EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP

SRIDHAR RANGAYAN wears many caps – of a filmmaker, writer, activist and festival director. He has consistently strived to give a voice to social issues in India through his films, writings and public speaking for over two decades. His award winning films The Pink Mirror, Yours Emotionally, 68 Pages, Purple Skies, Breaking Free and Evening Shadows present hard-hitting social issues with warmth, compassion and humor; and are at the forefront of India’s emergent queer cinema movement. While The Pink Mirror was perhaps the first ever Indian LGBTQ film to be acquired by Netflix in 2015, Rangayan’s two other films Breaking Free and Evening Shadows also streamed on Netflix for 3 years. He is the Founder Festival Director of KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, South Asia’s biggest LGBTQIA+ film festival and the most well-known in India since 2010. He is also one of the founders of The Humsafar Trust and served on its board for 19 years.

SAAGAR GUPTA is a media professional and a reputed writer and poet. Being in the TV & Film industry for more than a decade he has worked with some of the best production houses and almost every General Entertainment Channels. Having written for several popular Hindi TV series he has also penned the Hindi, Urdu dialogues for Kalpana Lajmi’s critically acclaimed film, Darmiyaan and more recently for the feature film Evening Shadows. He has penned the lyrics for films 68 Pages and Evening Shadows, and is the co-producer for The Pink Mirror, Yours Emotionally and Evening Shadows. He has also worked with the Children’s Film Society, India (CFSI) and was actively involved as Junior Festival Manager for their prestigious Golden Elephant International Children’s Film Festival. Since the beginning of KASHISH MIQFF in 2010 he has been the curator and programmer for the festival. In his leisure, he loves to experiment in the kitchen or research about Hindi Cinema’s by-gone era.

ABHAY KULKARNI is a trained Actor from National School of Drama (1991-1994) and he has been working as an Actor for more than 30 years in different Indian languages in Films, Television, Advertisement and Webseries. He has worked with Internationally acclaimed Directors like Shyam Benegal, Girish Karnad,  Kalpana Lajmi, Sumitra Bhave & Sunil Sukathankar, Prema Karanth,  Padmavati Rao and Sridhar Rangayan to name a few. He has been nominated twice for “National Award  Best Supporting Role ” category. He has been awarded the “KALA RATNA PURASKAR” for his contribution in field of arts. He is also involved in training actors. Abhay Kulkarni has been a part of the KASHISH Preview Team for over 10 years now.

CHANDRESH MEHTA has 15 years of P&L Responsibility &, 20 + years of experience across Various Industries such as Media & Entertainment Hospitality / Travel, Banking, Pharma & Entrepreneur Coaching & Mentoring, Media & Entertainment Industry. With experience in organization management, business operation, project viability, fund management, pre-sales & marketing, client relationships, product development, procurements, publicity, promotion and sales & marketing, Chandresh Mehta strongly believe in the philosophy of ‘There is a way to do things and there is a BETTER  WAY TO DO THINGS’. He has been part of the KASHISH festival team since 2012, for the past 10 years now.

AARON D’SOUZA is an IT Professional working as a Content Specialist for over a decade. He is a singer by passion and has been a part of many events and choirs. He also has a knack of hosting and compering events and parties with his wit and spontaneous humour. Also known as “The Voice of KASHISH” – a title given by the Festival Director himself, he has been a part of KASHISH since 2015, where he started off as a volunteer. Currently, he is also a part of Impulse Mumbai and has been associated with organizations like Rainbow Voices Mumbai, Yaariyan & Color Positive in the past.