Jury Members

Amal Allana

Amal Allana has directed over 60 plays, which have travelled both nationally and globally. Teaching theatre, making theatre for television, curating and mounting exhibitions on theatre and art, Amal has headed the Department of Indian Theatre, Chandigarh and was Chairperson of the National School of Drama. Her book,The Act of Becoming, is invaluable as a sourcebook on 22 eminent Indian actors of the last century. For her contributions to the field of Indian theatre Amal has received national and international recognition and awards including the Girish Ghosh Award, the  Delhi Natya Sangh Award, Sangeet Natak Academy Award.

Anuradha Kapur

Anuradha Kapur is a theatre maker and teacher.  Her work has travelled nationally and internationally, and she has taught in Universities in India and abroad. She is the founder member of Vivadi, a cross-discipline working group of theatre-makers, visual artists, filmmakers, musicians and writers. Anuradha was formerly Director National School of Drama, New Delhi where she was also Professor of Acting and Direction. She has held Visiting Professorships at Ambedkar University, Delhi, the University of Warwick and at the University of Cape Town. Anuradha was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi award for Direction in 2004. 

Ila Arun

Ila Arun, singer, actor, writer, has won accolades across the world. Her most popular songs are in the local dialects of Rajasthan. She has sung for many films, prominent among them are Karan- Arjun, Khalnayak, Lamhe, and the award-winning film, Slumdog Millionaire, which got her a certificate of participation for the Grammy award for the song Ringa Ringa sung by Alka Yagnik and her. Ila was invited to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. as part of their celebration of Rajasthan Week. Ila is as active today as when she had founded the theatre group SURNAI in 1982.  

Rajit Kapur

Rajit is a well-known actor across theatre and cinema. His theatre credits include Love Letters, Class of 84,  a solo performance of  Girish Karnad's Flowers, A Walk in the Woods,  A Few Good Men and Mosambi Narangi. He has donned the Director's hat for many plays including The Glass Menagerie, Mahua and Naqqaash. He is also a Co-founder of Rage Productions, which has produced some of the finest English plays in the country. His performance as Mahatma Gandhi in Shyam Benegal’s The Making of the Mahatma fetched him the National Award for Best Actor in 1995. 

Satish Alekar

Padmashree Satish Alekar is the acclaimed playwright of several well-known Marathi plays like Mahanirvan, Micky ani Memsahib, Mahapoor, Doosra Samana and others, and has been a theatre practitioner since 1970. Alekar was Professor and Head of the Centre for Performing Arts (Lalit Kala Kendra) at the University of Pune (now Savitribai Phule Pune University).  He is one of the founder members of India’s best-known theatre groups, Theatre Academy, Pune. Many of his plays have been translated and produced in several regional languages all over India. He has also authored several short plays that are extensively staged by experimental theatre groups all over Maharashtra.