Sarojini Naidu was an Indian political activist and poet who served as the first Governor of United Provinces, after India's independence. She played an important role in the Indian independence movement against the British Raj. She was the first Indian woman to be president of the Indian National Congress and appointed governor of a state.
Raja Rao was an Indian-American writer of English-language novels and short stories, whose works are deeply rooted in metaphysics. The Serpent and the Rope (1960), a semi-autobiographical novel recounting a search for spiritual truth in Europe and India, established him as one of the finest Indian prose stylists and won him the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1963. For the entire body of his work, Rao was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1988. Rao's wide-ranging body of work, spanning a number of genres, is seen as a varied and significant contribution to Indian English literature, as well as World literature as a whole.
Begum is a royal and aristocratic title from Central and South Asia. It is the feminine equivalent of the title baig or bey, which in Turkic languages means "higher official". It usually refers to the wife or daughter of a beg. The related form begzada also occurs.
Jayanta Mahapatra was an Indian poet. He is the first Indian poet to win a Sahitya Akademi award for English poetry. He was the author of poems such as "Indian Summer" and "Hunger", which are regarded as classics in modern Indian English literature. He was awarded a Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour in India in 2009, but he returned the award in 2015 to protest against rising intolerance in India.
Mohana Krishna Indraganti is an Indian director known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. His debut directorial venture Grahanam (2005) fetched him eleven awards including the National Film Award for Best First Film of a Director, the Nandi Award for Best First Film of a Director and the Gollapudi Srinivas Award for Best First Film of a Director. The film was also showcased in the Indian panorama section of the 2005 International Film Festival of India. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from York University.
Radhika Apte is an Indian actress. Apte has received several awards including an International Emmy Award nomination, becoming the first Indian actress to do so.
Ranjan Ghosh is an Indian filmmaker and screenwriter, known for his acclaimed work in Bengali cinema. He had risen to prominence with the release of Aparna Sen's Bengali feature film Iti Mrinalini, by becoming the first and the only screenwriter, the acclaimed actor-director had collaborated with in her illustrious career till date. With this film, Ghosh had made his screenwriting debut. He made his directorial debut in 2014 with the critically acclaimed Hrid Majharey, a Bengali feature film starring Abir Chatterjee and Raima Sen. Inspired by certain iconic plays of William Shakespeare, it was the first film in the Bengali language based on the works of the Bard and was presented as a tribute on his 450th Birth Anniversary. His second film Rongberonger Korhi was an anthology of four short films woven around the theme of money and its relationship with human beings. It featured National Award-winning actor Rituparna Sengupta, veteran cine star Chiranjeet Chakraborty, critically acclaimed actors Ritwick Chakraborty, Soham Chakraborty, Kharaj Mukherjee, Arunima Ghosh, Arjun Chakrabarty and others. It became a widely acclaimed film on release in 2018, before doing the festival rounds in Dubai, Dhaka, London, and nationally at Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad. In 2019, Ghosh released his third feature film, the hugely successful Ahaa Re featuring Bangladeshi actor Arifin Shuvoo, Rituparna Sengupta, Amrita Chattopadhyay, Paran Bandopadhyay, Deepankar De, Shakuntala Barua, Bangladeshi Cinema film actor Alamgir in a special appearance as a restaurant owner. The film made it to a coveted list of 25 all-time great Asian films about food, compiled by international film web magazine Asian Movie Pulse. Ghosh's fourth feature film Mahishasur Marddini - A Night to Remember featuring his muse Rituparna Sengupta along with Saswata Chatterjee, Parambrata Chattopadhyay and a bunch of young theatre actors, released in 2022 and is touted as his boldest work till date in which he experiments with form and style, combining the elements of theatre and cinema. The film was screened at the Film and Television Institute of India, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jamia Millia Islamia, University of Hyderabad, English and Foreign Languages University, University of Kerala, SNDT Women's University, Pondicherry University, IIT Bombay, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata and Tata Institute of Social Sciences. The Indian People's Theatre Association, Kollam District Committee, Kerala, screened the film in August 2023. Earlier, it became the first Indian feature film to screen at any theatre festival anywhere in India when it played at the 21st Habitat Theatre Festival, 2022, organized by the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.
Hyderabad Literary Festival or HLF is a literary festival held in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. It is a 3-day annual event that celebrates creativity in all its forms. Every year has a guest nation, and an Indian language in focus.
Meghna Pant is an Indian author, journalist and speaker. She has won a variety of awards for her contribution to literature, gender issues and journalism. In 2012, she won the Muse India National Literary Awards Young Writer Award for her debut novel One-and-a-Half Wife. Her collection of short stories, Happy Birthday and Other Stories was long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Award.
Bangladeshi English literature (BEL) refers to the body of literary work written in the English language in Bangladesh and the Bangladeshi diaspora. In academia, it is also now referred to as Bangladeshi Writing in English (BWE). Early prominent Bengali writers in English include Ram Muhan Roy, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Begum Rokeya, and Rabindranath Tagore. In 1905, Begum Rokeya (1880–1932) wrote Sultana's Dream, one of the earliest examples of feminist science fiction. Modern writers of the Bangladeshi diaspora include Tahmima Anam, Neamat Imam, Monica Ali, and Zia Haider Rahman.
Murugashankari Leo is an Indian dance tutor, theatric actor, and research scholar.
Jeelani Bano is an Indian writer of Urdu literature. She was honored by the Government of India, in 2001, with the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri.
Manjiri Prabhu is an Indian author, TV producer and filmmaker. She has been hailed as the 'Desi Agatha Christie' by the media and is acknowledged as being the first woman writer of mystery fiction in India.
Jaahnavi Sriperambuduru is an Indian mountaineer and motivational speaker. She is on her mission to climb the highest peaks of all seven continents known as the Seven Summits and also to reach the farthest point on the globe "The South Pole" and "The North Pole".
Nashid Kamal is a Bangladeshi vocalist, writer and professor of demography. She is the eldest granddaughter of Bengali folk singer Abbasuddin Ahmed. Kamal is widely regarded as a Nazrul exponent. For her contributions to Nazrul's works, she has received awards including the Nazrul Award from the Nazrul Academy in 2009 and Nazrul Padak from the Nazrul Institute in 2014.
Dr. Bobby Sarma Baruah is a national and international award-winning Indian filmmaker, producer and screenwriter whose narrative content on socio-cultural issues in Assam and the Northeast India has been highly appreciated. Her debut feature film Adomya in which she explored the sensitivity and emotional world of women was awarded the best film in the spiritual category at the 13th Dhaka International Film Festival.
Sharbari Zohra Ahmed is a Bangladeshi American writer. She is known for being a writer on the ABC thriller Quantico, which made her one of the first Bangladeshi women to write for American network television. Ahmed has also published a book, fictional stories, and plays. Additionally, Ahmed is a professor at Manhatanville College's MFA program.
Sutapa Basu is an Indian author, educationist, poet, translator and a writing coach. She is a best-selling, award-winning author most known for her works Dangle, Padmavati and Genghis Khan,The Curse of Nader Shah and The Birth Of My Nation. Sutapa has been the Director, Publishing at Encyclopedia Britannica Ltd, South Asia and Eupheus Learning Solutions.
Priya Sarukkai Chabria is an Indian poet, translator and novelist writing in English, and a curator. She has written four poetry collections, two speculative fiction novels, translations from Classical Tamil, literary nonfiction, and a novel. She has edited two poetry anthologies. She is also founding editor of Poetry at Sangam, an Indian online literary journal of poetry.
Tehmina Bakhtyar Kaoosji is an Indian journalist, producer, activist and actress. Based in Malaysia, she is known for her advocacy towards gender equality and social justice. She has been featured on various media outlets, and has partaken in various panel debates.
