‘India’s Best Design Studio Award 2017’ and ‘India’s Best Product Design Award 2019’ .
Darshan is a post graduate from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, and an alumna of the Harvard Business School’s executive education General Management Programme.
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Dhriti Dhaundiyal
Visiting Faculty
Dhriti Dhaundiyal
Visiting Faculty
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Himanshu Agrawal
Visiting Faculty
Himanshu Agrawal
Visiting Faculty
Himanshu has been an Origami practitioner since 1989 and he has set 5 records for large Origami installations. His Origami sculptures have been displayed at art shows and events in India and around the world including UAE (Sharjah and Dubai), Italy, Germany, UK, Japan, Korea, Poland and The Netherlands. Besides conceptual Origami Art Installations, he has designed bespoke Origami sculptures to tell brand stories with paper art. He has passionately shared his understanding of Origami with thousands of enthusiasts over two decades, interacting with all ages, special interest groups, the convalescing and, even the terminal. Teaching Origami is a fulfilling activity for him. It has taught him to be compassionate and patient. Each session is a new opportunity to light a spark. From folding paper in isolation to folding with a global community; from folding palm-sized models in a small room to folding a 105 ft dinosaur in an airplane hangar, it’s been a long, eventful and thoroughly enjoyable journey for him, with Origami.
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Kartik Mistry
Visiting Faculty
Kartik Mistry
Visiting Faculty
Kartik Mistry is a software engineer passionate about Localization, Internationalization, Open Source, and Free Software Development. With the experience of over 18 years of working with various companies and places, he is currently working with Wikimedia Foundation as Staff Software Engineer. He likes to explore places by running and cycling. He also loves editing and collaborating with the Gujarati Wikipedia community in his free time.
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Kruti Saraiya
Visiting Faculty
Kruti Saraiya
Visiting Faculty
Kruti Saraiya is a graphic designer/ typographer based in Mumbai. The focus of her practice has been to allow a contemporary Indian design narrative to emerge to fill the gap between streetside kitsch and traditional Indian crafts. As a typographer, she sees her role in infusing context into letters and bringing the written word alive. Her strengths lie in working with scripts of Indian languages to create an equal space for them alongside English in urban India. Her commercial and experimental work celebrates the Indian aesthetic in a fusion of east and west. ‘The key’, she says, ‘is to change our mindset from an either-or to an AND.’
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Lavanya Asthana
Visiting Faculty
Lavanya Asthana
Visiting Faculty
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Neha Ramaiya
Visiting Faculty
Neha Ramaiya
Visiting Faculty
Neha has completed her education in bachelors from Sir. J. J. School of Art, Mumbai, and her Master’s in Ceramic and Glass Design from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India. She is the founder of YellowSpiders Pottery (est. 2009,) a pottery studio of eminence. The talented staff at the studio work extremely hardworking to help nurture & cultivate the inner artist in all the students and guests who come into the studio. The YellowSpiders community serves as an educational branch and support system for all artists, a unique place where their creative juices flow freely. The studio is committed to success and developing the skills of artists and young talents. It is the studio’s mission to ensure that the arts remain a strong influence, and to offer classes to students of all levels – introducing newcomers to art and creativity and refining the techniques of even the most veteran artists.
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Nivedita Deshmukh
Visiting Faculty
Nivedita Deshmukh
Visiting Faculty
Nivedita Deshmukh is a design educator, independent design consultant and a happy mother from Mumbai, India. After graduating from Sir J.J.Institute of Applied Art, she spent her early professional years navigating advertising at reputed ad agencies in India. As a student and professional, her work has won several national and international awards – the Cannes lion (silver), Spikes Asia (silver) and Government Gold Medal (for her student work) to name a few.
She has completed her Masters degree in Design and is a certified storyteller and library educator. In 2019, she co-founded the children’s library and storytelling initiative – Anek Chidiya. She is also engaged with an NGO named LeTS (Learn Through Stories) where she conducts workshops for both teachers and children. She investigates the dual nature of design for children and design by children through her workshops, research and design projects.
While storytelling for brands and children has a strong appeal for Nivedita, she has found her true passion in teaching and has engaged as a visiting faculty for various design institutes and conducted several workshops through brands, NGOs, schools and art festivals.
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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 Kewalya
Visiting Faculty
Nupur Bhargava Kewalya
Visiting Faculty
Nupur is an Artist, Animation Director & Creative Director living her dream of telling stories & creating art for the past 17 years.She is an alumnus of National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, where she did Animation Film Design. She has created many award winning & nominated Promos & Animations during her stint at MTV, India. For the past 14 years, she is the Co-Founder & Director of Invisible Rabbit, an award winning boutique animation studio in the heart of Mumbai. The only Director in India who has designed & Directed three feature film songs in stop-motion. Her work is an unique eclectic array of styles, themes & animation mediums for the biggest brands, OTT platforms & Film studios of India. She is also an artist & owner of OoeeMa! A Quirky Home décor & merchandise Brand. She loves Stop-motion, caricatures and all forms of storytelling. She also enjoys teaching & encourages Original Glocal thinking.
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Pooja Shinde
Visiting Faculty
Pooja Shinde
Visiting Faculty
Pooja is a Visual artist and printmaker. She received her BFA from Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai University in 2016, with a gold medal and MFA in 2018. She received a Scholarship to Young Artist in the field of Visual Arts. Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India (June 2018-June2020.) She specializes in printmaking, etching techniques. where she creates prints with contemporary techniques, approaches, and imagery focusing on the constantly changing urban landscapes and nature in Mumbai and how they incorporate with each other these years. Her prints have been shown extensively nationally and internationally in both invitational and competitive juried exhibitions. Some works have been published, won awards, and are in permanent and private collections. She continues to uphold an active and engaged studio art practice by creating/exhibiting prints, completing artist residencies, and conducting workshops, giving demonstrations and lectures about her art practices.
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Priyankar Gupta
Visiting Faculty
Priyankar Gupta
Visiting Faculty
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Prosenjit Ganguly
Visiting Faculty
Prosenjit Ganguly
Visiting Faculty
An alumnus of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, Prosenjit has served as Director of Special Projects, with Toonz Animation India (2002- 2009) creating award-winning animation properties for international broadcasters. His short films have been showcased at prestigious film festivals in over 15 countries, winning several international awards and nominations. A regular speaker at prestigious festivals and forums that include, TEDx, Anifest India, Hamburg Film Festival, Asifa India amongst many others, he is also a visiting faculty at premier Film and Design Schools that include NIDs, IITs, SRFTI, Whistling Woods & CEPT University. An avid nature lover and traveller, his professional projects include Story & Screenwriting for
Animation Cinema and Television, Show Development for Studios, Concept Art, Illustration, Stop motion Animation, Short films and Voice direction. He also conducts story and design workshops for Children and Advanced Workshops for Students, Corporates and Creative professionals.
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Rajesh Thakare
Visiting Faculty
Rajesh Thakare
Visiting Faculty
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Raju Hittalamani
Visiting Faculty
Raju Hittalamani
Visiting Faculty
Raju Hittalamani has carved a niche in media, communications, film production, and documentary filmmaking. His academic background, which includes an MA in Media and Cultural Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and a Visiting Fellowship in International Relations from Sciences-Po, Paris, provides a sturdy foundation for his practical engagements in cinema. As the co-founder of Kabes Media Private Limited, Raju has been instrumental in bringing film projects with profound global and cultural narratives to the fore. His foray into documentaries has yielded works such as “Breaking Chains”, “Anicca”, and “Kali-Kalisu”, with “Breaking Chains” gaining notable recognition at the LAMPA Retrospective, United Nations, Geneva. Adding to his diverse portfolio, Raju is developing a documentary on the Holocaust.
Over the years, Raju’s professional journey has seen associations with reputable institutions like the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, the Public Health Foundation of India, and the Indian Institute for Human Settlements. He has collaborated with national and international organizations in these roles, broadening his horizons in program execution, media strategy, research, and content creation. His stint as a Media Lab Director and Fellow at the Cairo Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences was marked by innovative course design and a focus on fostering cultural exchange. Raju’s academic engagements have led him to share insights on film and documentary filmmaking at various platforms, including the United Nations, reflecting his dedication to storytelling and the medium’s potential.
Joining Whistling Woods International, Mumbai, as a visiting faculty in Cultural Studies (for Visual Communication Design,) Raju merges his extensive experience with a deep-rooted passion for the field. His pedagogical approach emphasizes the importance of cultural studies as a tool to comprehend the sources and contexts from which texts, media, and designs originate. Through this understanding, Raju aspires to cultivate a more conscious media practice across varied forms, enhancing the depth and awareness of the content.
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Akshaya Thombre
Visiting Faculty
Akshaya Thombre
Visiting Faculty
Akshaya has been practising calligraphy for over 11 years and specialises in Roman calligraphy. Her calligraphy exhibition in 2017 at the Nehru Centre Art Gallery, Worli, was based on the development and modification of letters as design composition and presented it in a painting form. Her various experiments in the art led to the development and modification of her own variation of a style called ‘Blackletter’, which has a lot of variations internationally. She bases her creation on her sense of identity, space, design forms, and the grace of each letter. She has furthered the idea and presented it in wall paintings, chocolate engravings, and more. She is presently working on various other letters and styles with different perspectives to look forward towards calligraphy and take it to a new level.
A former student of the Achyut Palav school of Calligraphy, she is currently visiting faculty at Whistling Woods International (Visual Communication Design), I.E.S. College of Architecture, Rachna Sansad College of architecture, and MGM University. She also freelances as a Calligrapher and is associated with Artico Enterprises for designing projects. She has participated in representing India in various international exhibitions, and in 2021 she won The Excellence Award at the 18th Cheongju Jikji World Calligraphy Association, South Korea.
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Rituparna Sarkar
Visiting Faculty
Rituparna Sarkar
Visiting Faculty
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Rohit Goyal
Visiting Faculty
Rohit Goyal
Visiting Faculty
NID Design graduate with 10+ years of experience in Design thinking, Color and material trend forecasting, UX/UI Design working with India’s and International leading organization. Committed to encouraging the design process through the development of young minds.
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Samidha Gunjal
Visiting Faculty
Samidha Gunjal
Visiting Faculty
Samidha Gunjal is a comic artist from Ahmednagar, India who loves to draw and use wordless comics to express herself. Her work is inspired by the feminine form, nature, and everyday small-town life. She is a published children book illustrator and self-taught Linocut artist.
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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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Swati Chandak Sharma
Visiting Faculty
Swati Chandak Sharma
Visiting Faculty
Swati Chandak Sharma is the founder and director at Designmembrane, a graphic design studio in Mumbai. Her studio specialises in design for print publication, packaging, branding and illustration. She is a postgraduate from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad 2006.
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Tripti Sahni
Visiting Faculty
Tripti Sahni
Visiting Faculty
Tripti is the Founder and Principal Designer of Studio Trace, a lighting design firm, with a multidisciplinary focus.She is an award winning, internationally trained lighting designer, graduating with a Masters in Lighting Design from PARSONS, New York. A recipient of the EDIDA Award for her Origami Lamp, she has nurtured her interest in bespoke product design. The genesis of this was her material explorations at J.J. College of Architecture where she graduated with Honors and went on to work with multiple architects on high-end residential and commercial projects. Tripti has been the recipient of the Michael Kalil Grant for her work on light and human perception. Tripti balances creative thinking with technical expertise, helping spaces come alive by bringing out the richness of materials, exaggerating scale and enhancing geometry through modulations of light and shadow.
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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
Mr. Vinay completed his bachelor’s in multimedia at the International Academy of Computer Graphics in Hyderabad. At the beginning of his career, he held a variety of positions, such as audio/video editor, CG Generalist and Lead, to Managing Director, and has collaborated with numerous animation production studios around the world on both domestic and foreign projects. Thereafter, he founded Gratiaverse Animation & VFX. Through Gratiaverse, he collaborated with clients like Cadbury, and Netflix on numerous movies and web series. (Invisible Rabbit, Monkey on Hot Bricks, Mondelze, Switch Studio, NDW, Asian Paints Nilaya.) Along with running a studio, he mentors students studying animation and VFX and has spent the past two years helping Whistling Woods International students learn motion graphics.
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Perrine Rousselet
Visiting Faculty
Perrine Rousselet
Visiting Faculty
Perrine is a graphic designer and art director based out of Normandy, France. In 2006 she founded her graphic design studio in Paris, with numerous multi-disciplinary projects both in France and abroad. She graduated in 2003 from Central St Martins London with an MA Communication Design. After working for Vogue Hommes International, she joined the Print Studio of the Architectural Association of London. Back in France her interest for Architecture and Urbanism is concretely built upon a close collaboration starting in 2005 with architect Yves Lion. (Equerre d’Argent, 2004 for the Beyrouth French Embassy,) In 2011 She conceived the graphic design and the exhibition « Quel St-Germain demain? » She won the 2010 competition for the visual identity of Le Labo de l’édition, launched by the City of Paris. Perrine Rousselet’s projects are secular. In opposition to assembly line creations, her works favour and introduce to a direct physical touch to arts and crafts where requirements meet with quality. Passionate about pedagogy, she teaches regularly in Fonderie de l’image (Paris) as well as l’ECV in Paris.
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Wasim Saiyed
Visiting Faculty
Wasim Saiyed
Visiting Faculty
Wasim is a creative professional working in the television industry for the past 15 years. He is alumnus of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, (Visual Communication – Animation Film Design.) He was Executive Producer, English Cluster at Star India Pvt. Ltd.(WALT DISNEY COMPANY,) where he headed the on-air promos team for the English movies business at Star India – Ideate and create brand campaigns; collaborate with the marketing team for stunts, new launches, campaigns and execute them; manage daily workflow of on-air promos, manage the OAP budgets and liaise with external production houses/animators/graphic artists/voice-over artists/music composers for promos. He is a passionate storyteller and visual communications buff.
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Abhijeet Kini
Visiting Faculty
Abhijeet Kini
Visiting Faculty
Abhijeet Kini, founder of Kini Studios, is an award-winning illustrator, animator and independent comics publisher, known for his comic series and IPs such as “Angry Maushi”, “Rhyme Fighters” and “Fanboys”. Abhijeet has been a regular participant in all the Indian comic cons and has also participated in international editions. Having illustrated for magazines and newspapers for over 2 decades, he has been a regular illustrator with Tinkle comics since 2004. Abhijeet illustrates the Butterfingers book series for Penguin India. Kini Studios provide creative services such as comic design/production, merchandising, social media content, etc for various brands. Abhijeet has been conducting workshops across all age groups on ideation, creative writing and drawing and comic making and is a visiting faculty at various institutions.
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Actors’ Studio
Oorvazi Irani
Head of Department
Oorvazi Irani
Head of Department
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 28 years of vast experience in the field of imparting Theatre Training and as a Media Professional. She is a graduate from the National School of Drama, New Delhi and has directed many plays throughout her remarkable career. Her accolades include fellowships and production grants from the Ministry of the Culture, Government of India in the field of Theatre. She is also trained in Indian Classical Vocal Music and has performed in Radio Concerts. She additionally spends her time taking workshops across the country in Theatre and Personality Advancement.
As an actor, she has featured in the role of Satto in the web series “Heeramandi” directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali for Netflix. She has also played the character of Imad’s mother in the web series “Railway Men” produced by Yashraj films for Netflix. In the web series “SCAM 2003” produced by Applause Entertainment for Sony Liv, she played Faridabee – Telgi’s mother. She played Rukmani Attai in the feature film “Meenakshi Sundareshwar” produced by Dharmatic, the digital content company by Dharma Productions for Netflix. She also has featured as Ghazalabee in the popular series “Sacred Games” directed by Anurag Kashyap for Netflix. She played the role of Aarya’s lawyer Mallika, in the web series “Aarya” produced and directed by Ram Madhwani for Disney+ Hotstar. She featured as Shantishree in the film “36 Farmhouse” produced by Mukta Arts for Zee 5
Her upcoming projects as an actor include the web series “Akka”, being produced by Yashraj Films.
Her well-known commercial theatre plays as an actor-singer include Ladies Sangeet, Bandish and Roshe Roshe.
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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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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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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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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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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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Zachary Coffin
Visiting Faculty
Zachary Coffin
Visiting Faculty
Zachary Coffin is an American performer, filmmaker and trainer who has worked in nearly 40 countries – and lived on four continents – including in India for over a decade.
Zack has combined his global executive experience and award-winning storytelling skills to help his clients and students both grow and improve.
As a trainer and consultant, Zack has developed and conducted 150 workshops for clients ranging from Nobel Prize-winning NGOs to the central banks of three G7 countries, and from the smallest of startups and to the largest companies in the world. At consultancy firm KPMG, Zack was promoted every year and became the youngest Global Product Leader ever in the firm – reporting directly into the Office of the Chairman. He advised clients across sectors in governance, strategy, business development, knowledge management, organizational development and innovation, and has been the keynote speaker at conferences, written thought leadership white papers, and been cited in newspapers worldwide.
As an actor, Zack has performed in over 100 film, TV, commercial and theatre productions in India and the West. Formally, Zack trained at the Stella Adler Acting Studio in New York, and studied under the Oscar-nominated actress Nina Foch in Los Angeles. He also trained at three film schools in the U.S. – studying screenwriting at Columbia University and film production at NYU’s Sight & Sound Summer program, then moving to Los Angeles to focus on directing for three years at University of Southern California, where he won the Television Academy’s prestigious internship in directing and worked on an Emmy-winning TV series in Hollywood. He graduated with an MFA in Film Production (Writing/Directing) from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, and with a BA, magna cum laude, from Columbia University.
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Music
Laili Dutta
Head of Department
Laili Dutta
Head of Department
Laili Dutta is a distinguished expert in music and media with over two decades of experience. A student of Hindustani music, she trained under Padma Vibhushan Late Ghulam Mustafa Khan and Srimati Sikha Dutta. She holds a BMus in Vocal from Bhatkhande University and is celebrated for her repertoire of Assamese contemporary and folk music. A published artist with HMV, she has performed internationally in England, Australia, the US, and Oman. As a music consultant, she has contributed to BBC and Australian Television, lent her voice to films and ads, and has performed for the Sangeet Natak Academy. Married into the family of Bharat Ratna Late Dr. Bhupen Hazarika, she continues his musical legacy with her husband.
Laili Dutta is also an independent filmmaker, media consultant, and educationist. She began her career as a video journalist with NDTV, covering politics, business, films, and the arts over six years. Transitioning to media training, she has helped young media students master mass communication while producing her own films. She holds a Master’s degree in Mass Communication from Jamia Millia Islamia and has participated in the prestigious Film Appreciation course conducted by FTII and NFAI, Pune. Her notable projects include the PSBT-PD fellowship-winning documentaries “Ocean of Melody I & II” on Indian classical music, and various other films and series exploring cultural and musical themes. As a consultant, she has trained senior television producers at international channels like Astro Awani in Malaysia and ITV in Bangladesh, and consulted for NDTV Worldwide for launching channels both in the domestic market as well as overseas.
Laili Dutta’s diverse and accomplished background in both music and media makes her an invaluable asset to Whistling Woods International, where she continues to inspire and mentor the next generation of media and music professionals.
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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.
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Dee Wood
Faculty
Dee Wood
Faculty
Mr. Dee Wood is an American musician, a composer, instrumentalist and educator based in India from the past 35 years. He has been teaching music at Whistling Woods International since its inception and has guided and mentored hundreds of aspiring film makers and musicians.
Wood began his career in music performing in blues and rock bands in the Chicago area and went on to earn a BA in Music at Berklee College of Music. After graduation, Wood performed in Jazz and Latin groups and conducted workshops in varied institutions including Boston Ballet, MIT, Harvard, Whitney Museum of American Art and Berklee College of Music. He went on to earn a MA from Beacon College studying West African drum ensemble music in Togo West Africa, and Hindustani music in Bombay India. He went on to do extensive musical research in Mumbai on a Fulbright research scholarship.
Wood has collaborated internationally with various musicians. His film credits include composing original music for films with Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Kabir Mohanty, Nilita Vachani, Anand Patwardhan, Victor Banerjee, Dev Benegal and Ruchir Joshi. Currently D. Wood performs as a bassist / composer and takes masterclasses in India and abroad.
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Sabapathi Rajan Pillai
(Chitti Pallai Ji)
Faculty
Sabapathi Rajan Pillai
Faculty
Mr. Sabapathi Rajan Pillai has been a part of the Indian Music Industry for the past 35 years. He is also a member of the Cine Musicians Association. He has played with Legendary Music composers like Kalyanji Anandji, R.D. Burman, Laxmikant Pyarelal to name a few.
He has worked with some legendary playback singers of the industry like Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosale, Lata Mangeshkar, Alka Yagnik, Kumar Sanu, Kavita Krishnamurthy and also accompanied them for their LIVE shows both in Indian as well as overseas.
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Shankar Lakshmanan
Faculty
Mr. Shankar Lakshmanan
Faculty
Mr. Shankar Lakshmanan, in his career of over three decades has had the fortune and rich experience of sharing the stage with the legends of both Carnatic & Hindustani music. He has also been deeply involved with percussion ensembles in India & abroad. Currently, as a faculty at leading music institutes in Mumbai, he teaches both music and music appreciation. He is a devoted listener of diverse forms of music and this eclectic approach finds expression in his teaching and performance. Apart from his musical career, he also has a long-standing advertising career that pans over 20-years, including his stints in top-of-the-line global agencies. He is also currently an independent consultant.
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Vijay Thomas Kurien
Faculty
Vijay Thomas Kurien
Faculty
Vijay is a pro audio specialist with a degree in recording arts and more than 20 years of experience in education, training, sales, installation, and technical support. He started his career as an assistant sound recordist and has since worked for some of the best companies in the business, including Yash Raj Films, NDTV, Star Network, Sahara India TV Network, Sony Entertainment Television, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, and Films Division, Mumbai.
In 2003, he pioneered the multi-track recording of live shows on non-linear media, in Kerala. An AVID certified Pro Tools Music Operator, Vijay served on the Indian Recording Arts Awards committee and jury in 2012, 2014, and 2015. He was instrumental in integrating the Digital Audio Denmark AX24 Box with a Pro Tools HD system at “In the Mix Studios” – A Hariharan Enterprise. This system was certified to Dolby E specifications and was eventually put into use by AVID.
He received the Dronacharya Award for teachers in audio education in 2019. Vijay is also a professional member of the British Computer Society.
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Bhagyashree Panchale
Faculty
Bhagyashree Panchale
Faculty
Bhagyashree Panchale is a distinguished figure in the realm of music, known for her unique style and captivating voice. Beginning her musical journey at the age of three, she has explored various genres, including classical, semi-classical, sugam, and natyageet, ultimately finding her passion in Gazal singing.
Her foundation in Marathi-Urdu Gazal was laid by her father, Gazalnawaz Pandit Bhimrao Panchale, and further refined by esteemed mentors such as Smt. Apurvatai Gokhale and Smt. Archanatai Kanhere. She holds a degree in Philosophy from Rula College and a postgraduate degree in Music from SNDT College, complemented by a Visharad in music and a Doctorate in Music from Mumbai University.
Bhagyashree has been honoured with numerous accolades, including the Chaturanga Fellowship, Pt. Bhimsen Joshi Fellowship, Natashreshtha Nilu Phule Yuva Kalabhushan Award, and a B-High grade on Akashvani. As faculty, Bhagyashree brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, and passion for music, offering invaluable insights and inspiration to her students.
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Abhi Joshi
Faculty & Program Manager
Abhi Joshi
Faculty & Program Manager
Abhi is an accomplished pianist, composer, orchestrator, and arranger. He has trained under world-class Piano and Music Theory professors such as Marta Plasota (Poland), Gayane Aslanyan (Armenia) and Steve Jocic (Serbia), to name a few. He holds two Advanced Diplomas from Trinity College of London in Piano Performance (LTCL) and Music Theory: Composition and Orchestration (LMusTCL).
A versatile musician with knowledge in multiple genres like Classical, Rock, Metal, Film Music, and Bollywood, Abhi has worked on various film scoring projects as a composer, arranger, and orchestrator.
He has been a part of the core team of Bolly Piano (the largest online music learning platform in South Asia) as the Head of Operations and has worked as a transcriptionist and course designer on multiple music learning platforms. Abhi has collaborated with internationally renowned companies such as Stepping Stones, Flowkey, and Preply and individuals like Alexandre De Orio, Arvind Bhargav, Sagar Kapoor and many more.
He has taught students from more than 50 countries for the past seven years, from complete beginners to university students. His learning journey never stops. Here at Whistling Woods, as a piano and orchestration faculty, Abhi keeps exploring new horizons by learning and experimenting with new music styles and genres.
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Sushant Joshi
Faculty
Sushant Joshi
Faculty
Sushant Joshi is a music producer, sound designer, audio engineer and educator . He obtained his audio engineering degree from SAE in Mumbai and started his career by assisting film score composer Daniel B. George, working as an arranger and recording engineer for background score films like Agent Vinod, Maximum and Inkaar.
With his extensive experience in music production, he has collaborated with music producers, performers, sound engineers, and artists for feature films, short films, radio jingles, television shows, ads as well as live performances. Sushant has also created music for award-winning feature/non-feature films, music albums, and ad films. In addition, he has worked in advertising for a significant period of time.
One of Sushant’s notable works is his music contribution for the environmental documentary film, The Tiger Who Crossed the Line, which won the National Award in 2017.
Sushant’s passion for music has also led him to teach aspiring music producers as a senior faculty at ILM Academy in Gurgaon. He also consults for music, sound design and audio requirements for games and animation.
As an independent music producer, Sushant has worked with artists from different parts of India, focusing on music production, synthesizer, sound design, sound editing, mixing, and sound art. He releases music under his moniker, Aria Cluster where he uses sound in an experiential way with ambient and generative approach using a virtual modular synthesizer.
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Mukut Kashyap
Adjunct Faculty
Mukut Kashyap
Adjunct Faculty
Mukut is a versatile music composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist with over four years of professional experience in music production, composition, and arrangement. With a deep understanding of both Indian and Western music traditions, Mukut brings a unique blend of cultural influences to his work.
Throughout his musical journey, Mukut has demonstrated his proficiency across a wide spectrum of genres, including orchestral, acoustic, electronic, fusion, rock, and pop. His ability to seamlessly blend diverse musical elements has earned him recognition and praise within the industry.
Mukut’s collaborative spirit and exceptional talent have led him to work alongside esteemed artists, including his ongoing partnership with renowned Indian Sitarist, Pandit Ravi Chary. Together, they have embarked on successful tours, captivating audiences with their innovative fusion of traditional and contemporary sounds.
Noteworthy among Mukut’s achievements is his production of the anthem for Team India at the World Transplant Games 2023, a testament to his ability to evoke emotion and inspire through music. Additionally, he has lent his creative expertise to numerous projects, crafting original scores for short films and live dramas, further showcasing his versatility and adaptability as a composer.
With a passion for pushing musical boundaries and a commitment to excellence, Mukut continues to make significant contributions to the world of music, captivating audiences and leaving a lasting impression with his compositions and productions.
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Raghu Malik
Adjunct Faculty
Raghu Malik
Adjunct Faculty
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Tupur Verma
Adjunct Faculty
Tupur Verma
Adjunct Faculty
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Ambar Das
Adjunct Faculty
Ambar Das
Adjunct Faculty
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Mithilesh Patankar
Visiting Faculty
Mitilesh Patankar
Visiting Faculty
Mr. Mitilesh Patankar, a music director and arranger by profession, took Vocal Indian Classical training from Pt. Gajananrao Joshi. He pursued his career as a music director under the guidance of his father Vishwas Patankar, a well-known music director.
As a music composer & arranger, he has worked on several projects in Hindi and Marathi cinema. He has conceptualised and composed music for a fusion band called Mithaavin and actively participated in ‘Sangeetkar Sammelan’ since 2008 for eight years.
Mithilesh Patankar has also conceptualised a musical series of 26 episodes called Sugam Riyaz for All India Radio, which was based on the elements of light music. He has worked as a music arranger and a judge for Zee Marathi’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa.
He was awarded MICTA Award for the Best Background Music for Marathi play, ‘Aamhi Sau Kumud Prabhakar Aapte’ in the year 2014. The following year he also received Chitrapadarpan Award as the Best Music Director for the Marathi album, ‘Ghanachimba’ in the non-film category.
He was also an on-screen mentor for a musical reality show on ETV Marathi. He has performed old Hindi songs as a singer at Kresge Theatre Boston, Berklee College Auditorium and Southern Theatre Columbus in the U.S.A for three consecutive years from 2015-2017 with a band of 22 musicians.
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Mayank Singh Rawat
Visiting Faculty
Mayank Singh Rawat
Visiting Faculty
Mr. Mayank Singh Rawat, a drummer and percussionist kick-started his rhythm journey in 2005. Trained under a renowned drummer, Ashwini Verma from band Euphoria, Mayank Singh Rawat is known for his aggressive and power sound over the drums. Later, he became a part of the renowned metal band called ‘Night Wings III’, whose work was globally recognised and published on various digital platform. Being a part of the heavy drum act, he also dedicated a song to ‘Anonymous- The Legion Anthem’, hacktivist society that got an overwhelming global response. In 2007 he started imparting his knowledge by holding drum workshops at various schools, colleges, and official organisations. As a music composer and stage artist, he has also collaborated with various Hindi film industry singers including Richa Sharma, Shruti Pathak and Bhoomi Trivedi.
Currently he is a part of Indie Rock pop/funk act ‘SaaR’ and came up with Debut Album ‘Rang’. He has collaborated and produced music for various organisations such as Netflix, TVF, Dice Media, etc. Recently he was also a part of the One Plus Music festival.
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Javed Khan
Visiting Faculty
Javed Khan
Visiting Faculty
Javed Khan Kalawant belongs to illustrious Kalawant family of traditional musicians of Rajasthan.He has learnt Music under his maternal grandfather Ustad Munir Khan Sahab (disciple of legendary Ustad Amir Khan Sahab of Indore Gharana) and his uncle Ustad Bashir Khan Sahab of Delhi-Agra Gharana.He went on to acquire Graduation, Post Graduation and M.Phil degrees in classical vocal, all from Delhi University, topping the results at each level and winning a gold medal at the Master’s stage.
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Christus Stephen
Visiting Faculty
Christus Stephen
Visiting Faculty
Mr. Christus Stephen, a hard-working music professional with over 35 years’ experience in performance, education, and training, he started his musical career as a violinist, at the age of 6. During his initial years he performed at All India Radio and Doordarshan and later went on to become a part of the Malayalam film industry as a recording artist. In 1995, he joined the Indian Navy as a violinist in the Naval Symphony Band and performed in over 24 countries, during his 15 years of service. He is a gifted musician who has mastered not only the string family instruments but also the French horn, piano, guitar, and percussions. He later worked independently as a sound engineer at Joshua studio. He has also produced several ads, jingles, and background scores for reputed companies. He is currently working on the upcoming Malayalam movie (John) and Marathi movie (Mubaicha Vadapav) as a Music Director. He is also the partner owner of Vizmaya studio.
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