AMY FERNANDES

Festival 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

Associate Festival Director, Head Performances

'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.

Reena Agrawal

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!

Shireen Mistry

Committee Member

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).

Antoine Lewis

Associate Festival 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.

Tina Nagpaul

Committee Member

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

Committee Member

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.

Sahil Arora

Committee Member

Sahil Arora is an entrepreneur and a branding & marketing consultant. In 2019 he founded Method, a contemporary art space in Kala Ghoda that presents eclectic works by young and upcoming contemporary artists . Over the past 12 years he has helped over a 100 young, and established, brands define their brand language and establish their digital footprint.

ANIL DHARKER

With Us In Spirit

Anil Dharker is a Mumbai-based writer and columnist. At various stages in his life, he has been 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, ofDebonair, Mid-Day and Sunday Mid-Day, The Independent,and The Illustrated Weekly of India. Dharker has 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 PMdarshan. 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. Recently, he brought out an anthology, Icons: The Men & Women Who Shaped Today’s India.

Shashi Baliga

With Us In Spirit

Shashi Baliga is an independent journalist and media trainer. Her last assignment was as Editor, Sunday Features with the Hindustan Times, Mumbai. She has also been Editor of Filmfare magazine, worked with The Independent and The Metropolis on Saturday papers and Femina and Savvy magazines. She lectures on journalism at the Xavier Institute of Communication and SPICE in Mumbai. She has 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 Jnanpath, 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 are ‘The Invisible Hand: The China Trade and How it Changed India (and the World)’ and ‘Gun Island’.

Germaine Greer

An Australian author and academic. Germaine Greer is one of the major voices of the second-wave feminist movement in the latter half of the 20th century. She wrote ‘The Female Eunuch’ in 1970 – a path-breaking book and bestseller that brought her international acclaim. Her recent books include ‘White Beech: The Rainforest Years’ and ‘On Rape’.

Vijay Seshadri

Vijay Seshadri has authored four collections of poems, several essays, reviews and memoir fragments. Among his many awards is the James Laughlin Award for his 2004 work ‘The Long Meadow’ and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2014 for his collection of poems entitled ‘3 Sections’. Recently, he joined ‘Paris Review’ magazine as its Poetry Editor.

Ian Jack

A celebrated editor, Ian Jack has edited several issues of ‘Granta’ and ‘Independent on Sunday’, which he co-founded. The award-winning reporter, journalist and editor has also published anthologies including ‘Before the Oil Ran Out’ and ‘Mofussil Junction’. Recently, he won the Edgar Wallace Award at the London Press Club Awards 2019.

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

A renowned 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. His book, ‘Why I Am A Hindu’ was published last year. Other recent works include ‘The Hindu Way’ and ‘Notes from the Hinterland: Stories and Essays’.

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’.

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 all. Her latest book is ‘Seventy… And to Hell With it’.

William Dalrymple

The historian and writer’s books include ‘City of Djinns’, ‘White Mughals’, ‘Nine Lives’, ‘Return of a King’ and ‘Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World’s Most Infamous Diamond’. His latest works include ‘The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company’ and ‘Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company’, a book set to be published soon.

Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi

With his debut novel, ‘The Last Song of Dusk’, he won the Betty Trask Award in the UK, the Premio Grinzane Cavour in Italy for the Best Debut novel and was nominated for the IMPAC Prize. His second book, ‘The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay’, was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2008. ‘The Rabbit & the Squirrel’ is his latest book.

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’.

Sid Khanna

He is the Managing Director of India Equity Partner (IEP) – fund advisors of a c control-oriented private equity fund. He was the founding Country Managing Partner of Accenture in India as well as the Middle East and a member of the Accenture global management team. He serves on the board of Peninsula Holdings, Canara HSBC Insurance, HCL Technologies, Ashok Leyland and as Chairman of the Board of Advisors of KPMG India.