Selection Committee

Anjum Katyal

Anjum Katyal is a writer, editor, translator and critic. She has been Chief Editor, Seagull Books, as well as Editor, Seagull Theatre Quarterly. She is the author of several books on theatre and performance, and has translated works by Habib Tanvir, Mahasweta Devi and Meera Mukherjee. Currently, she is Director at Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival and Curator, Nabanna Earth Weekend (NEW) festival of arts and ideas. She is Editor at ArthArt arts journal.

Keval Arora

Keval Arora has taught drama and theatre at Kirori Mal College for over 4 decades. As the Faculty Advisor of THE PLAYERS, the college theatre society, his work has involved sensitising students towards the interrogative and performative potential of theatre, and in mentoring their creations. He has been a jury member for the National Film Awards, Hindu Metroplus Original Script Awards, amongst others. As a freelance theatre commentator, he has published in several newspapers and magazines.

Neena Kulkarni

Neena Kulkarni is an Indian actress. She began her acting career in the 1970s on the Marathi professional stage and Hindi experimental stage, along with fashion shows and modelling simultaneously. She met Pt. Satyadev Dubey, her first guru, and went on to be a part of several Hindi productions under his direction. Mohan Rakesh's Adhe Adhure, Shankar Shesh's Mayavi Sarovar and Willy Russell's Educating Rita are a few of her prominent plays. She is a column writer for Loksatta, called Antarang. She has also done numerous international projects and her latest foray into digital content through a web series Breathe and short films Cuddly and Maa has won her much appreciation. Her latest release is the Short film Devi.

Sankar Venkateswaran

Sankar Venkateswaran is a theatre director from Kerala. His early works include Sahyande Makan: The Elephant Project (2008), Ohta Shogo’s Water Station (2011), and Henrik Ibsen’s When We Dead Awaken (2012) among others. In 2013, Venkateswaran received the Ibsen Scholarship from Teater Ibsen, for the ‘Tribal Ibsen Project’  which furthered his work with the indigenous people in Attappadi, Kerala. His following works, Criminal Tribes Act (2017) and Indian Rope Trick (2020) reflect the shift in his working context. His recent works include My Name is Tamizh (2022) and Goodbye, and good wishes for your success—a response to ‘Annihilation of Caste’ (2022). Venkateswaran  served as the artistic director for the International Theatre Festival of Kerala in 2015 and 2016. He was the jury member for Zurich Theater Spektakel 2016, and most recently he was the international curation committee member for Theaterfestival Basel 2022.

Vikram Phukan

Vikram Phukan is a theatre practitioner and stage commentator. His writings on theatre have appeared in publications like The Hindu, Forbes India, Mint Lounge, International Gallerie and News9. He’s faculty at Drama School Mumbai, and has served on several curatorial/grant-making committees. He’s the artistic director of Theatre Jil Jil Ramāmani, under whose aegis he has written and directed plays like Those Left Behind Things, Dry Ice and Postcards from Colaba. His credits include Stories in a Song, Limbo, Gentlemen's Club and Even Mists Have Silver Linings. He’s the co-founder of Inqueerable, a platform for Indian queer theatre.