Type of site | Photoblog |
---|---|
Available in | English |
Owner | Karishma Mehta |
Employees | 5 |
Commercial | Private limited company |
Current status | Online |
Humans of Bombay(HoB) is an Indian photoblog about people in Mumbai (previously known as Bombay). It was started in 2014 by Karishma Mehta. It is inspired by Humans of New York (HoNY). Mehta & her team document the stories of individuals and showcase it to the world through social media posts and a website.
Inspired by the Humans of New York (HoNY) website, Karishma Mehta started Humans of Bombay in January 2014, by traveling around Mumbai and asking people questions about their lives and for permission to take and upload their photographs and their answers to her website. [1] [2] By April 2014, the Facebook page had more than 135 posts and almost 40,000 followers. [1] By November 2015, the page had reached 4 lakh followers. [3]
By 2015, Mehta began using the page to conduct fundraising campaigns, including for Kranti, an organization that supports the daughters of sex workers, and collected Rs. 6.5 lakhs for Kranti in one day. [3] In 2015, Humans of Bombay featured the story and picture of a girl speaking out against child marriage, that within two days gained over 60,000 likes on Facebook, and created an opportunity for Humans of Bombay to promote Aangan, the child protection organization supporting the girl. [4] A crowdfunding campaign for a child with blood cancer raised Rs 10.31 lakh within days. [5]
By 2016, Mehta moved the blog to humansofbombay.in, and self-published the book Humans of Bombay. [5] By then, the blog had covered a wide range of subjects, from everyday interactions to topics such as depression, alcoholism, domestic violence, child sexual abuse, Sapna Bhavnani discussing her gang-rape, and people sharing their own stories and support for others. [5] Fundraising campaigns continued on the website, including in 2017, raising Rs 11 lakh within four days on behalf of the daughter of a sex worker to support her education at New York University. [6]
By 2018, Humans of Bombay had grown to six permanent employees, expanded beyond Mumbai, and established an Instagram page with what Aishwarya Upadhye of The Hindu described as "Stories that make you grin from ear to ear, stories that would give you pangs of guilt, the ones that would make you well up, those that cement your belief in hope and survival," [7] and Sadaf Shaikh of Verve described as "all kinds of stories – some that plaster a big grin on your face, others that elicit a quick prayer for having a privileged life." [8]
In September 2023, Humans of Bombay began a copyright infringment case against the People of India website, [9] and a summons was issued by the Delhi High Court in Humans of Bombay Stories Pvt Ltd v. POI Social Media Pvt Ltd. [10] [11] In October 2023, the Delhi High Court ordered each website to "refrain" from using the copyrighted work of the other website. [12] Monetary damages were not ordered for either party, and the court noted when people send their own images, these images are not considered copyrighted by the websites. [13]
Marine Drive was the first location chosen in 2014 and from there now they have covered thousands of people in Mumbai including Ratan Tata, [14] Narendra Modi, [15] Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rajkummar Rao, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Boman Irani, Anupam Kher, Kartik Aaryan, [16] Sunil Chhetri, [17] Milind Soman, Sapna Bhavnani, [18] Kajol and Ajay Devgan, [19] and Devika Rotawan. [20] Topics include acid attacks, sex workers, domestic violence and inter-caste love stories. Humans of Bombay published a first-hand account of a Jamia student talking about the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAA) and the Jamia attack. [21] In 2021, a post by actress Sanjana Sanghi was removed after protests on social media over the content of her post featuring domestic workers. [22]
Mumbai is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city of India with an estimated population of 12.5 million (1.25 crore). Mumbai is the centre of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, the sixth-most populous metropolitan area in the world with a population of over 23 million. Mumbai lies on the Konkan coast on the west coast of India and has a deep natural harbour. In 2008, Mumbai was named an alpha world city. Mumbai has the highest number of billionaires out of any city in Asia.
Shiv Sena is a right-wing Marathi regionalist and Hindu ultranationalist political party in India founded in 1966 by Bal Thackeray. Currently led by Eknath Shinde, this party is the ruling party of the Indian state of Maharashtra since 2019. Shiv Sena's election symbol is the Bow and Arrow. It uses the saffron colour in its flag and a image of a roaring tiger.
Kajol Devgan, known mononymously as Kajol, is an Indian actress. Described in the media as one of the most successful actresses of Hindi cinema, she is the recipient of numerous accolades, such as six Filmfare Awards, which include a record-tying five Best Actress wins. In 2011, she was honoured with the Padma Shri by the Government of India.
Usha Mehta was a Gandhian and independence activist of India. She is also remembered for organizing the Congress Radio, also called the Secret Congress Radio, an underground radio station, which functioned for few months during the Quit India Movement of 1942. In 1998, the Government of India conferred on her Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award of the Republic of India.
Sucheta Dalal is an Indian business journalist and author. She has been a journalist for over two decades and was awarded a Padma Shri for journalism in 2006. She was the Financial Editor for the Times of India until 1998 when she joined the Indian Express group as a Consulting Editor, leaving in 2008. She is known for exposing the 1992 stock market scam propagated by Harshad Mehta.
Fakhruddin T. Khorakiwala was an Indian businessman and Sheriff of Mumbai. From 2000 until his death, he was the chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia. He was a well-known Indian businessman, and founded the Akbarallys group of departmental stores in Mumbai. He acquired Worli Chemical Works which later was incorporated as Wockhardt Ltd, becoming India's 5th largest pharmaceutical company.
Ratna Pathak Shah is an Indian actress and director known for her work in Hindi theatre, television, and films. Her extensive work in theatre includes a series of plays in both English and Hindi. She rose to prominence when she appeared in the hit TV serial Idhar Udhar in the 1980s.
The Rozabal Line is a thriller fiction novel by Ashwin Sanghi written under the pseudonym "Shawn Haigins". It follows the alternate religious history of Jesus having survived the crucifixion and settled down in India. The title refers to the Rozabal shrine in Srinagar in Kashmir, which some have asserted is the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth. The historical basis is derived from several other books on the subject including Jesus Lived in India by Holger Kersten and The Unknown Life of Jesus by Nicolas Notovich.
Loveleen Tandan is an Indian film and casting director. She is the co-director (India) of Slumdog Millionaire along with Danny Boyle. She has also been the casting director for several other films, including Monsoon Wedding (2001) and Brick Lane (2007). She has been a casting consultant for The Namesake (2007).
Karishma Tanna Bangera is an Indian actress and model who predominantly works in Hindi films and television shows. She made her television debut with Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi in 2001. She is well known for her roles in Paalkhi, Naagin 3 and Qayamat Ki Raat. She was a contestant on the reality show Bigg Boss 8 in 2014, where she emerged as the 1st runner-up. In 2020, she participated in Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi 10 and emerged as the winner.
Devika Rotawan is a survivor of the 2008 Mumbai attacks and a key witness who identified Ajmal Kasab during trial as a perpetrator of the attack. She was nine years old when she was shot in the leg during the attack in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai.
Amruta Subhash is an Indian actress who works in Marathi and Hindi films, television, and theatre. She is a graduate of the National School of Drama, New Delhi. She has received several awards, including a National Film Award, two Filmfare Awards, and a Filmfare OTT Award.
Yuva Unstoppable is a non-governmental organization based in India. It works to provide underprivileged children with access to education, sanitation, drinking water, youth affairs, cleanliness and various non-curricular activities. The organization is spread across thirty cities in India, with 150,000 volunteers. The main initiative Yuva unstoppable is known for making toilets in municipal schools which is the major reason of girls not attending schools after primary education.
Hansa Jivraj Mehta was a reformist, social activist, educator, independence activist, feminist and writer from India. She was one of only two women delegates working alongside Eleanor Roosevelt in the UN Human Rights Commission 1946-48 ensuring the wording "all human beings" instead of "all men" in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Hansal Mehta is an Indian filmmaker. He started his career with television show Khana Khazana (1993–2000) and later moved on to directing films like Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar!! (2000), Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai? (2002) and Woodstock Villa (2008). He received critical acclaim with Shahid (2013), for which he won the National Film Award for Best Direction. He was nominated for a Filmfare Critics Award for Best Film for Faraaz (2023). He directed the television series Scam 1992 (2020), for which he won the Filmfare OTT Award for best director and Scoop (2023), which won the Asia Contents Awards & Global OTT Award for best Asian television series.
Amruta Fadnavis is an Indian banker, actress, singer and social activist. She is married to the 9th and current Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis. She holds the post of vice-president with Axis Bank.
The Citizenship Amendment Act (Bill) protests, also known as the CAA Protest, CAB Protest or CAA and NRC protests, occurred after the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was enacted by the Government of India on 12 December 2019. The move sparked a widespread national and overseas ongoing protests against the act and its associated proposals of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The protests first began in Assam and spread swiftly in other states such as Delhi, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, and Tripura on 4 December 2019. Protests broke out rapidly across the country, although the concerns of the protesters vary.
Bombay Begums is an Indian drama television series for Netflix created by Alankrita Shrivastava, who also co-wrote the script along with Bornila Chatterjee and Iti Agarwal. The series was directed by Shrivastava and Chatterjee, and produced by the Los Angeles-based Chernin Entertainment and Endemol Shine Group. The cast features Pooja Bhatt, Shahana Goswami, Amruta Subhash and Plabita Borthakur in the lead roles, and was narrated by Aadhya Anand. The series marks the comeback of actress Pooja Bhatt. It explores the lives of five ambitious women from various walks of life navigating through their dreams, desires and disappointments, from boardrooms to society's margins, in modern-day Mumbai. It was released on Netflix on 8 March 2021.
Safoora Zargar was an Indian student activist leader from Kishtwar, Jammu and Kashmir, best known for her role in the Citizenship Amendment Act protests.
Karishma Mehta is an Indian writer and photographer. She is the founder and manager of the website Humans of Bombay which launched in January 2014, and author of the related book Humans of Bombay. She is also a freelance writer and TEDx presenter.