Kausar is a contemporary award-winning lyric, dialogue and screen-writer for the Indian film and television industry

An English Honours and Film Studies graduate from Mumbai’s St. Xavier’s College and Bombay University, Kausar grew up in Mumbai and her career in the media began early.

She earned her television stripes as ‘screen writer’ for the popular TV show Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin. Her TV writing credits include fiction and nonfiction shows for all the leading channels.

Her scripting credits range from film events like IIFA, to knowledge based shows like Ted Talks India, and grand Bollywood musicals for the international stage such as ‘Jaan E Jigar’ at the Bollywood Parks and Resorts, Dubai.

Kausar first made an impression as a lyricist with the song Falak Tak in Tashan, produced by YashRaj Films. Her film list as lyricist include hits like Ishqzaade, Ek Tha Tiger, Dhoom 3, Main Tera Hero, Dear Zindagi, Meri Pyaari Bindu, Secret Superstar, Padman, Gehraaiyaan, 83, Qala and many more songs in over 100 films.

She has won every major award, and in 2022 she became the ‘first woman’ to win the Filmfare Award for Lyrics.

As script and dialogue writer, some of her are Phantom, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Begum Jaan, Salaam Venky and OTT shows like Rocket Boys.

Her 2023 releases are-

• 'Rocket Boys' on Sony Liv (Dialogue Writer)
• 'Mrs Chatterjee v/s Norway' (Lyricist),
• 'Jubilee' on Amazon (Lyricist of 12 original songs)
• 'Neeyat' on Amazon (Lyricist and Dialogue Writer)
• 'Goldfish' (Lyricist)
• 'Coke Studio Bharat' (Think Tank Consultant).

Her forthcoming projects include feature films and OTT shows with well-known producers like Yashraj Films, Dharma Productions, Amazon & Netflix.

Bhaskar Hazarika is a writer and filmmaker from Assam. His debut feature Kothanodi (The River of Fables) premiered at Busan International Film Festival 2015. Kothanodi received the “Silver Lotus” award conferred by the National Film Awards of India for Best Assamese Film, 2016. His next feature, Aamis, premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival in the International Narrative Competition section. Aamis subsequently had a successful box office run in Assam and select cities of India. Both films are now available on the streaming platform SonyLiv.

Bhaskar is the co-writer and Creative Producer of Assamese comedy film Emuthi Puthi, which was released across cinemas of Assam in June, 2022. He has also co-written the story and screenplay for Abbas Mastan’s 2012 Hindi action film Players. Bhaskar has written screenplays for several TV and web series, the latest being Netflix’s teen drama Class. Bhaskar is a two-time recipient of the Dr. Bhabendra Nath Saikia Award for Best Screenplay (Kothanodi and Aamis) and recipient of the Brajen Borua Award for Best Direction (Aamis), conferred by the Assam State Film Awards.

Bhaskar graduated from St Stephen's College, University of Delhi with a BA (Hons) History degree, and completed his MA (Film & Drama) at the University of Reading, UK.

Varun Grover is a screen-writer (Masaan, Sacred Games), National Award winning lyricist (Gangs of Wasseypur, Dum Laga Ke Haisha, Ankhon Dekhi), stand-up comedian, and short-fiction writer (short story collection Paper Chor and graphic novel Biksu) based in Mumbai.

His first film as a director, ALL INDIA RANK, premiered at IFFR as the first ever Indian film to be the closing film of the festival's 2023 edition.

Sudip is among India's leading contemporary screenwriters and showrunners. He is the co-creator and showrunner of Kohrra, the acclaimed Netflix murder mystery series, as well as the creator and showrunner of Paatal Lok, the groundbreaking Amazon crime drama series. In addition to writing for television, Sudip wrote Abhishek Chaubey's critically acclaimed 2019 bandit Western, Sonchiriya, which went on to win the Best Film (Critics) at the prestigious Filmfare Awards in India. Sudip had previously written the screenplay for Chaubey's award-winning 2016 crime drama Udta Punjab as well as the screenplay for Navdeep Singh's critical and commercial hit thriller, NH10, starring top Indian star Anushka Sharma. He was also the Creative Producer on the 2018 horror film Pari and FoxStar Studio's 2017 fantasy comedy Phillauri.

Born in Bangalore, Saumyananda Sahi originally studied philosophy at St Stephens College in Delhi before deciding he wanted to be a cinematographer, attending the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune.

Over the past decade, Saumyananda has worked on a variety of projects, both factual and fiction, with such filmmakers as Kamal Swaroop, Shaunak Sen, Prateek Vats, Arun Karthick, Anamika Haksar, Thomas F Lennon and Prashant Nair. His work has played at film festivals around the world, including Cannes, Berlin, Sundance, Rotterdam, Locarno, Busan, Toronto, Hot Docs (Canada) and IDFA (Holland). He was nominated for an Asia Pacific Award (Balekempa, 2018), a 2021 Filmfare Award and, more recently, a 2023 Critics Choice Award for Best Cinematography.

His most recent work includes the documentary ‘All That Breathes’ (nominated for both a BAFTA as well as an Academy Award, and winner of the ASC Award for Best Documentary) and the Netflix limited series ‘Trial By Fire’, which opened to rave reviews and is presently the only Indian show on IMDb’s Top 100 list.

In 2022 Saumyananda was selected as one of the ten participants of BAFTA’s Breathrough India programme. Film Companion also selected Saumyananda as one of India’s ‘Disruptors’ for the year 2022.

As well as his work as a cinematographer, Saumyananda has directed two documentaries and has producer, editor and production designer credits to his name. As a teacher, he has conducted workshops at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute of India, BITS Pilani (Goa) and NYU Abu Dhabi.

Shreya Dev Dube is an award-winning cinematographer born in Kolkata and now lives and works in Mumbai. She studied photography in Melbourne and later went on to specialise in cinematography in Paris. Her first feature film was a Bengali black and white film called Catsticks, directed by Ronny Sen, which premiered at Slamdance. Since then she has produced and shot her sister Karishma Dev Dube’s celebrated short film called Bittu, which won the Student Academy Award in 2020. Shreya worked with Mira Nair on A Suitable Boy as one of her cinematographers. She recently won the Asian Creative Academy awards for best cinematographer 2022 and best DOP-OTT at the ITA awards for her work in a neon-western film called Thar, produced by Anil Kapoor.

Sid is an entrepreneur and M&E veteran with over two decades of experience in film. Notorious as a disruptor, his education and expertise in cinematography, visual effects, digital workflows, and colour have made him one of the most sought-after collaborators in the country. Sid likes to explore new and efficient ways of telling a story with ambitious filmmakers. He likes taking on new challenges with directors and cinematographers to push the boundaries of cinema, both technically and aesthetically.

His vision is to create an ecosystem that accommodates the needs of the best independent filmmaking talent in the country and to hopefully leave behind a legacy of the most unique films that will be studied in film schools in the years to come. An eternal student, he aims to always maintain Bridge PostWorks’ cutting-edge DNA in every project undertaken. When Sid isn’t at work, he’s on a quest to find inspiration through good food.

Vikramaditya Motwane is an award-winning writer, director, and producer. He debuted with Udaan was nominated in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, where it had its World Premiere.

His feature film credits include Udaan, Lootera, Trapped, Bhavesh Joshi Superhero, and AKvsAK. He’s the showrunner and co-director of Sacred Games, Netflix’s first Indian original series. He is an ex-partner at Phantom Films and has produced films like Queen, Ugly, NH10, Masaan, and Udta Punjab.

He is currently working on Jubilee, an epic period series for Amazon Prime, due out in 2023. Vikramaditya Motwane deeply engages with the cinematography of the film, his films stand out for their emphasis on the visual language.