Amy Fernandes

Director

Amy Fernandes is an independent journalist.She was Editor of India's leading women's magazine, Femina; Editor, Features with a daily publication including Saturday Times; Editor, Special Projects at The Times of India and Editor of the Sunday edition of the DNA newspaper. She conceptualised and brought out Jade, a successful magazine for South India. She has also taught journalism at St Andrew’s College and at St Paul’s Institute of Communications.
She is passionate about magazine journalism and has brought out as many as five publications on various subjects at one time.

Quasar Thakore Padamsee

Artistic Director

'Q' is a theatre-holic and lover of all things theatrical. Since 1999, he has directed and produced over 25 plays with QTP - including Every Brilliant Thing, A Peasant of El Salvador, Project S.T.R.I.P., So Many Socks, Minorities and many others about contemporary social concerns. Internationally, he has worked on Tim Supple’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the aerial drama Mind Walking.
He is a founding member of Thespo - a youth theatre initiative that trains and promotes emerging artists in India. He has been serving on the festival committee of Litlive since its inception.

Antoine Lewis

Programming Director

Antoine Lewis is a Food & Wine writer and columnist. His love of good food is matched by his love for digging into the origins of dishes and the cultural practices and histories that shape what we eat and why. Apart from being a regular contributor to a variety of national and international newspapers, magazines and websites he has been the Editor of Savvy Cookbook, Food & Drink Editor, Paprika Media and Editor of burrp.com.

Reena Agrawal

Sr Associate Festival Director

When Reena is not teaching Sociology to students of mass media , she is telling stories to children who challenge and help explore her own possibilities .
As Co Founder of Storyexpress she supports education of the lesser privileged through books, reading and music. A struggling Indian classical instrumental player, she is still trying to hit the right notes!

Tina Nagpaul

Associate Festival Director

Tina Nagpaul is a filmmaker who has produced and written feature films as well as content for web and television. She is currently in the process of directing her first documentary feature. In a prior life, she was an accidental banker with Citigroup but spent her free time immersed in the creative culture of New York and Los Angeles. She has a Bachelors in Physics and Astronomy from Mount Holyoke College and a masters in Public Policy from Georgia Tech.

Sumana Ramanan

Associate Festival Director

Sumana Ramanan is an independent journalist interested in politics, history and culture. She was an editor with Economic & Political Weekly, Hindustan Times and Scroll.in, and earlier, a correspondent with Business World, The Independent, Reuters and The Statesman, in Mumbai. She has also reported from Germany and Israel-Palestine. She is a student of Hindustani vocal music. She enjoys swimming and baking. She has a BA with a double major in Computer Science and Linguistics & Cognitive Science from Brandeis University, and a MA in Social Science from the University of Chicago. She is working on her first book, a work of narrative non-fiction.

Shireen Mistry

Associate Festival Director

A graduate of the universities of Bombay and Oxford, Shireen Mistry first worked as a journalist and then for over twenty years was the British Deputy High Commission’s spokesperson and Head of its Political, Communications and Public Affairs Department for Western India. She has been awarded an MBE ( a British government award) for her contribution to strengthening Indo-UK ties.

Dr. Vinod Kumar Budhiraja

Associate Festival Director, Head Travel & Hospitality

Dr Vinod Kumar Budhiraja I.T.S is an independent telecom professional who has been employed in both the public and private sector in India and abroad. Over his long career he has been General Manager of MTNL; General Manager Telecom, Kashmir; a member of the Executive Committee of Association of Business Communication of India (ABCI) and the Chairman of the Public Relations Society of India, Bombay Chapter (PRSI).

Anil Dharker

With Us In Spirit

Anil Dharker ( 1946-2021) Founder Director, Literature Live! and a Mumbai-based writer and columnist was at various stages in his life, an engineer on the academic staff of the University of Glasgow, a consultant in a Mumbai architectural firm, a film critic and censor, a promoter of New Cinema with the National Film Development Corporation and an editor successively, of Debonair, Mid-Day and Sunday Mid-Day, The Independent, and The Illustrated Weekly of India. Dharker worked in television as
producer and anchor, as well as head of a news television channel, then poised for takeoff. He was also, briefly, creative director of the Zee Television network. He is still remembered for his long stint as TV critic at The Sunday Observer, where readers, viewers, producers, Doordarshan directors-general and ministers found his column the one they loved to hate. These were reprinted in an anthology by HarperCollins titled Sorry Not Ready :Television in the Time of PM darshan. Dharker has written a coffee-table book on Goa; a biography of industrialist OP Jindal, The Man Who Talked To Machines; and a book on Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi March, The Romance Of Salt and an anthology, Icons: The Men & Women Who Shaped Today’s India.

Shashi Baliga

With Us In Spirit

Shashi Baliga (1952-2021) an independent journalist and media trainer was Editor, Sunday Features with the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, Editor of Filmfare magazine, worked with The Independent and The Metropolis on Saturday papers, Femina and Savvy magazines. As visiting faculty she taught journalism at the Xavier Institute of Communication and SPICE in Mumbai and contributed a chapter to A Book of Light, edited by Jerry Pinto – a collection of personal accounts of living with a loved one with mental illness.

Amitav Ghosh

The recipient of a Jnanpith, Padma Shri and numerous literary prizes, Amitav Ghosh is a celebrated author whose books include ‘The Hungry Tide’ and ‘The Ibis Trilogy’. His recent works include, ‘The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parable for a Planet in Crisis.’

Georgina Brown

She is a British journalist who has covered the Arts as a critic, features writer and editor for more than three decades – initially for ‘The Independent’ and then as the Chief Theatre Critic for ‘The Mail on Sunday’.

Ramachandra Guha

A prominent historian and biographer, Ramachandra Guha is also an acclaimed author who has written a number of books on his two abiding passions: cricket and the environment. He is also a regular contributor to academic journals and publications. His latest book is, ‘Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914-1948’.

Ranjit Hoskote

Ranjit Hoskote is a poet, essayist and curator. His books include Vanishing Acts (Penguin 2006), Central Time (Penguin 2014), Jonahwhale (Penguin 2018, published in the UK by Arc as The Atlas of Lost Beliefs, 2020) and Hunchprose (Penguin 2021). Hoskote has been honoured with numerous awards, including the Sahitya Akademi Golden Jubilee Award and the JLF- Mahakavi Kanhaiyalal Sethia Award.

Salil Tripathi

Salil Tripathi lives in New York via London, Singapore, Hong Kong and Geneva. Born in the city once known as Bombay, he is on the board of PEN International, and the author of three works of non-fiction. His next book is about the Gujaratis. His writing has won several awards.

Saumya Balsari

The British-Indian author has been named one of Britain’s leading South Asian women. A Senior Member of Darwin College, Cambridge University, Balsari has worked as a columnist, editor and translator. Her debut novel, ‘The Cambridge Curry Club’ won the Cambridgeshire Book of the Decade Award. Her second book was ‘Summer of Blue’.

Shashi Tharoor

Arenowned author and human rights activist, Shashi Tharoor is a United Nations peacekeeper and an elected MP. He has been Minister of State for Human Resource Development and External Affairs in the Government of India. Author of many books, his recent non-fiction work is ‘Ambedkar A Life’.

Shobhaa De

Shobhaa De is an established writer, author, columnist and opinion leader. She has written several books and is recognised for her outspoken, politically incorrect views on matters that concern us. Her recent books are ‘Srilaaji’ and ‘Lockdown Liaisons.’ Her f orthcoming book is ‘Insatiable – My Hunger for Life’.

Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi

Author of the international bestseller The Last Song of Dusk, Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi’s most recent book is Loss, a collection of essays. He has been the recipient of the Betty Trask Award, UK; the Premio Grinzane Cavour, Italy; and was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize. Shanghvi lives in Mumbai and Goa.