Panel Discussion

Visakh PR is a director and visual effects artist, known for Undo Thinkforth (2016), Hunterrr (2015) and Journey to the Forbidden Valley (2017).

He started his career in 2009, as a motion graphics artist in cochin. He worked for multiple film industries like Hollywood, Bollywood, Marathi, Malayalam. Visakh PR completed his high school GHSS Uppilikai, Kasaragod, Kerala. After completing his higher secondary education, he graduated from Auriga college of media studies Thalassery in Visual communication. Visakh started his career as a Motion design/ animator artist for Television advertisement. The first feature film he worked on was Ordinary.

Then he moved to Mumbai as a VFX artist in Tool Box studio. He worked for multiple film industries like Hollywood, Bollywood, Malayalam, Marathi and Assamese. His directorial debut is Undo Thinkforth which is a visual effects film. Bhuvan Arora and Jijoy Rajagopalan played the lead roles. It's cinematography done by Satheesh Kurup. Undo Thinkforth background music done by Anil Johnson and sound mixing done by National film award winner Pramod Thomas.

Vaibhav Hatkar is the creative director and founder of Anahatam Media, based in Mumbai,Maharashtra. His most famous film “ A love such as this” has been critically acclaimed by many. A perfectionist, he doesn’t give up till everything turns out to be picture perfect. He is an award winning filmmaker and an MBA holder in the field of “Media and Advertising”.

He has scripted and Directed company profile video films for Gold Standard Sports, worked upon the Storyboard, Conceptualized and Managed animation for Godrej's Good knight and Fabric Roll-On, Scripted, Creative Directed and Edited promotional videos for Blued Efficiently.

He has successfully delivered 26 + projects as a creative director.

Before kick starting his new venture, Vaibhav worked in GoQuest media ventures for 2 years as executive video editor for 1 year and as the senior executive creative director for 1 year. Prior to this he worked in Master’s software system pvt.ltd. for a span of 10 years as web graphic designer, senior graphic designer and web animator and finally as the team lead.

Lakshmikant Bongale is an independent filmmaker based out of Mumbai,Maharashtra. He has been directing Films of various genres ranging from Documentary, Fiction, Live Coverages, Corporate Videos, Advertisements, and Promotional Videos including Concept Development, Strategic planning, Business plan and human resource.

Before starting a new journey as a freelancer, he served as the managing director for Drushyapat project for 5 years. Prior to this, he worked as a director in DP animation studio. He also worked as a music composer, senior content strategist, executive producer, film director and editor in chief for various other companies.

Sundar Kondur Through his storytelling, he has been blending real-life situations, experiences and weaving it into powerful learnings and thoughts that people can relate to– he is an expert in spearheading sales and marketing in the media industry. Sundar Kondur, a senior vice president at the Times of India Group in Mumbai, is a ‘fun-loving, outdoorsy person, a lifelong gourmet, and storyteller’ as his family thinks of him.

He specializes in establishing brands and selling to companies via storytelling, which then serves as a guidepost for developing long-term strategies for companies and organizations. In numerous phases of his career, he has demonstrated a high-result and high-efficiency focus, regularly exceeding set objectives and developing strategies and streamlining procedures.

His extensive market awareness, rapid decision-making, and grasp of all areas of the company across divisions were critical in the successful introduction of the MidDay and Mirror newspaper brands in Bangalore. Sundar combines the logic of statistics with the magic of imagination to devise an ideal method for tackling issues, which frequently results in "Real Sales via Real Stories."

He enjoys working with people from various sectors to develop innovative marketing and advertising solutions, and he enjoys the fact that no two days are the same. As a goal-oriented and empathic leader, he believes in strength as a single unit- as a team. He is a people person and is very empathetic. He believes in providing the team breathing room, which encourages them to take calculated chances with confidence

Manisha Pande is an Executive Editor at Newslaundry where she reports, edits and gets her kicks from watching television news. Previously with Business Standard and DNA, she’s interested in the media and would like to tell stories that acquaint people with different aspects of the news industry. Manisha Pande is an Indian journalist and satirist. She is currently the Executive Editor in Newslaundry where she hosts the weekly show TV Newsance. She has previously worked with DNA India and Business Standard.

In 2016 she received the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award for Best Investigative Journalist for her article on a Right to Information investigation into how Politicians misuse PSU funds and The Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity (2015) (for her story on Representation of women in Newsrooms)

Bansy Kalappa is presently a Political Editor at The New Indian Express.

He has worked at The Times of India as Dy Chief Reporter (metro),News 9, TV9 English as chief reporter.