The Third Eye is a feminist think tank working on the intersections of gender, sexuality, violence, technology and education. It owes its name to pioneering educator Jyotiba Phule’s analogy in Tritiya Ratan, of calling education the third eye through which one views the human condition. It emerged as a response to the immense role technology plays in the spread of knowledge production, and the deep deficit of open source, bilingual resources to navigate the new parameters of knowledge and access.

Ektara Collective is an independent, autonomous, non-funded group of individuals. The purpose of this group is to combine creative efforts and imagination and collaborate to make films that are content-wise and aesthetically located in their contextual realities and experiences. They believe that they need to create a space to make cinema that allows them to tell people’s stories and give dignity to different lives and struggles that are rarely represented in mainstream cinema but are a part of our reality.

Star Hopper is a next-generation creative studio with a primary focus on creating and curating intersectional narratives that are brown, queer and women-led. They are a small team of dedicated and bold creatives looking to the future of filmmaking, with cultural awareness and integrity, but above all, a love for the medium of film. They are dedicated to working with filmmakers, technicians and talent from south-Asian LGBTQIA++ and underrepresented spaces.

Kujur is from Lohardaga in Jharkhand and his mother tongue is Kudukh. A member of the Dravidian family of languages, Kudukh is spoken by nearly two million Oraon and Kisan people scattered across Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Bengal, Chhattisgarh as well as the Andamans. It is listed as "vulnerable" in Unesco's register of endangered languages, and only this year on Bhasha Diwas or International Mother Tongue Day it was granted official status by the Bengal government.An established filmmaker, he now uses the cinematic language to communicate Kudukh to the world - as though trying to shape a presence in popular media, where there is almost none.

Nuclear physicist turned filmmaker Prabhash Chandra debuted in 2019 with a docu-fiction 'Mera Ram Kho Gaya', examining the notion of Ram, the ‘supreme’ Hindu god and the Indian caste system. A theatre actor, director and educator, his decade long engagement in the field of arts has shown his commitment towards the socio-political realities of our times. He has been working on projects which aim to create conversations between scientific research and interdisciplinary processes with a special focus on connections between art, science and educational processes. Prabhash recently won 'Best debut director award from India' at the International Competition Section of the 26th International Film Festival of Kerala for the feature fiction film ‘I'm Not The River Jhelum’ exploring fear and disquiet in the Valley.

Rakesh Sharma is an Indian documentary filmmaker hailing from Mumbai. His first documentary was Aftershocks: The Rough Guide to Democracy (2002) - a story of two earthquake affected villages. Rakesh then came out with Final Solution (2004), a documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots. Screened at over 120 international film festivals, and with over 20 accolades, Final Solution won two awards at its premiere at the Berlin Interantional film festival, including the Wolfgang Staudte award (now rechristened the Golden Bear for Best Debut, which has never been given to a documentary before or ever since). Soon after, the Indian Censor Board banned the film, though it was forced to lift the ban and clear the film without a single cut, following widespread civil society protests. Curiously, in 2007, the President of India presented this film a National Film Award, citing “its powerful, hard-hitting documentation with a brutally honest approach lending incisive insights”.

Devashish Makhija has written and directed the full length feature films 'Ajji' (aka Granny) and 'Bhonsle' - both Busan BIFF and Rotterdam IFFR favourites and the multiple award winning short films 'Taandav', 'Cycle', 'Cheepatakadumpa', 'El'ayichi', 'Agli Baar' (aka And then they came for me), 'Rahim Murge pe mat ro' (aka Don't cry for Rahim LeCock), 'Absent', and 'Happy'.He began his journey as a researcher & assistant on the iconic Black Friday directed by Anurag Kashyap. His short and feature films have competed and won awards at the international film festivals of Rotterdam, Gothenberg, Beaune, Black Nights, Busan, Glasgow, Tampere, MOMA, APSA, Barcelona, Singapore, amongst many others.

Jyotsna is an actor, artist and writer. They are also a Country Director of Gender at Work India. Jyotsna’s practice spreads across institutional building, intersectionality, arts, activism, theatre and development. They have a masters in Development Studies from TISS Mumbai and Social Anthropology from School of Oriental and African Studies, London and a recipient of Chevening Scholarship, British High Commission (2014). In 2020, Jyotsna was featured as 40 under 40 by Edex and New Indian Express. Their work has appeared in Times of India, Hindu, UN Women, The YP Foundation, Feminism in India, Smashboard, Ashoka Literature Festival, Indian Express, Mid- Day, The Rights Collective, Feminism in India, The Swaddle, The Citizen, Spielart Theatre Festival, India Culture Lab, Grazia, News18, Khirkee Voice and Khoj.

Gitanjali Rao is a Bachelor of Fine Art from Sir J.J.Institute of Applied Art, Bombay. She learnt Animation and film making on the job. Her four independently produced animated shorts, Blue, Orange, Printed Rainbow, Chai and TrueLoveStory have been to over 150 International film festivals and received more than 30 awards. Painted frame by frame, Gitanjali’s films travel seamlessly between harsh urban reality and the dream world created by the psyche, to escape that reality. While her depiction of urban reality has a documentary style, the intricate dream worlds are inspired from the rich and varied folk art styles of India.Her body of work includes animated commercials, pre-production for animated features, logo-motions, as well as graphic novels and illustrated stories. She is also an award winning actor on stage and in films.

Abhishek Anicca is a writer, poet, spoken word performer. He identifies as a person with disability and chronic illness. Abhishek did his graduation from Delhi University and Masters from TISS, Mumbai. He is a researcher who works on disability and gender. ​He has written on disability and illness for the Times of India, The Quint, DNA, Mad in Asia among others. His poems have been published in Indian Cultural Forum (English, Hindi), The Alipore Post (English), Rhime (English), Outlandish Arts (Video), Samalochan (Hindi), Apni Maati (Hindi). His first poetry collection in Hindi, Antrang, was published in 2019.

Anureet Watta is a filmmaker and poet living in Delhi. Their work revolves around exploring queerness outside of the heteropatriarchal gaze. The made their first short film, Kinaara (fiction) on a zero budget and using a phone camera. It was showcased at 14 international film festivals and bagged awards such as Best Screenplay at Brazil International Film Festival and ‘Special Jury Mention’ at the KASHISH International Queer fim festival. It dealt with the story of two queer women who are seperated on the brink of the partition of india and Pakistan in 1947.  They recently completed their second short film, Oranges in the Winter Sun which is being produced by Lotus Visual Productions, a UK based production house. The film blurs the lines between a narrative and an experimental film and deals with the idea of memory, the queer gaze and looks at the city of Delhi from a queer lens.

Constantly working with Indian brands and textile designers to consult on design direction, visual communication and runway presentation, Nikhil’s work encompasses styling, creative direction, design and casting. Nikhil has also delved into the world of advertising, styling commercials for Netflix, Vodafone, Incredible India West Bengal Tourism and Royal Enfield. Experimenting with digital, mix media and film has been something Nikhil is keen to explore.

Born in Delhi, Tsundue started off his journey making experimental videos while completing his Fine Arts degree at College of Art, Delhi. A huge cinema buff, classics like Carrie and Sound of Music, and campy films of the 60’s greatly fascinated him growing up, and have gone on to influence various elements of his style. He has worked as a videographer and video editor in the Conde Nast India video team, making films for Vogue and other titles.

Asawari is an independent queer director-producer based in Mumbai, also a founding member of a company called Anat, a platform that focuses on narratives that are about- by, women, trans, intersex, and gender diverse individuals. They are also the co-founder of Star Hopper Studios, a queer-led cross-disciplinary collective based in Mumbai/Delhi, focusing on experimental brand videos, curation, and intersectional narratives. Asawari was one of the jurors in the Direction category for D&AD's 2021 awards. Asawari is a Cultural Management in Digital Age Fellow 2021, supported by Goethe Institute (Mumbai) and Art X (Mumbai). Asawari is a BeFantastic Fellow supported by Goethe Institute (Mumbai/Germany) - working towards an open-source platform dedicated to gender-neutral language and communication.

Varsha Panikar is a filmmaker, a published writer and multi-disciplinary artist based in Mumbai, India. They are also the co-founder of Star Hopper, a trans led multi-disciplinary creative studio focused on creating and curating queer, brown and women-led narratives. As a trans non-binary artist unpicking prejudice and politics from their own lived experience, they create with the aim of dismantling constructs and initiating conversations around gender, sexuality, and trauma from a queer south-Asian lens. Drawing inspiration from dreams, memories, fantasy, and evolving socio-political perspectives, their practice involves blending various mediums and formats of storytelling in their work. Their writings, poems and photography works have been featured across various online magazines and publications. In their down time, Varsha also moonlights as a voice-over artist and loves performing spoken-word.

Saad Nawab is a commercial and narrative filmmaker who utilizes visual mediums to tell fantastical, other worldly stories that harbor themes of innocence, loss and religion related to the human condition. His journey to be a storyteller of consequence has led him far and wide - from the conservative landscape of the Middle East to a strict boarding school in the mountains of Western India and finally ending up in Mumbai by chance and working for many of India’s finest commercial and narrative directors.
Saad is a recipient of the prestigious Director's Guild of America (DGA) Student Award among many other international awards. His short "Frankenstein's Light" has played in film festivals across the world. Since graduating with an MFA from the College of Motion Arts at Florida State University, Saad has embarked in search of a mythical book of untold stories that might be the key to changing the course of his undefined future.

Nayanika is an animator, illustrator and storyteller from India. She is a recent animation graduate at the Royal College of Art in London. Nayanika is one of the ten awardees of the Black British and POC Grant 2021.She pursued a BA in political science after which her interest in social and political narratives grew as a Fellow at the Young India Fellowship at Ashoka University. She created photo stories, documentaries and animated news explainers as a multimedia journalist at ThePrint.in. She has worked as a motion graphics designer for advertising campaigns. She has been featured on Gal-Dem, Content Free and Homegrown.in. She is also a contributing author-illustrator for a graphic novel anthology by RCA students called ‘Sanitiser on Toast’.In her free time she loves to annoy her dog, Stark, and attempts impossible CrossFit workouts.

Sarah is a documentary filmmaker and street photographer. Her films have been broadcast on National Geographic and screened at BAFTA & Oscar qualifying film festivals around the world, whilst her photography has been exhibited and published around India.
With Indian, Irish and Chinese roots she has made films in both the UK and India. Her films look at identity, belonging and acceptance. Her collaborations tell stories about how people choose to portray themselves and what this reveals about the worlds we create around us.
Sarah is a recent graduate of the National Film & Television School’s Documentary Directing MA. ‘Yaha Waha’ is her graduation film. She is currently in collaboration on two Indian / British projects.

Kamya is an independent writer-producer who dreams of making emotionally-dense stories. She was industry-initiated as an associate producer with Viacom18’s OTT platform, Voot. This led her to work with boutique production houses, writing short films and acting. And occasionally, she has worked as a graphic designer, editor, photographer and fine artist.

Achal Dodia is an artist and a writer who aspires to create multidisciplinary work through on-ground research and engagement by producing many narratives in different forms. His usual approach is story-telling through writing and comic drawings, however he also explores his emotions by understanding the architecture of a city through its bar of safety. Achal loves to collaborate and meet with new people to create more engaging and practical work. He could talk and listen for hours over coffee or wine. In his leisure time, he makes handmade diaries and journals, and collects matchboxes too.

‍Avijit Mukul Kishore (he/him) is a filmmaker and cinematographer based in Mumbai. He works in documentary films and inter-disciplinary moving-image practices, often collaborating with visual artists on video and film based artworks. He is involved in cinema pedagogy as a lecturer and curator of film programmes. Kishore studied cinematography at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune and holds a bachelor's degree in History from Hindu College,  University of Delhi. His works have been shown at Documenta 14 at Athens, Chicago Architecture Biennial, and Dhaka Art Summit, in addition to several film festivals and academic and cultural spaces.

Rajesh Rajamani is a screenwriter, film critic and filmmaker. He holds an engineering degree from Madras University and a postgraduate degree in management from IIM Indore. Prior to being a freelance writer, he worked in the retail department of a private bank in Mumbai. His short films ‘The Discreet Charm of the Savarnas’ (2020)  and ‘Lovers in the Afternoon’ (2019) were presented by  Neelam Productions and received critical accolades. They are now available at Neelam Social channel on YouTube. He also writes on cinema, caste, gender and the intersection of the three. His writings have been published in The News Minute, HuffPost India, First Post and Newslaundry. His analytical essays on Tamil cinema attempt to offer perspectives that are often missed out in mainstream writing. In particular, they try to understand and unravel how caste plays an important role in constructing cinematic narratives and its effect on film consumption and criticism. He won the RedInk award under the ‘Lifestyle & Entertainment’ category for the year 2018. He is also the writer of Inedible India – a social satire webcomic. He is currently based out of Chennai.