Shyam Benegal is an Indian film director, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. Often regarded as the pioneer of parallel cinema, he is widely considered as one of the greatest filmmakers post 1970s. He has received several accolades, including eighteen National Film Awards, a Filmfare Award and a Nandi Award. In 2005, he was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest award in the field of cinema. In 1976, he was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian honour of the country, and in 1991, he was awarded Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour for his contributions in the field of arts.
Kaifi Azmi was an Indian Urdu poet. He is remembered as the one who brought Urdu literature to Indian motion pictures. Together with Pirzada Qasim, Jaun Elia and others he participated in many memorable Mushaira gatherings of the twentieth century. His wife was theatre and film actress Shaukat Kaifi.
Sharad Joshi was an Indian poet, writer, satirist and a dialogue and scriptwriter in Hindi films and television. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1990.
Ashok Chakradhar (born February 8, 1951, is an Indian author, poet and former head of the department of Hindi at Jamia Millia Islamia. After serving for 29 years, he took voluntary retirement to focus on working towards the propagation and development of the Hindi language. In 2007 he became the Hindi coordinator at the Institute of Life Long Learning at the University of Delhi and in 2009 was appointed as the vice-chairman of Hindi Academy, Government of Delhi and as the vice-chairman of the Kendriya Hindi Shikshan Mandal, Ministry of HRD, Government of India. He is the son-in-law of Kaka Hathrasi.
Abdul Hayee, popularly known by his pen name (takhallus) Sahir Ludhianvi, was an Indian poet who wrote primarily in Urdu in addition to Hindi. He is regarded as one of the greatest film lyricist and poets of 20th century India.
Kaka Hathrasi was a Hindi satirist and humorist poet of India.
K. P. Saxena was an Indian satirist and writer. He was employed by the Indian Railways and was a prolific writer for magazines and newspapers. He started writing for Doordarshan's famous serial Bibi Natiyon Wali. He wrote vyangya articles for almost every popular magazine of Hindi. His first book of satire Koi Patthar Se Na Mare was published in 1982. His style is unique and he is very popular among poets in Kavi Sammelans. He was an expert of three Indian language Urdu, Hindi and Awadhi. He was awarded Padma Shri by Government of India, in year 2000. He died on 31 October 2013. He was a regular in Hindi Kavi Sammelan.
Sarita Joshi is an Indian actress. Cited amongst the finest and most significant actors of Gujarati and Marathi theatre, Joshi is known for her Gujarati plays done with her husband Pravin Joshi in the 1970s. She garnered widespread recognition for her role as the matriarch Godavari Thakkar in the Star Plus hit dramedy Baa Bahoo Aur Baby (2005-2010). In 1988, she was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Acting in Gujarati by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama. In 2020, she has been awarded with Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award for her contribution in Art. She was recently seen in (2019) Zee TV's Hamari Bahu Silk as a hard-working business woman who hates films especially 'A' grade films. Sarita Joshi is currently seen on Anupama: Namaste America a prequel web series to Star Plus show Anupamaa.
Krishna Kumar is an Indian intellectual and academician, noted for his writings on the sociology and history of education. His academic oeuvre has drawn on multiple sources, including the school curriculum as a means of social inquiry. His work is also notable for its critical engagement with modernity in a colonized society. His writings explore the patterns of conflict and interaction between forces of the vernacular and the state. As a teacher and bilingual writer, he has developed an aesthetic of pedagogy and knowledge that aspires to mitigate aggression and violence. In addition to his academic work, he writes essays and short stories in Hindi, and has also written for children. He has taught at the Central Institute of Education, University of Delhi, from 1981 to 2016. He was also the Dean and Head of the institution. From 2004 to 2010, he was Director of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), an apex organization for curricular reforms in India. He was awarded the Padma Shri by the President of India in 2011.
Dr. Haldhar Nag is a Sambalpuri poet and writer from Bargarh, Odisha, India. Popularly known as "Lok Kabi Ratna". He was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India by Government of India in 2016.
Wah! Wah! Kya Baat Hai! is an Indian comic poetry series produced by Neela Tele Films Private Limited which premiered on 15 September 2012 on SAB TV. The series was hosted by Shailesh Lodha and Neha Mehta, known respectively as Taarak Mehta and his wife, Anjali Taarak Mehta, from the long-running series Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah.
Pankaj Dubey is an Indian author, screenwriter, director, producer and social entrepreneur based in Mumbai. He has a Bachelor of Laws degree from Delhi University and a Masters in Applied Communications from Coventry School of Art and Design. Dubey worked for the BBC World Service in London and TV Today Group in New Delhi. He has curated and programmed more than 50 film festivals across India. He was awarded with the Youth Icon Award for Social Entrepreneurship in Gulbarga, Karnataka in 2010 for initiating India's first street film festival for children in slums and villages, the Sadak Chhaap Film Festival. Dubey's debut novel is called What A Loser! in English and Loser kahin ka! in Hindi. Pankaj Dubey is a bilingual author and writes all his titles in English and Hindi. His other novels are 'Ishqiyapa' - To Hell With Love, Love Curry and Trending In Love. Pankaj Dubey has been selected amongst three Asian authors for the Writer's Residency in Seoul Art Space Yeonhui, Seoul, South Korea in 2016. He was also awarded with the 'Global Innoventure Award' for literature and storytelling in the House of Lords in September 2018.
Naheed Abidi is an Indian scholar of Sanskrit and writer. In 2014, she was honoured with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for her contributions to the field of literature by the Government of India.
Gopal Prasad Dubey is an Indian classical dancer, known for his expertise in the Indian classical dance form of Chhau. He is considered by many as the leading exponent of the Seraikella variant of the art form. Dubey was honored by the Government of India, in 2012, with the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri.
Ramesh Chandra Shah is an Indian poet, novelist, critic and the author of Sahitya Academy Award winning novel, Vinayak. He was honoured by the Government of India in 2004 with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award.
Sunil Jogi is an Indian author. He is a poet of comic verses and the ex-president of the Hindustani Academy, a post holding the rank of a Minister of State in the Government of Uttar Pradesh. He is also a Hindi adviser to the Ministry of Railways & Parliamentary Affairs.
Devendra Satyarthi was an Indian folklorist and writer of Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi literature. Born at Bhadaur (Barnala) he did not complete his education and started travelling from 1927 collecting folk songs which he published in his first folk song anthology in 1935 under the name Giddha, which is considered by many as a seminal work.
Sunita Jain (1941–2017) was an Indian scholar, novelist, short-story writer and poet of English and Hindi literature. She was a former professor and the Head of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. She published over 80 books, in English and Hindi, besides translating many Jain writings and some Hindi literature into English. She is featured in the Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English and was a recipient of The Vreeland Award (1969) and the Marie Sandoz Prairie Schooner Fiction Award. The Government of India awarded her the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri in 2004. In 2015 she was awarded the Vyas Samman by the K.K. Birla foundation for outstanding literary work in Hindi. In 2015 she was awarded an honorary D.Litt. from the University of Burdhwan, West Bengal.
Sushil Kumar Jain known professionally as Sushil Doshi is an Indian journalist, writer, sports commentator and the first cricket commentator in Hindi. Born to Niranjanlal and Madan Kunwar at Indore, in the second largest Indian city of Madhya Pradesh, he graduated in engineering from Shri Govindram Seksaria Institute of Technology and Science (SGSITS) Indore and started his commentating career in 1968 at the Nehru Stadium for a Ranji Trophy match between Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Over the years, he is reported to have covered nine Cricket World Cups, 85 test matches and over 400 One Day Internationals, besides several Twenty20 Internationals. His contributions are reported in making cricket commentary in Hindi popular. He has also written two books in Hindi on sports, Khel Patrakarita published in 2003 and Cricket Ka Mahabharat, published in 2016.
V L Nghaka is an academician from the Indian State of Mizoram known for his efforts for the propagation and development of the Hindi language in Mizoram. He authored the first Hind-Mizo dictionary and got it published in the year 1965. In the year 2022, Govt of India honoured V L Nghaka by conferring the Padma Shri award for his contributions to literature and education. As per his citation for Padma Shri award, "He built a cultural bridge between Hindi and Mizo language by drafting a Hindi-Mizo dictionary. As an interpreter, he was instrumental in bringing the government and Mizo people closer.”
