Odisha Literary Festival 2022

Dharmendra Pradhan

Dharmendra Pradhan

The Union Cabinet Minister of two portfolios — Education and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship — Dharmendra Pradhan is from Talcher, Odisha. Even during his tenure as the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas of India, Minister Pradhan launched initiatives like PAHAL, which is the world’s largest Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme, and even the campaign #GiveItUp, which received support from the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. Minister Pradhan took some key decisions in the hydrocarbon sector. The Ujjwala scheme crossed the targeted five crore gas connection distribution among poor people, eight months ahead of schedule. In his previous tenure (2017 to 2019), when Pradhan held the portfolio of Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, he launched several measures focused on skilling, reskilling and upskilling the manpower of India. Starting his political career with ABVP, the students’ wing of BJP, the 48-year-old Rajya Sabha member has risen through the ranks and is now one of the most prominent faces of the NDA government and among the top-performing ministers in the Cabinet. Pradhan’s heart lies in social work and he has always worked for the development and welfare of farmers, backward classes, poor and marginal sections. He is also committed to tackling youth-related issues such as unemployment and the lack of skill-based education.

Prateek Pattnaik

Prateek Pattnaik

Prateek Pattanaik is an independent researcher, archivist and Odissi classical musician with an MSc in Physics and MA in Odia. He writes and delivers talks on the culture of Odisha, with a special focus on the Jagannatha temple tradition and traditional music-literature. For his groundbreaking field research and documentation of rare art forms of Odisha and his specialised efforts in preserving ancient Odissi music compositions, he has received appreciation from various quarters, including the Chief Minister of Odisha Prateek has collaborated with several leading authorities in the sphere of culture. A practising classical musician, he is a disciple of Pandit Guru Ramarao Patra and is currently continuing his advanced training in Odissi vocal music, as well as the Odissi Bina in the sisya-parampara of the early 20th-century maestro Acharya Tarini Charan Patra.

Arushi Mudgal

Arushi Mudgal

Arushi Mudgal is one of the foremost young talents in the field of Odissi today, known for her technical virtuosity and creative approach to tradition. She has trained under her aunt, Guru Madhavi Mudgal at the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, Delhi. Arushi was selected as one of the Top Ten Dancers of 2018 by the New York Times. Arushi was invited by Pina Bausch to perform at the Internationales Tanz Festival in Germany. She has performed at prestigious festivals in France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, UK, USA, Belgium, Spain, Brazil, and others. Her collaborative projects include Orfeo – Crossing the Ganges, an Indo-European opera; Sama, a contemporary work with Roland Auzet, a French percussionist and Haveli among others. Empanelled with the ICCR and Doordarshan, she conducts dance workshops worldwide and performs regularly for SPICMACAY. Arushi has co-authored a book on the aesthetics of Odissi dance along with senior scholar and aesthetician, Prof SK Saxena, which has been published by the Sangeet Natak Akademi.

Sniti Mishra

Sniti Mishra

A classically-trained (Visharad) singer, Sniti Mishra has won the Most Remarkable Voice title at Zee SaReGaMaPa's Singing Superstar in 2010. A live performer, she recreates semi-acoustic unplugged versions of some of the biggest classical-based Bollywood and non-film hits in all her concerts that are aimed at promoting Indian Classical music among the Indian youth She has been associated with Indo-Swedish Fusion jazz band Mynta, percussionist Sivamani, Grammy Award-nominated jazz musician-keyboardist Louis Banks and performed classical and fusion concerts in India and across the world. Sniti received her Hindustani Classical music training from Guru Shri Raghunath Sahoo, a disciple of Swararanga Dr Damodar Hota of the Gwalior Gharana. She has also lent her voice to a Tamil movie Maaveeran Kittu under the music composition of D Imman. Her collaboration with AR Music studio which produces Kashmiri Sufi songs is appreciated worldwide. One of her Kashmiri songs Harmukh Bartal has been used by the makers of the popular web series The Family Man starring Manoj Bajpayee. Maintaining her balance between academics and professional music, Sniti pursued her Management study in Finance at the Institute of Management and Information Science, Bhubaneswar. She was honoured with Baji Rout Samman for the year 2016 by Utkala Cultural Association, IIT Bombay. During her musical tour to the USA, she was invited to judge the Chicago Indian Icon, and in September 2013, she was chosen as a Goodwill Ambassador for the global charity Combat Blindness International.

Adhyapak Biswaranjan

Adhyapak Biswaranjan

Professor Biswaranjan, popularly known as Adhyapak Biswaranjan, is a teacher, writer and public activist. Traversing diverse worlds with equal ease, zeal and passion, Biswaranjan wears many hats: a political scientist, literateur, orator, editor, and above all, a crusader taking up the cudgel on behalf of the common man. Never incarcerated to the cosy confines of the classroom or study room, he moves around the most interior and inaccessible parts of his native state Odisha enquiring into the pertinent issues and problems that are encountered by the poorest and marginalised, and writing about them in newspapers and magazines. These pursuits have earned him the tag of "public intellectual". A versatile writer in the true sense of the term, he has immensely contributed to every possible genre of literature: poetry, short story, novel, essay, feature, literary criticism, children’s literature, translation and editing (both newspaper and literary journals). He is revered as a fearless critic who never shies away from attacking political regimes for their follies and anti-people policies. Following his retirement from the Orissa Education Service after a brilliant career in teaching Political Science, the professor has devoted himself completely to literature and public activism. He has thoroughly examined the misery of people and the responses of the government in the post-Super Cyclone phase in Odisha in his English anthology Knock and the Rise (2000) which was released by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. An author of around 100 books, the professor has enriched the world of Odia literature incomparably.

Dr Gourahari Das

Dr Gourahari Das

Gourahari Das is known for his multifaceted creativity in the field of Odia literature. A recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award, he has an exquisite treasure trove of literary creations which include novels, short stories, vignettes, essays, travelogues, plays and translations. With a vision that transcends the normal, and a value system that is nurtured by his love for both tradition and modernity, he has been able to see and comprehend the nature of conflict and complexities of a society in transition. The themes of his creativity range from real-life experiences to history, mythology and the rich world of imagination. Dr Das' major works include Kanta O Anyanya Galpa (The Nail and Other Stories), Nija Sange Nijara Ladhei (In a Battle with Himself), Jibanara Jalachhabi (Reflection of Life), Ghara (The Home) and Akasha Dine Neela Thila (Once the Sky was Blue). His collections in English, The Little Monk and Other Stories, Koraput and Other Stories and The Nail and Other Stories have been published by Rupa, Authors Press and Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, respectively. Many of his stories have also been made into stage plays, TV serials and radio plays. He has translated the works of Yashpal, Krishna Sobti, Ruskin Bond, Kuldip Nayar and Benyamin. Gourahari has many literary awards and laurels to his credit, including the Central Sahitya Akademi and Odisha Sahitya Akademi Awards, Sangeet Natak Akademi Prize, Sambalpur University Award and Fakir Mohan Senapati Award of the Utkal Sahitya Samaj. He has been awarded the Writer in Residency of Sahitya Akademi and Senior Fellowship of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

Dr Chandra Shekhar Hota

Dr Chandra Shekhar Hota

Dr Chandra Shekhar Hota is an essayist, critic, columnist and translator, apart from being the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Nabarangpur, Odisha. Born in Balangir, he holds a doctorate degree from Gangadhar Meher University, Sambalpur on Representation of Hinduism by Vivekananda Kendra: A Critical Appraisal. The literateur began his career in 2009 as a lecturer at Deshbandhu College, Delhi University. His publications include Kalpana, Anubhav O Sahitya (essay collection), Gandhi Essays (edited by Arabinda Pattanaik and Dash Benuhur), Chetanara Anweshana (essay collection), Gandhi Kavita and Astha Suryara Sakala O Anya Galpa Guccha (translated stories from the English story book Fly on the Wall and Other Stories by Subha Sharma). Hota is the recipient of the Gokarnika Essay Award, Saraswat Samman, Mahuri Samman, Krushnendu Smruti Samman, Shri Shri Nigamananda Seva Samman, Brahmapur Pustak Mela Prabandha Samman, Bana Surabhi Samman, Swatantra Saraswat Samman by Dasia Sanskrutik Parishad and most notably, the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar-2020. Dr Hota's critical essays are a quest for consciousness dealing with a wide variety of subjects, ranging from the sorrow of silence to the search for India. He is also working as a member of the Executive Board of Odisha Sahitya Akademi, Bhubaneswar since 2017, and is currently on the editorial board of Odisha Sahitya Akademi’s literary magazine, Konark.

Dr Sanghamitra Bhanja

Dr Sanghamitra Bhanja

Dr Sanghamitra Bhanja is an academician, poet, story writer, lyricist and accomplished critic. Currently, the Head of the Department of Odia Language and Literature at Rama Devi Women’s University, Bhubaneswar, Sangahmitra has also done her postgraduation in Hindi. Her field of specialisation is comparative study in Hindi and Odia. Some of Bhanja's popular literary criticisms include Odia Sahitya: Puruna O Nua, Samaj: Darsan O Sahitya, Srasta, Srusti O Anyanya Prabandh, among others. She has so far penned three books of poetry and edited four books in Odia. Her translations include Suno Radhika, Jeevan Path Par, Rana Se Matia Chhatura, and Byatha Ki Gatha.

Manoranjan Byapari

Manoranjan Byapari

Manoranjan Byapari was born in the mid-fifties in Barishal, former East Pakistan. His family migrated to West Bengal in India when he was three. They were resettled in Bankura at the Shiromanipur Refugee Camp. Later, they were forced to shift to the Gholadoltala Refugee Camp, 24 Parganas and lived there till 1969. However, Byapari had to leave home at the age of fourteen to do odd jobs. In his early twenties, he came into contact with the Naxals and the famous labour activist Shankar Guha Niyogi, Founder of the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha at the Dalli Rajhara Mines, who were leading a revolution to reclaim lands of the tribals from feudal lords who had captured them by unfair means. Byapari was sent to jail during this time, where he taught himself to read and write. Later, while working as a rickshaw puller in Kolkata, Byapari had a chance meeting with the renowned Bengali writer Mahasweta Devi, who urged him to write for her journal Bartika. He has published twelve novels and over seventy short stories since. Some of his important works include Chhera Chhera Jibon, Ittibrite Chandal Jibon (memoir), the Chandal Jibon trilogy (novels) and Motua Ek Mukti Senar Naam. Until 2018, he was working as a cook at the Hellen Keller Institute for the Deaf and Blind in West Bengal. In 2014, the writer was awarded the Suprabha Majumdar Prize by the Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi. He also received the Sharmila Ghosh Smriti Literary Prize in 2015. In 2019, he was awarded the Gateway Lit Fest Writer of the Year Prize. Also, the English translation of his novel Batashe Baruder Gandha (There’s Gunpowder in the Air) was shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature 2019, the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2019, the Crossword Book Award for Best Translation 2019 and the Mathrubhumi Book of the Year Prize 2020. He was appointed as Chairman of the newly instituted Dalit Sahitya Akademi in Bengal in 2020. Two of his novels were published in the USA by the independent publisher AntiBooks Club in the spring of 2022. Byapari was recently elected a member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly.

Madhu Purnima Kishwar

Madhu Purnima Kishwar

Madhu Purnima Kishwar is an Indian academic and conservative commentator. She is currently employed as a Chair Professor in the Indian Council of Social Science Research. Kishwar along with fellow academic Ruth Vanita has been regarded as a pioneer scholar of women's studies in India. The two were the founder-editors of the critically acclaimed journal Manushi. Established to bridge the gap between academic discourse and popular activism by raising awareness of gender inequalities through ground activism, Manushi has been one of the longest-running and most-influential women’s periodicals in South Asia, to the extent of being heavily instrumental in setting the agenda for women's right movements. Kishwar is also the founder of Manushi Sangathan, an organisation working for democratic reforms that promote greater social justice. Kishwar graduated from Miranda House in Delhi, where she was the President of the Student's Union. She received her postgraduate degree in History from Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. She was a professor and a senior fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), until her retirement in 2016. Madhu Kishwar then joined the Indian Council of Social Science Research as the Maulana Azad Professor. In 2017, she was appointed to the Academic Council of the School of Art and Aesthetics at Jawaharlal Nehru University. She has authored a number of books including Modi, Muslims and Media: Voices from Narendra Modi’s Gujarat, Manushi Publications (2014), Zealous Reformers, Deadly Laws: Battling Stereotypes, Sage Publishers (2008) and more.
Ghazala Wahab

Ghazala Wahab

Ghazala Wahab is the author of Born a Muslim: Some Truths About Islam in India (March 2021). The book has won two Book of the Year (non-fiction) awards: Tata Lit Live and AttaGalatta. She is the co-author of Dragon on our Doorstep: Managing China Through Military Power (with Pravin Sawhney, February 2017). Wahab has also contributed a chapter on the changing profile of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir for the book Operation Parakram, authored by Pravin Sawhney and Lt Gen VK Sood (2001). The writer started FORCE in August 2003 along with Pravin Sawhney. Apart from writing on issues like homeland security, terrorism, Jammu and Kashmir, left-wing extremism and religious extremism, she produces the magazine every month. She also writes a monthly column First Person, in FORCE.

Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari

Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari

Filmmaker and writer Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari spent several years in the field of advertising before she directed her debut movie Nil Battey Sannata in the year 2016. The film acquired so much critical acclaim that she even directed Amma Kanakku, the Tamil remake of the film. Since then she has made many other films like Bareilly Ki Barfi and Panga. Ashwiny co-founded the production house Earthsky Pictures in 2018. In the year 2021, the Mumbai-born filmmaker-turned-author released her book, Mapping Love. Currently, she is gearing up for her OTT debut, Faadu.

Ram Madhav

Ram Madhav

Ram Madhav is an Indian politician, social leader, author and thinker. Dr Madhav is a founding member of the Governing Council of India Foundation (IF), a New Delhi-based Think-tank In over a decade of India Foundation’s existence, Dr Madhav has been the curator of major annual global and national multilateral initiatives like the Indian Ocean Conference, the Dharma-Dhamma Conference, ASEAN-India Youth Summit and Counter Terrorism Conference involving heads of nations and leaders of governments besides academics, scholars and public-spirited individuals. Dr Madhav has served as the National General Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during 2014-20. In that capacity, he handled political affairs of Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and other North-Eastern states of India. A renowned author and thinker, Dr Madhav has over 300 publications to his credit. He has authored several books in English and Telugu that include The Hindutva Paradigm – Integral Humanism and the Quest for a Non-Western Worldview, Because India Comes First: Reflections on Nationalism, Identity and Culture and Uneasy Neighbours: India and China after 50 years of the war.

Kabir Bedi

Kabir Bedi

Kabir Bedi is a famous international actor known to his European fans for Sandokan, to American fans for Bold and Beautiful, to James Bond fans for Octopussy, and to all those who love his Bollywood films across India and the Indian diaspora of millions abroad. His career has spanned three continents, in three mediums: film, TV and theatre, for over three decades. Kabir Bedi went from Bollywood, worked in Hollywood, and became a star in Europe. In 2010, the Italian Government Knighted him by bestowing him with the title of Cavaliere, Italy’s highest civilian honour, for his lifetime achievements as an actor. Kabir has been a voting member of the Oscars Academy (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) since 1982. In the James Bond film Octopussy, Kabir played the villain Gobinda, Roger Moore’s villainous antagonist. He was the swashbuckling hero in Sandokan, the Italian TV series which broke viewership records across Europe. Over two million people saw him every week on The Bold and The Beautiful for over a year. Bedi has acted in Bollywood films with superstars Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Akshay Kumar. His most famous Bollywood film is Khoon Bhari Maang with the legendary Rekha. Stories I Must Tell: The Emotional Life of Kabir Bedi is his autobiography which was published in 2021.

Aparna Karthikeyan

Aparna Karthikeyan

Aparna Karthikeyan is a storyteller and an independent journalist. She volunteers for the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) and has written for them, as well as for The Hindu, The Caravan, The Wire, Scroll.in and other publications on culture, books and livelihoods. She has authored books for children and published short fiction. She lives in Mumbai with her husband, daughter and dogs.

Sridala Swami

Sridala Swami

Sridala Swami is a poet, essayist and photographer. Her first collection of poems, A Reluctant Survivor (2007), was shortlisted for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Award in 2008. It was followed by Escape Artist (2014), which was shortlisted for the inaugural Khushwant Singh Poetry Prize. Her work has been featured in The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets (2008). She was the 2011 Charles Wallace writer-in-residence at the University of Stirling, Scotland and was a Fellow of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in 2013. In 2020, she was on the jury of the Montreal International Poetry Prize. She has also written four books for children. Some of these books have been translated into many languages including Polish, French and Korean.

Aparna Piramal Raje

Aparna Piramal Raje

Educated at Oxford and Harvard, Aparna Piramal Raje is the author of Working Out of the Box: 40 Stories of Leading CEOs. She is a regular columnist with the Mint. She contributed to the UK's Weekend Financial Times, a global publication, for several years in the past. Over the past decade, she has fostered an awareness of design, especially workplace design, in companies in India. Now, Aparna aspires to leverage her first-hand experience of mental health to make a difference in this sector.

Anil Pradhan

Anil Pradhan

Anil Pradhan is an Indian engineer, innovator and revolutionary educationist. He is the founder of the Young Tinker Foundation (formerly Navonmesh Prasar Foundation), which was founded in 2015 to educate the less-privileged students of Odisha through an interdisciplinary curriculum. He is also known for developing tinker spaces, affordable tinker kits, indigenous rockets and projects that solve real-life problems. The team at Young Tinker Foundation has impacted the lives of more than 1,50,000 students across India. He created India’s first U-19 (under nineteen) team which secured World Rank III in NASA’s Rover Challenge in 2021 and made India proud by becoming the first Indian team to do so. This team made everyone realise the potential of the students at the grassroots level. Pradhan also received the prestigious National Youth Award in 2021 from the Government of India (the highest civilian award for youth in India) for his contribution to education, science and technology. Prior to incorporating the Young Tinker Foundation, Anil worked on projects with L&T, Tata and other companies during his undergraduate course in Engineering. He was also the chief designer of VSLV, Asia’s first multipurpose student rocketry mission. And he developed a satellite to monitor Hirakud Dam.

Jubanashwa Mishra

Jubanashwa Mishra

In 2013, Jubanashwa Mishra embarked upon an experiential journey of working twenty-eight jobs in the twenty-eight states of India to rediscover himself. This journey entailed travelling 25,000 km, and he explored a long list of jobs like working as a mountain cleaner, TRP analyst, tattoo artist, rafting trainee and cremation assistant. This resulted in the book 28 Jobs, 28 Weeks, 28 States which was published in 2016. Jubanashwa Mishra has been serving as the Director of Paperboat Labs since 2017.

Prashanta Nanda

Prashanta Nanda

Veteran actor Prashanta Nanda wears many hats. Apart from acting in several award-winning Odia films, he is a director, film writer and even a music director and playback singer. He debuted in the Odia film industry in 1962 with the film Nua Bou which went on to win the National Award. He tried his hands at direction with Sesa Srabana in 1976. Some of his milestone classics for the Odia film industry apart from this movie are Balidaan, Hisab Nikas, Maa O Mamata and Dora. He has also directed a few Bengali movies. Many of his directions have received the State Film Awards and in 2015, and Nanda was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at this award ceremony. Jianta Bhoota, his 2009-film on the Dongria Kondh tribal community, won the National Film Award in the Best Non-feature Environment/Conservation/Preservation film category. Born in Cuttack on May 2, 1947, Nanda is currently the BJD MP from Odisha. Prior to this, he was the Odisha BJP Vice-President but resigned from the primary membership of the party in August 2007. After that, he joined Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Surya Deo

Surya Deo

Film historian and critic of Odisha, Surya Deo, has individually preserved the legacy of the eight-decade-old Odia film industry through his writings and literary works. In a committed manner, Deo strived for over two decades for his documentation on Odia cinema, which has drawn public attention in recent years. Known to be an encyclopedia on Odia cinema and an archivist of Odia films, Deo was recently awarded the National Film Awards for Best Writing on Cinema for his book Kali Paine Kalira Cinema. With five chapters replete with rare photographs, the book tells the story of the regional film industry, its noteworthy productions, actors and their stories. It is a first-of-its-kind initiative to document the evolution of Odia cinema since Sita Vibaha, the first Odia film. Deo, who is one of the founding members of the Film Journalists Forum, has been single-handedly archiving, documenting and preserving rare and old Odia films. Along with members of the forum, he has been screening the restored Odia films/classics for the connoisseurs and the general public for over the last decade. He has authored books like Odia Cinema Geeta (1936 to 1969), Odia Cinema Rupa Rupantara and Jhura Mana Jhara Giti in the past. He published two volumes of the book Seven Years in Making, which is the second volume of Odia Cinema Geeta and it compiles all the songs of 39 Odia films that were released between 1970 and 1978.

Sabyasachi Mishra

Sabyasachi Mishra

Counted as one of the leading actors of the Odia film industry today, Sabyasachi Mishra has also worked in Tamil, Telugu and Bengali film industries. Beginning his Ollywood career as an album artiste, Mishra debuted as an actor with Pagala Premi in 2007. The film went on to become a hit and Sabyasachi received his first Best Actor Actor award at the Odisha State Film Awards. He went on to bring out several hits over the years. The actor, who has also been involved in various social welfare programmes and charity works, was nicknamed Odisha's Sonu Sood during the COVID-19 pandemic when he helped many underprivileged Odias stranded in different parts of the country return home. He also helped migrant workers with food and arranged transportation for them to return to Odisha besides providing medical supplies and oxygen to COVID-infected patients. The actor-cum-philanthropist was also declared the Outlook Person of the Year. Mishra was accorded with this honour in lieu of his philanthropic activities during the lockdown.

Himansu Sekhar Khatua

Himansu Sekhar Khatua

Known for his award-winning films, Himansu Sekhar Khatua is the Director of Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), Kolkata. Prior to SRFTI, he was the Chief Managing Director of the Kalinga Media and Entertainment and looked after the administrations of the School of Film and Media Sciences, School of Fashion Technology and School of Mass Communication at KIIT (Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology). A native of Khatuapatna in Bhadrak, he is an alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. He started his career as a professional audiographer but later moved into film direction. He began his career in the Odia film industry as the sound recordist and sound designer for the film Indradhanura Chhai. Following this film, his career took a turn as he was offered to direct a film by Alaya Mohanty. In 2005, Khatua directed his first film Kathantara which went on to win the National Award for Best Regional Film (Odia). Khatua earned much appreciation for directing Kahe Ballava, an experimental film based on Moghul Tamsa and Odishan culture. The film garnered huge admiration after being screened at the International Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival, International Mumbai Short Film Festival and South Asian Short Film Festival. His film Matira Bandhana based on Trunk of Ganesha by Jayanta Mohapatra is a one-of-its-kind movie which garnered great praise.

Sanjoy Patnaik

Sanjoy Patnaik

Sanjoy Patnaik, a social development professional, worked extensively on the environment in India and overseas. He studied International Politics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. A film enthusiast from a very young age, he pursued a film appreciation course at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, and continues to write on different aspects of the cinema both in the print and digital space. Sanjoy is a filmmaker who scripted and directed the award-winning Odia film Shuka Asuchi (Shuka Returns, 2014), a critique of the contemporary development model that depicted mining-induced displacement and power mobilisation of the poor in rural Odisha. The film has brought mining into cinematic discourse with a brave exposition of illegal mining. It depicts the pangs of displacement and the predicament of the rural youth who swing between being disinterested farmers and petty power brokers in the rich mining belts of Odisha. Sanjoy has completed his first full-fledged book in English entitled Of Reels, Romances and Retakes: Images, Identities and Stereotypes in Odia Cinema. The book captures a range of sociological and cultural processes that influenced filmmaking in Odisha post-independence, an area of cultural analysis that is largely missing from the intellectual discourse around Odia cinema. The book presents questions about ethnic and linguistic identity with an elaborate account of the interface between literature and cinema, while also presenting an analysis of the interconnectivity between a host of emerging political and social processes impacting cinema as a middle-class art form in Odisha.

Yatindra Mishra

Yatindra Mishra

Yatindra Mishra is a celebrated poet, author and scholar of music and cinema. He has four collections of Hindi poetry to his credit: Yada-Kada, Ayodhya Tatha Anya Kavitayein, Dyorhi Par Aalaap and Vibhas. Mishra has also written about the life and work of the Thumri singer Girija Devi, danseuse Sonal Mansingh and Shehnai Maestro Bismillah Khan. Translation of his writings Girija, his series of poems on Ayodhya, Vibhas, Yaar Julahey, Meelon Se Din and Akhtari: The Life and Music of Begum Akhtar have been well received. He has also translated the 12th-century Lingayat mystic poet Akka Mahadevi's poems titled Bhairavi. His book titled Humsafar is about the last hundred years of Hindi Cinema and deals with the authentic analysis of the musical journey of cinema. Mishra is the editor of a cultural gazetteer of Faizabad titled Shahernama Faizabad. His latest book is an edited compilation anthology on the Thumri Queen and Ghazal Singer Begum Akhtar titled Akhtari: Soz Aur Saaz Ka Afsana. Recipient of many awards for his literary contributions, including the Bharatiya Janapitha fellowship, Raza Foundation Award, Bharat Bhushan Agarwal Smriti Puraskar, Bharteeya Bhasha Parishad Yuva Puraskar and HK Trivedi Smriti Yuva Patrakarita Puraskar, among others. His book Lata: Sur-Gatha won six awards in 2016, including the prestigious sixty-fourth National Film Award for Best Writing on Cinema (Swarna Kamal), MAMI Mumbai Film Festival Award for Best Writing on Cinema, Mumbai, 2016-17, Dwarka Prasad Agarwal Bhaskar Yuva Puraskar, Maharana Mewar Award, Shamsher Samman and Spandan Lalit Kala Samman. The book Lata: Sur-Gatha was also felicitated by the prestigious Award for Excellence in Book Production given by the Federation of Indian Publishers to the publisher Vani Prakashan in 2017. Owning his literary and cultural involvements, Mishra has visited New York, England, Mauritius and Abu Dhabi. He is currently working on a book about the eminent film director, lyricist and poet Gulzar Saheb. Mishra lives in Ayodhya.

Anant Vijay

Anant Vijay

Anant Vijay has been active in journalism for nearly twenty-five years. His articles on politics, literature and cinema are read across the country. He completed his BA (Hons) in History from Bhagalpur University and followed it up with a postgraduation in journalism, an MMC (Master of Mass Communications) and a postgraduate diploma in business management from the University of Delhi. He is the author of eleven books. Among these, Prasangvash, Kolahal Kalah Mein, Vidhaaon ka Vinyaas, Bollywood Selfie, Loktantra ki Kasauti and Marxvaad ka Ardhsatya have been well received. Anant Vijay is currently working with Dainik Jagran as associate editor. He has been conferred with the National Award (Swarna Kamal) for best writing on cinema.

Nanditha Krishna

Nanditha Krishna

Dr Nanditha Krishna is a historian, environmentalist and writer based in Chennai. She has a PhD in Ancient Indian Culture from Bombay University, where she was a Heras scholar. Her thesis was on the Iconography of Vishnu Narayana. She has been a Professor and Research Guide for the PhD programme of CPR Institute of Indological Research, affiliated to the University of Madras. She is the founder of the CP Art Centre, CPR Institute of Indological Research and CPR Environmental Education Centre in Chennai and the Shakunthala Jagannathan Museum of Kanchipuram, apart from several other educational institutions, and is currently President of the CP Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation and Director of CPR Institute of Indological Research. Krishna was responsible for the revival of the painting traditions of the Kurumba tribes, pottery traditions of Kota women and traditional drawing and painting in Mamallapuram; and for the introduction of Tamil folk art forms in schools. She is also the President of the Conjeevaram Hindu Educational Society which runs the five SSKV Schools and a women’s college in Kanchipuram and is a Member of Governing Body at Blue Cross of India. Dr Nanditha Krishna restored the Varahishwara Temple in Damal and a 450-year-old house in Kanchipuram. In 1990, she was deputed to the Archaeological Survey of India’s restoration of Angkor Wat in Cambodia and has researched the Khmer temples and reported on the restoration process. She has also been documenting India’s ecological heritage traditions. She has recently been awarded the National Fellowship of ICHR (Indian Council of Historical Research) and will pursue her work on the Heritage of Hindu Iconography.

Parvati Sharma

Parvati Sharma

Parvati Sharma's debut The Dead Camel and Other Stories of Love earned her a following for its depictions of love and sexuality in urban India, and its "lightness [and] lucidity". She has also written a novella Close to Home, and two books for children, The Story of Babur and Rattu and Poorie’s Adventures in History: 1857. Her first historical biography Jahangir: An Intimate Portrait of a Great Mughal was acclaimed as an "audacious, conversational history . . . [that] stands out", and for its "psychologically penetrating portrayal". Her most recent book Akbar of Hindustan, an account of the life and times of the third Mughal emperor, has been described as "an exercise in delight". Sharma lives in New Delhi, where she has studied English Literature and Indian History, and worked as a travel writer, editor and journalist.

Naveen Patnaik

Naveen Patnaik

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik needs no introduction. One of the most admired and respected political leaders in the country, he has been consistently ranked among India’s best-performing chief ministers year after year. Blessed with the trust of the people, he is the longest-serving Chief Minister of Odisha with an uninterrupted stint since 2000. Under his leadership, Odisha has undergone a massive transformation from a BIMARU state to one that is hailed for its economic growth and social progress, posting a complete turnaround in human development indices, poverty alleviation, and industrial and infrastructure development. Patnaik is also lauded for leading a transparent and corruption-free government. Patnaik joined politics in 1996 after the death of his father, Biju Patnaik. First elected to the Lok Sabha from Aska, he was Union Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government between March 1998 and March 2000, before moving to the State. Educated at Doon School and Delhi University, he has worked actively to industrialise Odisha. Apart from being a politician of unflinching integrity, he is a man of letters and culture. He has authored the critically acclaimed A Second Paradise: Indian Country Life 1590-1947; A Desert Kingdom: The People of Bikaner and The Garden of Life: An Introduction to the Healing Plants of India.

Rituparna Ghosh

Rituparna Ghosh

You can describe Rituparna as a story digger, story charmer, story gatherer, story extractor, story spotter…anything but just a storyteller! An international storyteller and a TEDx speaker, Rituparna is the founder of Your Story Bag, a storytelling, training and consulting company. She works with listeners, children, adults, organisations, both not-for-profits and corporates, helping them harness the power of stories in their business, life and work. A festival curator and performance storyteller, this personality has performed at several storytelling festivals across the country and abroad. Rituparna is a television producer-turned-storyteller. She has taught Storytelling and Children’s Literature at Delhi University for five years. Ghosh has developed the early years' programme for Delhi government schools to teach English, Hindi and monthly themes through stories. Recently, Rituparna has co-developed the Storytelling as Pedagogy Manual for CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education).

Dharmendra Pradhan

Dharmendra Pradhan

Prateek Pattnaik

Prateek Pattnaik

Arushi Mudgal

Arushi Mudgal

Sniti Mishra

Sniti Mishra

Adhyapak Biswaranjan

Adhyapak Biswaranjan

Dr Gourahari Das

Dr Gourahari Das

Dr Chandra Shekhar Hota

Dr Chandra Shekhar Hota

Dr Sanghamitra Bhanja

Dr Sanghamitra Bhanja

Manoranjan Byapari

Manoranjan Byapari

Madhu Purnima Kishwar

Madhu Purnima Kishwar

Ghazala Wahab

Ghazala Wahab

Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari

Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari

Ram Madhav

Ram Madhav

Kabir Bedi

Kabir Bedi

Aparna Karthikeyan

Aparna Karthikeyan

Sridala Swami

Sridala Swami

Aparna Piramal Raje

Aparna Piramal Raje

Anil Pradhan

Anil Pradhan

Jubanashwa Mishra

Jubanashwa Mishra

Prashanta Nanda

Prashanta Nanda

Surya Deo

Surya Deo

Sabyasachi Mishra

Sabyasachi Mishra

Himansu Sekhar Khatua

Himansu Sekhar Khatua

Sanjoy Patnaik

Sanjoy Patnaik

Yatindra Mishra

Yatindra Mishra

Anant Vijay

Anant Vijay

Nanditha Krishna

Nanditha Krishna

Parvati Sharma

Parvati Sharma

Naveen Patnaik

Naveen Patnaik

Rituparna Ghosh

Rituparna Ghosh