Parthasarathy Srinivasan, known professionally as Kamal Haasan, is an Indian actor, film director, film producer, screenwriter, choreographer, playback singer, lyricist, television presenter, social activist and politician who works in Tamil cinema. Besides Tamil films, he has also appeared in some Malayalam, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada and Bengali films. Considered as one of the finest actors in Indian cinema, Haasan is also known for introducing many new film technologies and film making techniques to the Indian film industry. He has won numerous accolades, including four National Film Awards, nine Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, four Nandi Awards, one Rashtrapati Award, two Filmfare Awards and eighteen Filmfare Awards South. He was awarded the Kalaimamani Award in 1984, the Padma Shri in 1990, the Padma Bhushan in 2014 and the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier) in 2016.
Mallika Sarabhai is an activist and Indian classical dancer and actress from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Daughter of a classical dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai and space scientist Vikram Sarabhai, Mallika is an accomplished Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam dancer and performer who has specialized in using the arts for social change and transformation.
Lal Krishna Advani is an Indian politician who served as the 7th Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004. He is one of the co-founders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu nationalist volunteer organization. He is the longest serving Minister of Home Affairs serving from 1998 to 2004. He is also the longest serving Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. He was the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP during the 2009 general election.
Kal Ho Naa Ho, also abbreviated as KHNH, is a 2003 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy drama film directed by Nikhil Advani in his directorial debut with a story written by Karan Johar with dialogue by Niranjan Iyengar, and produced by Yash Johar. The film stars Jaya Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, and Preity Zinta, with Sushma Seth, Reema Lagoo, Lillete Dubey, and Delnaaz Irani in supporting roles. In the film, Naina Catherine Kapur (Zinta) and Aman Mathur fall in love, but a secret prevents him from reciprocating his feelings and results in a plan to set Naina up with her best friend, Rohit Patel.
Penmetsa Ram Gopal Varma, often referred to by his initials RGV, is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer, known for his works in Telugu cinema in addition to Hindi, Kannada language films, and television. Varma has directed films across multiple genres, including parallel cinema and docudrama noted for their gritty realism, technical finesse, and craft. Regarded as one of the pioneers of new age Indian cinema, he was featured in the BBC World series Bollywood Bosses in 2004. In 2006, Grady Hendrix of Film Comment, published by the Film at Lincoln Center cited Varma as "Bombay's Most Successful Maverick" for his works on experimental films.
Urmila Matondkar is an Indian actress and politician. Known for her work primarily in Hindi films, in addition to Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi and Tamil films, she has received numerous accolades, including the Filmfare Award and the Nandi Award. Having established a distinctive on-screen persona, she is known for her acting skills, style statements and dancing skills.
Shankar Shanmugam, credited as S. Shankar or his mononymShankar, is an Indian film director, film producer, and screenwriter who works predominantly in Tamil cinema. In addition, he also worked in Hindi films and Telugu films. He is one of the highest-grossing directors in Indian cinema. His films typically deal with contemporary social issues, vigilante themes, and the usage of state-of-the-art technology and VFX. He has won one National Film Award, four Filmfare Award South, and six Tamil Nadu State Film Awards in his career. Six of his films have won the National Film Award for Best Special Effects.
Ramesh Sippy is an Indian film director, actor and producer in Hindi cinema. He is particularly known for being director in Sholay (1975), which is regarded as one of the most influential films ever made in India. The Government of India honoured him with Padma Shri in 2013.
Barkha Dutt is an Indian television journalist and author. She has been a reporter and news anchor at NDTV and Tiranga TV. She currently runs her own digital news channel called 'MoJo Story'.
Nikkhil Suresh Advani is an Indian director, producer and screenwriter who works in Hindi cinema. He along with his sister, Monisha Advani and Madhu Bhojwani, co-founded the entertainment company Emmay Entertainment.
Sanjay Pugalia is a veteran Indian political and business journalist with print and broadcast experience who is the former editor-in-chief of CNBC Awaaz in Mumbai, India. He was hired as a senior news director by several start-up Hindi-language news channels at their launching, including Star News and CNBC Awaaz. He is the Editorial Director of The Quint as of 2021.
Syed Jaaved Ahmed Jaffrey is an Indian actor, dancer, and comedian who has appeared in Hindi films and television shows. He is the son of the comedian Jagdeep. He joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in March, 2014 and contested the 2014 Indian general election from the Lucknow constituency, finishing fifth.
Deepti Bhatnagar is a former Indian actress and model who worked predominantly in Hindi films, in addition to Telugu, Tamil and Kannada films. Her first film role came in Sanjay Gupta's Ram Shastra. She has also appeared in the Telugu film, Pelli Sandadi, the American film, Inferno and the Bollywood film, Mann.
Avtar Kishan Hangal was an Indian freedom fighter and actor. His most notable roles are as Ram Shastri in Aaina (1977), as the Inder Sen in Shaukeen, as Bipinlal Pandey in Namak Haraam, as Imaam Saa'b in Sholay, as Anokhelal in Manzil and the antagonist in Prem Bandhan and the 16 films he did with Rajesh Khanna. He has acted in around 225 Hindi films in a career spanning from 1966 to 2005.
Nidhi Razdan is an Indian journalist and television personality. She was the executive editor of NDTV and the primary anchor of NDTV 24x7 news debate show Left, Right & Centre, and the weekly debate show The Big Fight.
The Indian Telly Awards is an annual award for excellence both on-screen and behind-the-scenes of Hindi-language television. Conceptualised and created by Anil Wanvari, the founder, CEO of media and services group, indiantelevision.com, they are in their 12th edition currently. Wanvari is also on the board of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and has been a semi-final judging host for the awards since 2006. The awards for Indian television are given in several categories such as best programme or series in a specific genre, most popular actors and awards for technical roles such as writers and directors. The awards are currently managed by a division within indiantelevision.com called ITV2.0 Productions.
Sona Nair is an Indian actress working mainly in Malayalam cinema who is also best known for her roles in television soaps.
Leena Yadav is an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. She started her career in the television industry and gradually moved on to making feature films. Her first international feature film, Parched, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2015.
Nivedita Basu is The vice president content and business alliances at Atrangii and Indian television producer who was creative director at Balaji Telefilms. Nivedita turned producer in 2015 and owns a celebrity cricket team on the television reality show Box Cricket League.
GV Films is an Indian film production and distribution company headed by Ishari K. Ganesh. The firm had been a leading production studio in the Tamil film industry in the 1990s and had been founded by G. Venkateswaran as Sujatha Films in 1986.
