Women Game Changers - Season 3 by Raunaq Roy

Aditi Saigal | Dot Musician | Actress Dot’s song was played in Netflix’s Valentine's Day Special Trailer 2019. Dot.’s sound is unique and has a niche of its own. To box her into a genre is a disservice to her esoteric compositions. Her YouTube channel is filled with her compositions with topics ranging from anecdotes like the song Asymmetrical which is about Mrs Pearson’s Psychology class where she learned that the biological criterion for attractiveness is the symmetrical face (she said that love and attraction are just chemical reactions in the brain/ we like our lovers to be with symmetry just perfectly written on the face) to her song Wes Anderson which sounds like much like the title suggests like a scene out of Wes Anderson’s film (I’m at an old-timey carnival, I won the buffalo prize).

Hina Saiyada Head of Games She won the Unreal Engine Women Creators Program fellowship in 2021. She is currently working on a feminist Utopian game called LadyLand.

Medha Mukherjee Founder | CEO | Feministaa Media Medha Mukerji is the Founder of Feminstaa, a media platform that supports Indian Women Achievers with the vision to empower women to work. Throughout Medha’s career, she has worked with two women bosses who supported and mentored her. This made her realize the need for a professional mentoring platform for Indian Working Women

Richa Singh Co-Founder | CEO Through the unwavering success of FanClash, Richa Singh has debunked the widespread stereotypical notions and proved that women can lead in the business of gaming and become among the key industry players. With a wealth of corporate finance experience from her previous roles, Richa is building FanClash to elevate the Indian startup ecosystem by creating a global product from India for the world.

Ronkini Gupta playback singer a Hindustani Classical Vocal exponent, is known for her, versatile style, pitch-perfect sweetness, and prowess, where she smoothly switches between singing pure kheyaal and playback. Having trained under exponents from the Gwalior and Kirana gharanas, her style of rendition is a combination of both blended with her unique expression. From being a winner of Saregamapa in 2004 to being nominated twice for the coveted Filmfare Award for best playback singer in 2018 and 2019, she is a rare artiste who has won accolades in both traditional and mainstream performance platforms. Her foray into fusion was also rewarded by Artist Aloud awards twice in 2016 and 2017 for her band, The Kheyaal E Jazz Projekt. Amidst all her endeavors, Hindustani Classical remains closest to her heart. She has been an extensive performer having done concerts, in India and Abroad. She has been a Vocal Coach for the past 5 years and believes that music is a way of life.

Kangkana Talukdar, a Game Streamer hailing from Guwahati, Assam, rose to fame as the youngest female gamer from India after starting her game-streaming career in 2019. She goes by the gaming name of Mystic Ignite and is an aspiring esports player. Talukdar is known for engaging with her audience during her streams and can often be found playing games with her fans. She was encouraged to pursue game-streaming by a friend who saw her talent. As a result, Kangkana has become a successful gaming content creator and has made history as the first female Facebook Partner from India. In an interview with Sportskeeda Esports, Talukdar spoke about her experience as a gamer. She said, “Even though the percentage of females is growing in this industry with time, we still need to prove ourselves to make people take us seriously.

Ravina Rawal, Founder & CEO Dead Ant With over 20 years of experience in media and entertainment, Ravina Rawal is the former Head of Digital for Viacom18’s Youth & English Entertainment portfolio, which includes Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, MTV Beats, and Colors Infinity, and former editor/editor-in-chief of several leading publications in India, including Sunday Guardian20, Motherland and MTV Noise Factory.

Closing this list off is Temsu Clover, a promising new talent from Nagaland. Featured on the ‘Equal Indie India’ playlist on Spotify, Clover recently won the Best Pop Song Title at the Nagaland Music Awards. Classed in the growing bedroom pop music genre, she was featured on the Maed In India podcast, making people look forward to what she creates in 2023.

Product Manager at Google focused on Ai I lead product at Convai, where we build perceptual and conversational NPCs ready to act and tell a story! Before Convai, I product-managed synthetic data generation at NVIDIA’s Omniverse Replicator and honed my skills in deep learning for embedded devices. I have experience accelerating eBay’s image recommendation system and have conducted research at the University of Minnesota. My expertise spans AI, product management, and deployment of AI in production systems. 

Sukriti has made a name for herself as a playback singer with songs like Kar gayi Chull and Prakriti has sung for films like Alone, the musical sisters have made waves singing together, especially with their latest work, an Indian remix of Dua Lipa’s Levitating. The sisters are like two peas in a pod but their idiosyncrasies are individualistic 

From being a child prodigy to establishing herself as one of the most talented artists of her generation, Priya Saraiya has had a remarkable journey in the music industry. Priya is the voice behind some of the most soulful songs over the last decade like Saibo, Piya O re Piya, Jeena Laga Hoon & Sun Sathiya.

A hip-hop movement started in 2014 running for the last 8 years in the bylanes of Dharavi – Asia’s largest Ghetto to discover, nurture, mentor, and showcase emerging under-resource Hip Hop talent from Dharavi and across the world. The Dharavi Dream Project – was sown as an idea for under-resourced kids in Dharavi to have free and easy access to the “After school of Hip-Hop”. Values derived from this art form empower them to share thoughts and express themselves through music, dance, and graphics openly. With our initial success at Dharavi, now she plans to take on this movement globally.

An India-based Ukrainian, Dar Gai made headlines when she was roped in as the intimacy coordinator for the film Gehraiyaan which starred Deepika Padukone in the lead. This was a first for a mainstream film. The intimacy coordinator primarily makes actors comfortable for intimate scenes and conducts various workshops to bring artists at ease. She has also worked as a producer, writer, and director and has undoubtedly paved the way for the need and importance of an intimacy coach on a film set to overlook the comfort and consent of artists.

She started her career at the age of 15 and is an Independent Rapper-Songwriter- Composer- Recording Artist who dons multiple hats in the Indian Film-Music Industry. She has worked on some hit Film & Music projects. With the blend of music and chemistry, Deane has grabbed multiple big features in various Bollywood movie songs. She is a professionally trained & certified Vocalist from RockSchool Music London.

Has won “Album of the year” in 2021 for “Atrangi Re” for which she was a music supervisor and a playback singer. The 23-year-old is making waves as she was hand-picked by A R Rehman to be in his team and works on all his projects.

She was one of the top 6 finalists in The Stage and has performed in several festivals like the NH7 Weekender, etc.

Mariam is a game developer with over 18 years of experience in building games for entertainment, educational, and learning purposes. Her current role requires her to be a bridge between clients and her team for game development and delivery, but she continues her passion for writing game code every day. The games built under her leadership for Life Sciences have been acknowledged by industry experts and have been awarded the prestigious Brandon Hall Gold for Games and Simulations for 2 consecutive years. Her casual games have received nominations at the International Mobile Gaming Awards (IMGA). Mariam is also a speaker and writes articles on game development.

After working a corporate job for several years, Aabha then realized that her calling was music and went on to be the Founder of an eclectic folk band called Sophistication. Her song Hukus Bukus was used in the web series Family Man and she won an award for alongside getting international recognition.

An honors degree in communications followed by a summer scholarship at Gallaudet Washington DC to study ASL with dance and theatre, Tess Joseph is a well-known casting director in India who has cast some of the big names in Mira Nair’s Namesake and went on to work with several acclaimed filmmakers like Doug Liman, Ang Lee, Wes Anderson among others. From bringing Indian stars like Priyanka Bose, and Kubbra Sait on international platforms to becoming a leading casting director, she is a force to reckon with. She is the Director of Kommune, a collaborative arts collective in India that funds and seeds ideas to actuality. Kommune was founded by Roshan Abbas, Ankur Tiwari and Gaurav Kapur.

With a career spanning 25 years, Priya has become synonymous with work that has broken stereotypes of what is means to be a woman in films. From shooting action films like Airlift and the yet-to-release Pippa to being the foremost underwater cinematographer in India, Priya has truly been a game changer in her field.

Nayyar, a Harvard Alumnus and a career sales personality is the Senior Vice President and Head of the Brands & Music business at UMG, India SA. Nayyar & her teams work with Global and local A-lister clients to create award-winning campaigns for them. From artists and music to events & sponsorships, to platforms & outreach to products & marketing,  Nayyar leads a foremost agency in all these respective businesses.

Rianjali is a NYC-born and raised, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter/composer with a mission to change South Asian independent musicians’ perspective in the diaspora, Rianjali was a former domestic violence case worker until she found her ‘pinch me’ moment when she caught the Oscar award-winning musician A.R. Rahman’s attention and was asked to work alongside her musical hero. Rianjali has collaborated and performed with internationally acclaimed artists like U2, Bishop Briggs, and Shawn Mendes. She has worked on multiple projects such as the Award-Winning Netflix original documentary Daughters of Destiny, and penned songs for films such as Blinded by the Light and Love Sonia (directed by the producer of Life of Pi) and was also featured on Broadway World as a notable female songwriter. She has performed at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in 2018 as a part of the Shawn Mendes band, performed with U2 in 2019 as a part of U2’s Joshua Tree Tour, and sang the National anthem at Barclay’s Center for a Nets v. Pacers NBA game. She recently produced and composed for a short film, “Seeing God”, with her production company – Mild Mannered & Timid, which won Best Documentary at the South Asian Film Festival of America. She was recently Executive Producer for a scripted short film her company produced titled SALTWATER, recently having had its world premiere at the Wisconsin Film Festival as an official selection. Rianjali continues to compose for indie/industry films while also bringing her own stories to life via her production company.

Avanti Nagral is on a mission to create songs, stories, and conversations that challenge societal norms. Avanti’s artistry, coming-of-age empowerment pop, draws inspiration from her background in Indian Classical, Broadway, and Gospel music. She was the? rst in the world to pursue a dual degree at both Harvard University and Berklee College of Music, changing the narrative of a creative educational experience. Having performed at the United Nations and TEDx conferences, Avanti’s passion for social impact intersects with her love for performing. Avanti has amassed a strong and engaged community, The “Avantribe,” 1M+ and growing, with 300M+ views across verticals. Her content takes a community-?rst approach and she works toward building opportunities for and with her audience. 

Led the integration for 23 Disney IPs. Founding member of BigFatPheonix Interactive. As a game designer with a passion for storytelling and kids’ media, she has designed fun-first games for learning and change. Her focus is to create experiences – both in the products and work cultures I build – that are focused on empathy, kindness, and integrity. Currently a Co-Founder of Bigfatphoenix Interactive, I’ve designed games for an international market; content for curriculum and non-curriculum learning across text, audio, and video; and have immersed myself in hands-on teaching environments. I take delight in creating delight.

A veteran artist manager in Bollywood, Lily Ahluwalia, a two-decade-long career in entertainment, managed artists such as Manchanda, Shalmali Kholgade, Priya Saraiya, and Clinton Cerejo, among many others.

Simran Hoon joined QYOU Media India as its Chief Executive Officer in April 2021. Under her leadership, she has built a robust entertainment ecosystem for the network. Before joining QYOU Media India, Simran held the position of Executive Vice President and Head of Ad Sales at Viacom18 where she was instrumental in establishing ‘COLORS’ as a revenue leader amongst all Hindi general entertainment channels. She has also worked in various leadership positions at leading media and entertainment conglomerates such as Zee Entertainment Enterprises, Star India, and Sony Entertainment Television.

Tanushree is a graduate of DSK Supinfogame and Abertay University. She had stints at Pardy Panda Studios and Cympl, before moving to Bombay Play. At Bombay Play, she is part of the team working on Lockdown Brawl. She finds the versatility of games and their capability as a story-telling medium to be jaw-dropping. According to her, the power of games to bring people together and convey complex stories is unparalleled.

One of its games “Sholo Guti 16 beads” completed 1 million downloads in the first 6 months of the release. It’s in the trending category of board games for India and many southeast-Asian countries. Also, worth a mention is its game “Tic Tac Toe Multiplayer” which was amongst the Top 3 games selected by Gamesbond held in NGDC Hyderabad.Also featured by Business Connect under Women Business Entrepreneurs of the Year 2018

Atika started as a journalist for The Hindu before she moved to CNN-IBN. She also started writing for television and co-wrote Chhapak, the infamous movie that talks about the acid attack on Laxmi Agarwal with Meghna Gulzar. She has always refused to write degrading movies about women or even a scene that could degrade a woman and that has always been her pride at the job that she does.

Mimi Chakraborty is an Indian actress, singer, and politician. She is known for her work in Bengali cinema and television.

Vidya Vox brings together influences of her Indian-American heritage to create music that is refreshingly unique and contemporary, seamlessly fusing the intricacies of Indian music with elements of electronic and hip-hop for an undeniably catchy sound. Since launching her YouTube Channel in 2015 with mashups of Western pop hits and music from her native India, Vidya has amassed over a billion views and over 7 million subscribers, changing the course of her life in ways she never thought possible. Vidya’s initial direction was medicine, not music. But it was while she was on a pre-med track at George Washington University that she indulged in her passion for music, and began posting YouTube videos. Upon graduation, Vidya took the leap and pursued a full-time music career. Mad Dreams, Vidya’s sophomore release, continues Vidya’s dream of creating original culture- and genre-blending songs that fuse the contemporary and traditional in a distinctly original sound universal in appeal. Like Kuthu Fire, Vidya’s first EP of original songs, Mad Dreams is fueled by Vidya’s crystal-clear and agile voice that transcends genres. With over 300 million views, one of Vidya’s most successful videos, Be Free, is an original song from Kuthu Fire, mixed with the Malayalam folk song “Pallivaalu Bhadravattakam.” Vidya’s mashups have since gained worldwide recognition from the likes of Major Lazer, Diplo amp; Hrithik Roshan. Vidya has been featured in publications such as Billboard, LA Times, Vogue, Elle, NPR, Cosmopolitan, BuzzFeed, The Hindu, Deccan Chronicle and many more. Vidya performs live with her band throughout the world, including India, Mauritius, Trinidad, Suriname, Dubai, Hong Kong, and the U.S. Vidya was born in Chennai, grew up in Virginia, and is based in Los Angeles. She grew up singing Carnatic Classical music and is currently learning Hindustani Classical and taking Western voice lessons. When Vidya isn’t singing, writing, producing, and posting to YouTube, she’s enjoying the warm weather, tennis, reading, and expanding her dance repertoire. Vidya continues to explore the new directions that music takes her and truly hopes you will join her on this journey. 

Anushree Rauta is an Equity Partner and Head of the Media & Entertainment Practice at ANM Global in Mumbai, with over 14 years of experience in media and entertainment law. Since 2018, she has led the firm’s media practice, managing complex transactions and high-profile litigation. Previously, she worked at Naik Naik & Company, advising on media, IPR, IT, and telecom matters. Anushree holds a BSL.LLB from ILS Law College, Pune, and multiple diplomas in IPR, corporate mergers, and cyber laws. Her expertise includes media law, IPR, litigation, and OTT platform policies. She has been recognized as Media and Entertainment Lawyer of the Year (2022) and founded IPRMENTLAW, India’s top entertainment law blog. Anushree has also played a key role in landmark cases involving copyright and content regulation, significantly growing ANM Global's media practice

Asha Kulkarni, VP at Zee, Her core competencies include launching and scaling OTT/D2C products and solutions, winning and retaining multiyear contracts, and forging strong partnerships and alliances with various C-suite stakeholders in the media value chain. she is also valued as a pioneering woman in media by the M&E association. she is passionate about driving growth and innovation in the OTT/D2C space and leveraging emerging technologies to create value for customers and consumers

Anila Andrade is the Producer at 99Games Online, overseeing mobile game design and production. With over 10 years of experience in the software and mobile gaming Industry, Anila has been actively involved in designing, launching, and marketing games in the mobile space primarily on the iOS and Android platforms. She has experience in marketing strategy, strategic planning, community management, and player retention. She is an avid gamer interested in word and social games. Anila is a frequent speaker at industry events and national and international forums. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Electronics and a Masters in Business Administration

Riya Mukherjee is a podcaster, screenplay writer, lyricist, and radio professional. She has her own company Riya Mukherjee Word Pictures. She hosts Riya Retro, a Hindi film retro show on gaana.com, and has written and produced the short film The Disguise. She has also written the Hindi lyrics for the RRR soundtrack Naatu Naatu and the Hindi dialogues for the film. She was the creative head of the National radio branch Radio Mirchi 98.3FM for several years.

Gauri Yadwadkar, Head of Content Acquisition - Non-Film Music, Regional / Spiritual Music, Times Music at GRL. Revolutionizing the music scene with her profound expertise and unwavering passion.