Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare is an English novelist, life peer, convicted criminal, and former elected politician who remains a member of the House of Lords. Before becoming an author, Archer was a Member of Parliament (1969–1974), but did not seek re-election after a financial scandal that left him almost bankrupt.
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who headed the committee drafting the Constitution of India from the Constituent Assembly debates, served as Law and Justice minister in the first cabinet of Jawaharlal Nehru, and inspired the Dalit Buddhist movement after renouncing Hinduism.
Mulk Raj Anand was an Indian writer in English, recognised for his depiction of the lives of the poorer castes in traditional Indian society. One of the pioneers of Indo-Anglian fiction, he, together with R. K. Narayan, Ahmad Ali and Raja Rao, was one of the first India-based writers in English to gain an International readership. Anand is admired for his novels and short stories, which have acquired the status of classics of modern Indian English literature; they are noted for their perceptive insight into the lives of the oppressed and for their analysis of impoverishment, exploitation and misfortune. He became known for his protest novel Untouchable (1935), followed by other works on the Indian poor such as Coolie (1936) and Two Leaves and a Bud (1937). He is also noted for being among the first writers to incorporate Punjabi and Hindustani idioms into English, and was a recipient of the civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan.
Sir William Mark Tully, KBE is a British journalist and the former Bureau Chief of BBC, New Delhi, a position he held for 20 years. He worked with the BBC for a total of 30 years before resigning in July 1994. The recipient of several awards, Tully has authored nine books. He is a member of the Oriental Club.
Anant Pai, popularly known as Uncle Pai, was an Indian educationalist and a pioneer in Indian comics. He is most famous as the creator of two comic book series viz. Amar Chitra Katha, which retold traditional Indian folk tales, mythological stories, and biographies of historical characters; and Tinkle, a children's anthology.
City of Joy is a 1985 novel by Dominique Lapierre. It was adapted as a film by Roland Joffé in 1992. Calcutta is nicknamed "the City of Joy" after this novel, although the slum was based on an area in its twin city of Howrah.
Raqesh Bapat is an Indian actor and model. He is known for his work in films like Tum Bin (2001), Koi Mere Dil Mein Hai (2005), Vrundavan (2016) and Savita Damodar Paranjape (2018) and television shows like Saat Phere – Saloni Ka Safar (2005–2008), Maryada: Lekin Kab Tak? (2010–2012) and Qubool Hai (2014). He was ranked 16th in The Times of India's Top 20 Most Desirable Men of Maharashtra in 2017.
Pritish Nandy is an Indian poet, painter, journalist, parliamentarian, media and television personality, animal activist and maker of films, TV and streaming content. He was a parliamentarian in the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra, elected on a ticket from the Shiv Sena. He is the author of forty books of poetry in English and has translated poems by other writers from Bengali, Urdu and Punjabi into English as well as a new version of the Isha Upanishad. Apart from these, he has authored books of stories and non fiction as well as three books of translations of classical love poetry from Sanskrit. He was Publishing Director of The Times of India Group and Editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India, The Independent, and Filmfare in the 1980s, all simultaneously. He has held six exhibitions of his paintings and calligraphy. He founded Pritish Nandy Communications Ltd, the content company, in 1993. He also founded People for Animals, India's first animal rights NGO which is currently run by co-founder Maneka Gandhi as chairperson.
Jagmohan "Jag" Mundhra was an Indian director, producer, and screenwriter, best known for his early career as an American exploitation film writer-director.
Gulzar is an Indian Urdu poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter, and film director known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of greatest Urdu poets of this era. He started his career with music director S.D. Burman as a lyricist in the 1963 film Bandini and worked with many music directors including R. D. Burman, Salil Chowdhury, Vishal Bhardwaj and A. R. Rahman. Gulzar also writes poetry, dialogues and scripts. He directed films such as Aandhi and Mausam during the 1970s and the TV series Mirza Ghalib in the 1980s. He also directed Kirdaar in 1993.
Kiran Rao is an Indian film producer, screenwriter, and director who works in Hindi cinema. In 2016, Rao co-founded Paani Foundation, a non-profit organisation working towards the mission of fighting drought in Maharashtra. She is the board member of Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image.
Dibakar Banerjee is an Indian film director, screenwriter, producer and advertisement-filmmaker known for his work in Hindi films. Banerjee started his career in advertising, being a feature filmmaker, he still continues to be an ad-filmmaker. He also runs his own film production company, Dibakar Banerjee Productions.
Podaa Podi is a 2012 Indian Tamil-language musical romantic comedy film written and directed by debutant Vignesh Shivan, starring Silambarasan and debutant Varalaxmi Sarathkumar. The score and soundtrack of the film were composed by Dharan Kumar, while cinematography and editing were handled by Duncan Telford and Anthony Gonsalves, respectively. The film started production in 2008 and was released on 13 November 2012 as a Diwali release. The film received mixed reviews.
Thuppakki ( transl. Gun) is a 2012 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by AR Murugadoss. Produced by Kalaipuli S. Thanu of V Creations, the film stars Vijay and Kajal Aggarwal, with Sathyan, Vidyut Jammwal, Jayaram, Manobala and Zakir Hussain in supporting roles. It revolves around Jagadish, an intelligence officer in the Indian Army, who seeks to track down, destroy and deactivate a sleeper cell, after witnessing and barely escaping a bomb blast executed by the cell.
The Yoga Institute is a government recognized non-profit organisation, known as the oldest organized yoga center in the world. It was founded in 1918 by Shri Yogendra (1897-1989), who was one of the important figures in the modern revival of yoga. It is headquartered in Santacruz, Mumbai, India.
Karan Mehra is an Indian television actor, model and fashion designer. He is known for his performance as main lead Naitik Singhania in Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai, one of the longest-running Indian television serials. He is also known for Sumit Mishra in Khatmal E Ishq, Do phool ek maali. One of the highest-paid actors in Hindi television industry, he was also a contestant on Bigg Boss 10 (2016).
Arjun Pandit is a 1999 Indian Hindi-language action crime film directed by Rahul Rawail and produced by N. R. Pachisia. It stars Sunny Deol and Juhi Chawla. The film is a remake of the 1995 Kannada-language film Om and was the thirteenth highest-grossing film of 1999. The film is also remembered for its song Kudiyan Shehar Diyan, sung by Daler Mehndi and performed by Juhi Chawla. Upon release, the film was a box office success, grossing ₹20 crore against a production budget of ₹95 million.
Madhu Rye is a Gujarati playwright, novelist and story writer. Born in Gujarat and educated at Calcutta, he started writing in the 1960s and became known for his stories and plays. His experience at the University of Hawaii introduced him to experimental writing and improvisations as writing aid, which later led to a movement against absurd theatre. He moved to the US in 1974 and has lived there since. He chiefly wrote novels, short stories and plays. His plays were successful and have been adapted into several languages and media. He has adapted his novels into plays and some plays into novels. The most notable is Kimball Ravenswood, which was loosely adapted into a Hindi TV series Mr. Yogi (1989), and a Hindi film, What's Your Rashee? (2009).
Sudeep Nagarakar is an Indian novelist and writer of fiction. His first novel, Few Things Left Unsaid, was published by Srishti Publishers in 2011. Till 2020, twelve novels authored by him have been published. He is the recipient of the 2013 Youth Achievers' Award for writing for being one of the highest selling writers in India in romance genre. His book It started with a friend request was the most popular fiction book of 2013, according to Amazon India.
Mala Sen was a Bengali-Indian-British writer and human rights activist. As an activist, she was known for her civil rights activism and race relations work in London during the 1960s and 1970s, as part of the British Asian and British Black Panthers movements, and later her women's rights activism in India. As a writer, she was known for her book India's Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi, which led to the acclaimed 1994 film Bandit Queen. After researching the oppression of women in rural India, she also published Death by Fire in 2001.
