Our Team

Prof Lakshmi Lingam

Dr. Lakshmi Lingam was the Project Director of the research study titled ‘Lights, Camera and Time for Action: Recasting a Gender Equality Compliant Hindi Cinema’. Lakshmi Lingam was the Dean and Professor of the School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India, till February 2023, when she superannuated after working at the Institute for nearly 35 years. Dr Lingam’s research interests lie in researching gender, employment, health, public policies, social movements, sexualities, social inequalities, women’s empowerment programmes and digital citizenship.

Prof Shilpa Phadke

Shilpa Phadke is a professor at the School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Studies, Mumbai. She is co-editor of the book ‘Why Loiter? Women and Risk on Mumbai Streets’ (2011). She is co-editor of ‘Intimacy and Injury: In the Wake of #MeToo in India and South Africa’ (2022) and ‘Yaari: An Anthology on Friendship by Women and Queer Folx’ (2023). She is the co-director of the documentary ‘Under The Open Sky’ (2016). She has published in academic books and journals in gender and urban public space, ethnographies of feminism, feminist pedagogy, risk and the city, middle-class sexualities, middle classes and the new spaces of consumption in the city, feminist parenting and friendship. She also writes regularly in the popular media, both in print and online, on concerns related to gender and the city.

Ms Nithila Kanagasabai

Nithila Kanagasabai is an Assistant Professor at the School of Media and Cultural StudiesTata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She researches and writes in the areas of feminist media studies, feminist pedagogies, journalism studies, research cultures, digital media, and friendship. Her work has been published in journals such as Feminist Media Studies, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics and Economic and Political Weekly. She also recently co-edited Yaari: An Anthology on Friendship by Women and Queer Folx (2023), published by Yoda Press. Her earlier disciplinary training was in broadcast journalism, and she has worked as a reporter at NDTV and TIMES NOW.

Dr Harmanpreet Kaur

Harmanpreet Kaur is an Assistant Professor at the School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She earned her M.A. and M.Phil/Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, New Delhi. Her doctoral research analyses and charts the journey of alternative films in India from their aesthetics to infrastructures of production, distribution and exhibition from 2007 to 2019. Her research interests lie within cinema studies, independent cinema, visual cultures, media industries, cinephilia and film festivals. She has worked in the Films team at LXL Ideas, Mumbai, producing children’s short fiction films and a broadcast journalist with Network18 in New Delhi. Her work has been published in Bioscope: South Asian Screen Studies and Studies in South Asian Film and Media.

Dr Faiz Ullah

Faiz Ullah is an assistant professor at the School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He has published research on the political economy of media, work and labour, documentary film, and participatory cultures in various journals and edited volumes. He co-edited Many Voices, Many Worlds: Critical Perspectives on Community Media in India (Sage 2021) and co-translator of Once There Was a City Named Dilli (Yoda Press 2017). In 2016 he co-directed a short documentary, Under the Open Sky, featuring a young women’s sports initiative in Mumbai, focusing on women’s access to public spaces. His feature pieces and book reviews have appeared in The Book Review India, Biblio, The Indian Express, Art India, Mint, The Tribune, Kafila, Scroll, The Wire, and Raiot among others. Previously, he worked as a news and features producer with NDTV, Reliance Broadcast, and Bloomberg TV.

Dr Shilpi Gulati

Shilpi Gulati is a filmmaker, theatre artist and educator. She locates her practice at the intersections of documentary and performance, where she largely engages with community-based media practices, feminist histories and intergenerational memory. She is a two-time recipient of the President’s National Film Award in India for her documentaries Qissa-e Parsi: The Parsi Story (2014) and Taala the Kunjee: Lock and Key (2018) and has been a Fulbright-Nehru scholar at Columbia University, New York. The International Documentary Association, UNICEF, Public Service Broadcasting Trust, the Ministry of External Affairs, and the American Consulate have supported her research and artistic work. She is also actively engaged in campaigns against censorship, protecting national film archives, and developing support networks for independent filmmakers in South Asia.

Ms Rashmi Lamba

Rashmi has gained recognition in film and TV production, advertising, corporate communications, film festivals and event management.

She is ‘India Council Lead’ for the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and has held pivotal roles at leading international Film Festivals in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Toronto.
In India, as Festival Director, she launched the FICCI FLO Film Festival and Forum, spearheaded MAMI – Mumbai Film Mart and the Films Division – MIFF HUB and currently curates for the Samabhav Travelling Film Festival by MAVA (Men Against Violence and Abuse).

As an independent Director, she set up her own film production companies in Mumbai, Dubai and Toronto. Rashmi started her career in Television on programs for children and award-winning documentaries. She has directed ‘Begumpura -The Wives Colony’ for the OMNI Rogers Network in Canada.

Dr. Sunitha Chitrapu

Sunitha Chitrapu is an independent researcher based in Mumbai, India. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. She was formerly Head of the Social Communications Media Department Sophia Polytechnic, Mumbai, where she is currently visiting faculty for Communications Research, Media and Society. Her research interests include the political economy of media, media trade and modernities. Her work has been published in Culture Unbound, Journal of Creative Communications, Social Movement Studies Journal of Social, Cultural and Political Protest, Handbooks in Communication Science: Management and Economics of Communication (2020), and Indian Media Economy Vol. II – Market Dynamics and Social Transactions (2017).

Dr. Rama Sridhar

Rama is a passionate social development professional with 20 years of work experience with not for profit organizations, corporate and academia. She started her career with client centered work in the thematic areas of adoption, HIV/AIDS and corporate initiatives and post her doctoral studies with the thesis in “Awareness regarding HIV/AIDS among Truck Drivers and Mathadi Workers in Mumbai: Comparative Study” she transitioned to evidence-based and research work. She has been engaged in corporate social responsibility engagements and has led teams for needs assessment, midterm assessment, end term review. She provides consultancy services in qualitative research in the area of public health and has worked on process documentation and evaluation studies. She is an Adjunct Faculty with Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) and conducts lectures on the theme of CSR and role of evidence-based studies. Her experience of work with nonprofit organisations augmented with research skill sets provide a lens of inquiry to understand pertinent development issues and contribute effectively. She has worked with organizations such as Larsen & Toubro Ltd., Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, SNEHA and John Hopkins University.