Sujay Saple, Artistic Director, Shapeshift

Sujay Saple is Artistic Director of Shapeshift – a dance-theatre company based in Mumbai. He has choreographed seven original works – ‘Unselfed’(2012), ‘Moonfool’(2014), ‘Ghar Ki Murgi’(short,2017), ‘Agent Provocateur’(2017), ‘Plastic Bodies’(short,2017), ‘Sculpting Intimacy’(performance installation, 2018), and ‘This Is All There Is When There Is All This’(2018, with Rachel D’souza, for The Company Theatre), which have performed at various festivals and vital venues around India and received rave reviews. 

He has been an independent performer, director, designer and workshop conductor, working actively in the field of performing arts for over fifteen years, and on more than 40 collaborative performance projects. He regularly conducts workshops in movement and physical theatre for professionals, young adults and children, both in India and abroad.

He is a recipient of the Ministry of Culture-Government of India fellowship for performance research and practice. He has also received the Art Think South Asia (ATSA) fellowship. He often teaches performance at the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture. 

For the last few years, Sujay’s focus with Shapeshift has been to galvanize, within Mumbai’s existing cultural bouquet, a vibrant supportive space for contemporary dance, physical theatre, movement work and experimental performance – fields which are relatively young and struggling in India. He lives in Mumbai.

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Ritnika Nayan, Founder, Music Gets Me High

Ritnika Nayan started her musical career in 2001 at Hofstra University, New York, where she worked in the concerts division of the University for four years.  During this time, she organized shows for artists like Maroon 5, Nickelback, Counting Crows to name a few and dealt in various parts of the Live music sector ranging from Tickets, Advertising, Production and Finances. After completion of her Bachelor’s degree in TV/Video From Hofstra, she returned to India, where she dabbled in Television (MTV NY, ITV London, Star India) and Film (Gandhi My Father) as an Assistant Director.

In 2006, Ritnika moved to London to pursue her Masters in Music Business management from Westminster University. She worked as a promoter in London for a year managing concerts at venues like the Troubadour, 100 club, Borderline and Nambucca. After a Brief work stint at Sincere management (Peter Jenner), Ritnika moved to India to set up her music company that deals with artist management, live concerts, consultancy as well as operates a rehearsal studio in Delhi. In 2008, the British council named Ritnika ‘Young Music Entrepreneur’ runner up and in 2018 they chose her as a finalist for the UK Alumni entrepreneur Award. She is strong advocate for local music and believes the Indian music industry needs to be at par with the international world. Ritnika is an active member of music conferences worldwide and was also a panelist at the Music Expo 2008, In Los Angeles & Electron festival Geneva, 2011, Amsterdam Dance event – 2016, in Mumbai and recently also released India’s first and only book on electronic music – hub.  She has been featured in various publications including Femina, Elle, Time Out Delhi, Hindustan Times, Mid day, Sunday Guardian, TOI crest, Statesmen  & Indian Express and was named one of the ‘Top Guns of India’ by India Today Aspire Magazine. Ritnika won the prestigious Indiafrica Visionary Fellowship and attended a business bootcamp at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and was also asked to speak to the University of Mauritius. She recently spoke at a TEDx event in India about the various opportunities available in music and released her book – Indie 101: The Ultimate Guide to the Independent Music Industry in India. Some of the projects she has been involved with include Guns & Roses India Tour, Manu Chao India tour, Tiny Fingers India Tour, Sula Festival, Moto spotlight series, The Grub Fest, Ziro Festival of Music, Nucleya -Horn Ok Please tour etc. More details on www.mgmh.net

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Olivier Boogie, DJ & Producer

Olivier is a dj / producer from Amsterdam. Triggered by countless hip-hop mixtapes on cassette and VHS tapes full of scratch battles, Olivier bought a set of turntables and started collecting records in 1999. After the vibrant Amsterdam night life introduced him to soul, house and disco music, he broadened his horizons and Olivier became Oliver Boogie.

He won a place at the Red Bull Music Academy, released a slew of records on labels as Rush Hour, Lumberjacks In Hell and Whiskey Disco a.o., played shows around the world – from New York to London and from Prague to Vilnius – and has enjoyed residencies at numerous clubs in Amsterdam alongside a regular slot on Red Light Radio.

In 2017, he founded La Freund Recordings, a boutique record label dedicated to releasing warm and analogue music. The label has since released EP’s by Duke Hugh, Sjamsoedin and Beraber featuring remixes by Awanto3, Simon Weiss, Claude (a,k,a. Fulgeance) and
Chicago House legend Vincent Floyd.

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Links – Olivier Boogie:
https://www.facebook.com/olivierboogieamsterdam
https://www.instagram.com/olivier_boogie
https://soundcloud.com/olivierboogie

Discography – Olivier Boogie:
• Olivier Boogie – No Goodbye (Whiskey Disco, 2016)
• Olivier Boogie – I Know You Care EP (Whiskey Disco, 2015)
• Olivier Boogie – Flash Gordon EP (Phat Elephant, 2015)
• Olivier Boogie – Switch EP (Hot Digits, 2015)
• Olivier Boogie – Get Up EP (Midnight Riot Recordings, 2015)
• Olivier Boogie – Best Of Them (Phat Elephant, 2014)
• Olivier Boogie – Lost In The Crowd EP (Whiskey Disco, 2014)
• Olivier Boogie / Red Greg – Dance Roll Rhythm (Lumberjacks In Hell, 2012)
• O.Boogie – Kevin Flynn (Up My Alley, 2010)
• Proper Vs. Boogie – Magnificent Speech Funk (incl. Laurent Garnier Remix (Rush Hour, 2008)
• O.Boogie – Uprunner (08BAR / Rush Hour, 2007)
• O.Boogie feat. Tableek – Paperchaser 12” (Rush Hour / Jazzy Sport, 2007)
• San Proper & O.Boogie – Proper’s A’dam Family Series Part 4 (Rush Hour, 2007)
• Cinnaman & O.Boogie – EP 1 (Drie Keer Raden, 2004)

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Links – La Freund Recordings:
https://bandcamp.com/lafreundrecordings
https://www.facebook.com/lafreundrecordings
https://www.instagram.com/lafreundrecordings
https://soundcloud.com/lafreund

Discography – La Freund Recordings:
• Duke Hugh – Poly Valence EP w/ Awanto3 Remix (2017)
• Sjamsoedin – Orion EP w/ Simon Weiss & Claude Remixes (2017)
• Beraber – Sun Ritual EP w/ Vincent Floyd Remix (2018)
• Upcoming: Claude – Future EP w/ Duke Hugh & The Maghreban Remixes (2018)

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Jesse Liu, Icon Promotions

Based in Taipei, Taiwan, Jesse Liu launched his boutique concert promotion company ICON in 2006 and now books 30 to 40 international bands annually in every corner of Asia. Booking a wide range of acts from Jason Mraz to Rob Zombie; Toro Y Moi to Lamb Of God, Jesse has consistently toured some of the finest rock acts across Asian. He has worked with the largest festivals in Asia, scouting new talent for Summer Sonic (Japan), Pentaport Rock Festival (Korea) and Midi Festival (China) to name a few. Jesse is now focused on China’s rock music market and still dream of changing the world – one show at a time.

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Anuja Ghosalkar, Founder, Drama Queen

Anuja Ghosalkar is the founder of Drama Queen, a documentary theatre company in Bangalore. Through Drama Queen, she is evolving a unique form of Documentary theatre in India. The focus of her theatre practice is undocumented narratives, archival absences and gender. Research, oral history and iterations around form and process are critical to her performance and pedagogical work.

Drama Queen’s debut show Lady Anandi has traveled extensively across India and was written while she was an artist-in-residence at Art Lab Gnesta, Sweden. Her newest performance, The Reading Room blurs the boundary between audience and performer, where 10 strangers read personal letters alongside public ones.

She is visiting faculty at Srishti Institute of Art Design & Technology, Mount Carmel College working with students on research-based performance. Recently, for Srishti she conceived a site specific, performance at Cubbon Park Metro Station called Dream Walkers. She regularly conducts workshops at Rangashankara and Jagriti on Documentary theatre for children and young adults. She taught cinema in Bombay for over five years at St. Xavier’s, Wilson & K.C. College.

In the past, as an actor, Anuja has worked with Atul Kumar, Abhishek Majumdar, Kirtana Kumar and Arundhati Raja.
As a film researcher she worked for a book— by Rosie Thomas published by Orient Blackswan, for a National award winning film by Ashim Ahluwalia (Miss Lovely) and as a Sarai fellow she documented the oral narratives of her grandfather, the oldest living make-up artist, that resulted in the project titled: papaajoba.

She has been a curator and programmer for film festivals like Experimenta, Made By Women and Tri- Continental Human Rights Festival. She writes extensively on theatre and film for publications like Art India, Indian Cultural Forum, Deep Focus, Ladies Finger, Hakara, Scroll, Bioscope-Journal for South Asian Screen Studies.

She was a programming officer at India Foundation for the Arts (2008-13) and is an Art Think South Asia Fellow (2017-18)
She is the co-curator for Asia’s first festival on Documentary theatre, Staged Realities 2020.

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Iikka Vehkalahti, Executive Producer

Executive Producer of IV Films Ltd, Rough Cut Service and Dare To Dream Asia. One of the founders and board member of Steps.

Commissioning Editor for the Finnish Broadcasting Company, YLE Documentaries, Finland
1998-2015 Executive Producer for Steps For The Future and one of the Series Producers for Why Democracy. A visiting professor in Tampere University 2011-2012.

In YLE he commissioned hundreds of documentaries among them 3 Rooms Of Melancholy by Pirjo Honkasalo, Decent Factory by Thomas Balmes, Recepies for Disaster by John Webster , The Steam Of Life by Jonas Bärghell and Punk Synchrome by Jukka Kärkkäinen ja J-Passi.

He has been involved or supported numerous international well known documentaries like Act of Killing, Look Of Silence, Armadillo, Happiness, Don´t Breath, Placebo, The Ambassadors, Vivan les Antipodes etc…

He has been Executive Producer in documentaries produced in Asia, Middle-East and Africa. Among them are from India Lakshmi and Me by Nishta Jain, Lyari Notes by Maheen Zia a Miriam Chandy Menacherry, Cecile by Pankaj Johar and Nero´s Guests by Deepa Bhatia. He is one of the producers of Machines by Rahul Jain (awarded at Sundance 2017) and the producer of Raghu Rai- an unframed portrait by Avani Rai (in the production). He is a co-producer of Winnie by Pascal Lamche (awarded at Sundance 2017).

Iikka Vehkalahti has been lecturing, leading the workshops or having master classes in Russia, USA, India, South Africa, Kenya, DRC, Nepal, Canada, Australia and of course in many European countries. He has been tutor among others in Doc Incubator, Ex Oriente, DocEdge, IDFA Summer School, EuroDoc and Steps India training programs.

His most recent activities Rough Cut Service (roughcutservice.com) collects some of the best editors in the world to provide on-line support to documentary film makers with challenging productions. RCShas been working among others with films Houston We Have A Problem ( Oscar-candidate of Slovenia), For a Love Of A Man ( at Venice FF), An Insignificant Man, City of Sun (Berlinare panorama 2017), To Come Who I Was ( Grand Prix, Generation at Berlinare 2017).

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Shamik Talukder, Chief Business Officer, escapex

With over 20 years of experience, Chief Business Officer of escapex , Shamik Talukder has been at the forefront of tech and entertainment to create cutting edge solutions for celebrities and influencers across the globe. With over 150 celebrity apps spread across 9 countries , he thrives in helping celebrities leverage their fan base to achieve their individual goals and take ownership of their content and social following .

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Potter, Artist

The Mumbai-based DJ is intent on preserving the true essence of underground sounds. Keeping the focus fixed on hitting a balance between both experimental and club music, ensuring that everyone is glued to the dance floor.

Inspiration is very subjective for Potter as he derives inspiration from arbitrary sources
such as art, sounds he hears in daily life, even inanimate objects. Artists like Daft Punk & Tame Impala have inspired him to dish out a diverse selection of music that capture his audiences.

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Mathieu Josso, Bhavishyavani Future Soundz

It’s been more than a decade of Mathieu Josso aka M.MAT championing what heads refer to as the underground sound – classic, almost-institutional house and techno. And in contrast, just a couple of years since his DJ Mag India top 5 ranking. In the interim, M.Mat has held court as principal leader aboard the cosmonaut Bhavishyavani Future Soundz collective in Bombay, showcasing and delivering from that hallowed space in where the boundaries of contemporary electronic music meet the undying spirit of the old-school and proceed to make holy, intergalactic love. In the past M.MAT has put together events for and performed alongside artists such as Mathew Jonson, Laurent Garnier, Dixon, Chloe, dOP, MANDY, DJ Koze, to name just a scratch. M.MAT’s multifaceted DJing style blends vintage dance music jams and fresh, elastic beats engineered for dispatch any time of day.

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Mandeep Raikhy, Managing Director, Gati Dance Forum

Mandeep Raikhy is a dance practitioner based in New Delhi. He trained at Trinity Laban and worked with Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company, London, for several years. Mandeep has created and toured extensively for many of his dance works, notably Inhabited Geometry (2010), a male ant has straight antennae (2013) and Queen-size (2016). Mandeep has been working as Managing Director at Gati Dance Forum since 2009.  

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Jaideep Singh, Director Arre, Managing Director Volocity Media LLC, Director Eblitz Creations

Jaideep Singh is a visionary Media & Entertainment veteran with a 20+ years of diverse experience. He presently wears multiple hats across different media and entertainment companies. As Managing Director APAC and Middle East of Volocity Media he is leading the wave of innovation of merging creative, content and technology. He is also Director on multiple Indian Media Companies working in the field of creative, content, Event Management with deep engagement with Govt clients. Indian Companies that Jaideep is partner and Director in are Arre(India’s Fastest Growing Original Content Platform), Eblitz Creations (Reputed Integrated Marketing and Communication Agency, with 5000+ Events, Govt/Corporate campaigns and Brand solutions).

A decorated ex Army Major, has worked with notable companies like JK Tyres, Confederation Of India Industries and Radio Mirchi he has unique understanding of building impact large integrated campaigns which deep consumer and audience insight. His last stint was a stellar 10-year position at Viacom India, where — as Senior Vice President and Business Head of Integrated Network Solutions — he launched hosts of domestic and global impact’s (IP’s), secured strategic media partnerships with brands, government sectors and engaged with entertainment and media divisions across the globe. He is the man behind impact’s IP’s like Vh1 Supersonic, MTV Xtreme, MTV Bollyland, EMERGE etc. He has also been behind creating many successful Broadcast properties in youth/Music genres(MTV Roadies, MTV Splitzvilla, Coke Studio, MTV Unplugged, MTV Video Music Awards, Niclodean Kids Choice Awards and many more), worked closely with Viacom18 Motion Pictures on Strategic Brand Partnerships for it Bollywood and Hollywood Slate, innovations across varied business categories and has extensive knowledge of Global Media Trends.

He often speaks in summits on Music, Marketing, Media and effective use of Digital and social media Platforms for Brand Marketing.

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Rahul Chhabria, Music Producer

Rahul Chhabria was born in Mumbai, schooled and brought up in India’s largest metropolitan city. He was also educated in North America, London and Spain. His nature and environment made him start researching certain crafts of sound, drama, performance and movement. Discouraged by the schooling systems, Rahul studied business, philosophy, sound engineering and performance arts for the last 15 years. His unstable experiences as an artist made him see abstraction as rebellion. Rahul has acted in a few plays and 2 art house films. He has also been a very big part of the experimental music scene around the country, Dj’s on many dance floors and stays very active towards the community of arts. Rahul has always found ways to revolutionise the approach towards the basic norms of our sub culture. Somehow leaving the darkness on the surface.

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