Thrissur, formerly Trichur, also known by its historical name Thrissivaperur, is a city and the headquarters of the Thrissur district in Kerala, India. It is the third largest urban agglomeration in Kerala after Kochi and Kozhikode, and the 21st largest in India. The city is built around a 65-acre (26 ha) hillock called Thekkinkadu Maidanam which seats the Vadakkunnathan temple. It is located 304 kilometres (189 mi) north-west of the state's capital city, Thiruvananthapuram. Thrissur was once the capital of the Kingdom of Cochin, and was a point of contact for the Assyrians, Greeks, Persians, Arabs, Romans, Portuguese, Dutch and English.
Madath Thekkepaattu Vasudevan Nair, popularly known as M.T., is an Indian author, screenplay writer and film director. He is a prolific and versatile writer in modern Malayalam literature, and is one of the masters of post-Independence Indian literature. At the age of 20, as a chemistry undergraduate, he won the prize for the best short story in Malayalam at World Short Story Competition conducted by The New York Herald Tribune. His first major novel Naalukettu, written at the age of 23, won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 1958. His other novels include Manju (Mist), Kaalam (Time), Asuravithu and Randamoozham. The deep emotional experiences of his early days have gone into the making of MT's novels. Most of his works are oriented towards the basic Malayalam family structure and culture and many of them were path-breaking in the history of Malayalam literature. His three seminal novels on life in the matriarchal family in Kerala are Naalukettu, Asuravithu, and Kaalam. Randamoozham, which retells the story of the Mahabharatha from the point of view of Bhimasena, is widely credited as his masterpiece.
T. K. Padmini was an Indian painter from the south India state of Kerala. A recipient of multiple awards from the Chennai centre of the Lalit Kala Akademi, she was one of the prominent Indian woman painters. Her paintings have been displayed at The National Art Gallery, Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad and the Durbar Hall Ground Art Gallery of Kerala Lalithakala Akademi. She died on 11 May 1969 at the age of 29.
Mita Vashisht is an Indian actress. Known for her work on screen, stage and television, she has played a wide range of roles. Her most prominent appearances includes; sci-fi television series Space City Sigma (1989-1991), Pachpan Khambe Laal Deewarein, Swabhimaan, Devyani in Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi,Alaan (Kirdaar) to Trishna in Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki and Jethi Maa in Kaala Teeka to film roles with a wide spectrum of directors with different cinema styles.
Sonali Gulati is an Indian American independent filmmaker, feminist, grass-roots activist, and educator.
Sunanda Nair is an Indian dancer trained in Mohiniattam. She did her master's degree in this dance form from Nalanda Nritya Kala Mahavidyalaya affiliated to the University of Mumbai. She has completed her PhD from University of Mumbai for her thesis "Intrinsic Lyrical Feminism in Mohiniattam". She was born in Mumbai, India.
ViBGYOR Film Festival is an international short and documentary film festival held annually in Thrissur City in Kerala state of India. ViBGYOR Film Festival is organised by ViBGYOR Film collective, a coalition of Chetana Media Institute, Nottam Traveling Film Festival, Navachitra Film Society, Visual Search, Moving Republic, Cense, GAIA, with the support of Thrissur Municipal Corporation, Jilla Panchayath, Federation of Film Societies of India, Kerala Chalachitra Academy, Information & Public Relations, ActionAid India, ICCO-South Asia and other various Film Societies.
Anjali Menon is an Indian film director and screenwriter who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. Anjali has won international, national and state awards for her work and is best known for her feature films Manjadikuru,Kerala Cafe(Happy Journey),Ustad Hotel, Bangalore Days, Koode and Wonder Women. She is counted among the change agents in Indian cinema whose work gets attention from the audience and the critics.
International Film Festival of Thrissur (IFFT) is an annual event held in Thrissur in Kerala. It started in August 2004 as a joint venture by Thrissur Chalachitra Kendram, a film fraternity of Thrissur, Thrissur Corporation, Thrissur Jilla panchayath, Kerala State Film Development Corporation and the Federation of Film Societies of India. It is the second-largest film festival in Kerala. Masters and Classics, Children's films, Young films, Beyond Universe, Folk waves and Contemporary World Films are the major sessions in the festival.
Prahlad Singh Tipaniya is an Indian folk singer who performs Kabir bhajans in the Malwi folk style from Madhya Pradesh. He performs along with a group of tambura, khartal, manjira, dholak, harmonium, timki, and violin players.
Vartul is a 2009 Indian short film written and directed by Santosh Ram and produced by Vivek Chitra Production & Mokal Films.
India has a long and ancient tradition of culture associated with the LGBTQ community, with many aspects that differ markedly from modern liberal western culture.
Manoj George is an Indian violinist and a music composer. He performed as the conductor, string arranger, solo violinist and choral arranger of 3 Grammy Award Winning albums : Winds of Samsara, in 2015, Divine Tides in 2022 for the Best New Age Album & Divine Tides in 2023 as the Best Immersive Audio album. He is reported to be the first Indian violinist recognised by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, The Grammys, United States and the first Malayali violinist to receive the honour. Manoj George has won several accolades for his Music Compositions including a nomination to HollyWood Music in Media awards and Silver Medal from Global Music Awards.
Ranvir Shah is an Indian social activist, cultural catalyst, and businessman. He is the Managing Director of P.S. Apparels, India & India Agro Exports and the Founder Trustee of Prakriti Foundation based in Chennai, South India.
Goonga Pehelwan is a documentary film on the life and struggles of Virender Singh Yadav who is regarded as one of India's most accomplished deaf athletes. The documentary, which released in 2014, is an attempt to bring to light the unequal treatment and opportunities that disabled athletes have been on the receiving end of from the government and society. Another aim of the film is to enforce a change on the policy level which will benefit disabled athletes through inclusion and cash awards. The documentary was directed by Mit Jani, Prateek Gupta and Vivek Chaudhary, and produced by Drishti media. Both parties are based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Dr. G. Prabha is a retired professor of Sanskrit, writer, film-maker and former journalist based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
C. Saratchandran (1958–2010) (Sarat) was an Indian documentary filmmaker, based in Kerala, India. He was also a documentary activist, who managed to conduct hundreds of film screenings of documentaries and film classics in remote towns and villages in Kerala Saratchandran was born on 16 February 1958. His parents are Chandrasekharan Nair and T. Sarada. His maternal grandfather was Professor M. P. Manmathan, a well-known Gandhian and orator. He has two sisters, Neeraja Rajendran and Sarada Sunanda.
Miriam Chandy Menacherry is a Keralite documentary filmmaker and producer based in Mumbai, India. She founded Filament Pictures in 2005, a production house which creates socially relevant feature length documentaries. She was one of the 18 filmmakers selected from the Middle East and Asia for the Global Media Makers Fellowship 2019-20. The fellowship is offered by the US State Department and Film Independent. Her documentary, Rat Race (2011) was the winner of the Mipdoc Co-Production Challenge at Cannes (France). Miriam has also won the Asian Television Awards for Best Social Documentary (2007) and the UK Environment Film Fellowship (2008).
Antharam is a 2022 Indian Malayalam language film directed by P. Abhijith. The Film is about the inner conflicts, warmth, trauma and joyous moments in the lives of a trans woman, a teenage girl and a man living under the same roof.
