KASHISH 2023 STUDENT SHORTS JURY

RUCHA PATHAK

Rucha Pathak, joined Excel Entertainment as a Producer after her 6-year stint as Chief Creative Officer at Fox Star Studios in 2020. She set up a robust film and development pipeline at Fox Star Studios with Neerja, Jolly LLB 2, Phillauri, India’s Most Wanted, Chhapaak and Panga among other films. Her recent films include Lootcase and Dil Bechara which aired on Disney + Hotstar in 2020. Rucha has actively backed innovative scripts and made her mark as a producer at UTV Motion Pictures (later Disney). She has a list of extremely successful and critically acclaimed films to her credit, Barfi, ABCD – Anybody Can dance, Paan Singh Tomar, Chillar Party, No One Killed Jessica, Dev D, Welcome to Sajjanpur among others. Many of these films were a part of the UTV Spotboy brand which she helped build. UTV Spotboy was the forerunner of cutting- edge content and path-breaking cinema in the Indian film industry. Rucha also independently produced Harud (Autumn) which was selected in Competition at the Toronto International Film Festival 2010 and was a winner of the Don Quixote award at Fribourg International Film Festival in 2011. Rucha is currently at Excel Entertainment in Mumbai and doing what gives her most joy – putting together people and ideas to create good cinema. She is currently producing a feature, a series and a documentary.

ATIKA CHOHAN

Widely known for penning Bollywood’s most progressive, inclusive, and unflinching stories, screenwriter Atika Chohan won immense critical acclaim for co-writing Chapaak, a film based on the life of acid attack survivor Laxmi. Her stellar work includes Margarita with a Straw (2015) and Waiting, with the former bagging a National Award, among many other laurels. She worked for Guilty, a Netflix original produced by Karan Johar. Her trademark filmography makes use of powerful plots and exceptional characters to give life to human stories. Her upcoming projects include Agra, selected to be screened in the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes 2023, and Knot, an Indian International project co-produced by Dev Patel. 

SAMARTH MAHAJAN

Samarth Mahajan is a non-fiction filmmaker, passionate about telling human stories that remain invisible to the mainstream. His work includes two national award-winning films – the latest feature Borderlands explores lives defined by India’s borders, and the 2017 film The Unreserved captures stories from the general compartments of Indian Railways. Recognized by IIT Kharagpur as a Young Alumni Achiever, Samarth’s commercial collaborations include brands like Vice Studios, Applause Entertainment, and Discovery+.