25 Emerging Indian Cultural Names To Know

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25 Emerging Indian Cultural Names To Know
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From writers, musicians and photographers to architects, designers and chefs, creators across all fields are tapping into India’s incredible cultural diversity, historical heritage and traditional know-how to proudly present a made-in-India aesthetic to the world – all while championing social justice and environmental conservation. Here are 25 emerging names that are generating a buzz in their fields, and leaving their mark on contemporary Indian culture.

By Prachi Joshi

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25 Emerging Indian Cultural Names To Know.
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Deepti Asthana – Through her long-form documentary photography steeped in evocative imagery and colour, Deepti Asthana shines a light on gender issues in India. Asthana, who left her corporate job and taught herself to wield the camera, is a National Geographic Explorer, a participant in the Global Talent 6X6 Asia programme of World Press Photo, and has had her work featured in the likes of National Geographic, BBC, Al Jazeera and Der Spiegel. She is currently documenting the contributions of indigenous women in nature and conservation.

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Akshat Bansal – The functional meets sustainable at Bloni, Akshat Bansal’s ethical luxury brand that creates meticulously handcrafted bespoke fashion. An alumnus of the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Bansal trained as an apprentice on London’s Savile Row, and honed his couture skills with ace designer Tarun Tahiliani before establishing Bloni in 2017. Through his flagship store in Delhi, he offers seasonless, gender-fluid athleisure and haute couture, largely made from hybrid textiles that combine cotton and organic yarns with econyl, a regenerated nylon product from marine and landfill plastic waste.

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Gautam Bhatia – An Oxford and Yale alumnus, Gautam Bhatia’s sound understanding of constitutional law is evident in his non-fiction book on the Indian Constitution. But it’s the legal scholar’s foray into science fiction writing that thrills even more. The Wall is an ambitious, cerebral piece of speculative fiction that uses the setting of a future, imaginary city of Sumer, surrounded by a seemingly insurmountable wall, to draw parallels with the present state of democracy. Utopia meets dystopia in this critically acclaimed and deeply imagined debut novel.

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Shubhra Chatterji – Culinary researcher and award-winning filmmaker, Shubhra Chatterji combined her love of history and food to launch her lockdown passion project, History On A Plate – an Instagram Live series that delves into traditional, regional Indian cuisines. She is also the co-founder of Tons Valley Shop in Uttarakhand (where she resides part-time) that finds fair markets across India for produce and food products from the northern mountain state. Chatterji is currently working on her first book, Rasa, documenting little-known Indian culinary traditions.

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Vinu Daniel – Vinu Daniel is the founder and lead architect of Wallmakers, a Kochi-based sustainable architecture collective that primarily uses mud bricks, waste and recycled materials, coupled with eco-friendly methods of construction, to create utilitarian yet aesthetically appealing structures. Daniel has collaborated with Auroville Earth Institute for UNDP’s post-tsunami construction in Tamil Nadu, and his work on several residential and commercial projects has earned him an array of awards. He jointly holds patents in his name for two kinds of debris walls.

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Biraaj Dodiya – Hailing from a family of artists, and with an MFA from NYU under her belt, Biraaj Dodiya is ready to make a splash. Her debut solo exhibition was held at New York’s 80WSE Gallery in 2017, followed by Stone is a Forehead in March 2020 at Experimenter Gallery in Kolkata – the latter showcasing abstract paintings and sculptures around the themes of personal memory and loss. Dodiya has also shown her works in group exhibitions at Frieze London, Art Basel Hong Kong, India Art Fair and more.

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Pratik Gandhi – Pratik Gandhi’s tryst with acting began with a five-minute skit in the fourth grade, followed by roles in Gujarati film and theatre. But his big break came in the form of the web series Scam 1992, a Hindi-language crime-drama show on SonyLIV that chronicles the 1992 Indian stock market scam. Gandhi played notorious stockbroker Harshad Mehta to much critical acclaim, even garnering an Indian Television Academy Award in 2020. With several films and web series in his kitty, Gandhi is the leading man to watch.

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Anumitra Ghosh Dastidar – In 2018 at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Chef Anumitra Ghosh Dastidar (along with partner Shalini Krishnan) presented a culinary project: a three-year labour of love that catalogued and documented 40 varieties of indigenous rice grains from Kerala. This morphed into Edible Archives, a research centre and restaurant in Goa where Dastidar offers an inventive menu spotlighting native ingredients and the farmers who grow them, while sparking a conversation around climate change and depleting biodiversity.

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Farhan Hussain – Mumbai-based Farhan Hussain is a fashion and commercial photographer with a keen eye for framing, composition and human connection. He works with major fashion and lifestyle publications in India like Vogue, GQ and Verve, and has shot for brands like Airbnb and Axis Bank as well as for several coffee table books. Hussain is also known for his documentary photography; especially noteworthy is his raw, gritty series Children of the Grave, a collection of black-and-white photographs of the children of gravediggers at Bengaluru’s Kalpalli Cemetery.

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Ruchi Jain – Social entrepreneur Ruchi Jain is the co-founder and CEO of Taru Naturals, an organic, fair-trade food startup that works with small-scale farmers and tribal groups on sustainable farming and climate-smart agricultural practices, and eventually connects them with markets across India. Jain put her Master’s degree in Environment Change and Management from Oxford University to good use, and her grassroots interventions have empowered more than 10,000 farmer networks. Today, their produce – ranging from indigenous flours and rice varieties to single-origin spices and jaggery – finds takers in homes and restaurants across India.

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Asenla Jamir – She has dabbled in modeling and acting, but through her turn as a sustainable fashion entrepreneur that Asenla Jamir found a way to celebrate and preserve the textile heritage of her Ao tribe from Nagaland in northeast India. The National Institute of Fashion Technology graduate founded her slow fashion brand Otsü Clothing Co. in mid-2020. She combines her training in design with traditional Naga textiles, reused fabrics, upcycled vintage clothes and tribal accessories to create seasonless pieces that are unique and immensely wearable.

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Dheer Kaku – Dheer Kaku trained as a painter at Mumbai’s Rachana Sansad (a college of art, architecture and design) but soon transitioned to multi media – drawings, photography, sound and interactive video installations are all fair game. His work is heavily influenced by urban landscapes, exploring patterns and shapes to reveal new perspectives on structural design. Kaku is based in Goa where he works as a fine artist, designer, photographer and videographer, deftly incorporating multiple media and techniques in his art-making.

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Aanchal Malhotra – What began as Aanchal Malhotra’s MFA dissertation turned into her debut book, Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory, which looks at the 1947 India-Pakistan Partition through personal objects that refugees carried with them across the border. She has expanded this subject into the Museum of Material Memory, a digital repository that traces family history and social ethnography through heirlooms, utensils, jewellery and other material objects. Malhotra is currently working on a novel and another non-fiction book.

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Maalavika Manoj aka Mali – Chennai-born singer, songwriter and pop artist Maalavika Manoj (known as Mali) is the first Indian artist to be picked by Spotify in 2020 for their RADAR programme that promotes emerging artists across all musicals genres worldwide. From her 2016 single “Dreaming” to her debut EP Rush in 2017 and her recent full-length album Caution to the Wind, Mali’s music ranges from classic pop to synth-pop and dreamy-electro, evoking nostalgia and a feeling of melancholy with her raw, analog sound.

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Sarang Naik – Sarang Naik’s nature and wildlife photography seems almost ethereal, especially his work for Marine Life of Mumbai, documenting the coastal biodiversity and intertidal ecosystems along the shores of the city. His stunning long-exposure shot of a colony of zoanthids (similar to coral) against a backdrop of the Mumbai skyline – titled ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ – garnered him several awards, including a Nature In Focus Photography Award in the Conservation Issues category. Apart from nature, Naik specialises in creative and abstract photography and cinematography.

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Himanshu Patel – Himanshu Patel’s d6thD design studio in Ahmedabad focuses on vernacular architecture that reflects local traditions while following climate-responsive planning principles. d6thD refers to the sixth dimension, where he is not restricted to the physical limits but is free to explore and create feel-good spaces. Patel’s residential and commercial projects complement their surrounding natural landscapes and take cues from rural Indian architecture, using locally available materials like rubble stone, bricks and terracotta tiles to create living spaces that are rooted in the earth.

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Sudheer Rajbhar – The name Chamar Studio is provocative enough (‘chamar’ is a historically ostracised community, and the word is often used as a casteist slur), but Sudheer Rajbhar’s design label is not just about shock value. Instead, he is reclaiming the word by working with leather tanners (traditional occupation of the chamars) to create a range of glamorous but edgy bags, wallets, belts and other accessories made with a mix of materials such as latex, recycled rubber tire sheets and canvas.

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Veeram Shah – Architect Veeram Shah is the founder of Ahmedabad-based architecture studio Design ni Dukaan, as well as Pieces of Desire and Dotto – both artisan-based design studios. His projects of various scales encompass architecture, interiors and furniture, and he draws inspiration from the iconic works of Le Corbusier and Carlo Scarpa. Shah’s craftsmanship and keen attention to detail, coupled with a conscious attempt to use locally made materials and products, render his work particularly eye-catching, seamlessly transitioning between art and functionality.

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Sahil Sharma aka Zaeden – Sahil Sharma, known by his stage name Zaeden, started off as a DJ pumping out high-energy dance music on the festival circuit, representing India at Tomorrowland and Marenostrum, and even closing the show for David Guetta’s concert in Mumbai. In 2019, he surprised his fans by turning singer-songwriter and releasing the Hindi-language song “Tere Bina”, a soulful romantic ballad, followed by four more singles in 2020, all part of his debut album Genesis 1:1.

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Rooshad Shroff – Rooshad Shroff’s multi-disciplinary design studio covers everything from architecture to interiors and bespoke furniture, with projects across India to London, Bangkok and Abu Dhabi. The studio champions the handmade, collaborating with artisans to use traditional Indian craftsmanship and create contemporary objects such as carved marble bulbs and tube lights, wooden furniture embroidered with zardozi, marble inlay plates, and more. Shroff has won multiple awards for his work, and his clients range from fashion brands like Christian Louboutin and Hermès to luxury realty firms and celebrities.

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Leah Singh – Armed with an industrial design degree from Parsons School of Design, Leah Singh’s collection of contemporary home décor features pillows, tapestries, throws and rugs that mix traditional Indian craft techniques with modern geometric forms and unexpected pops of colour. Singh works directly with artisans across India who bring their weaving, embroidery and printing expertise to create eclectic, modern objects. Her products use only natural materials and come with minimal packaging; even her poly bags are made with rice and potato starch and are biodegradable.

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Osheen Siva – Osheen Siva grew up in China, Taiwan and Southern India, and she brings these varied cultural styles to her work which ranges from murals to illustrations revolving around femininity and sexuality. Drawing deeply from her Tamil and Dalit (marginalised caste in India) heritage, Siva’s highly colourful works combine mythology and surrealism with science fiction landscapes replete with mutants, but always weaving narratives of feminine power. She has exhibited across India, New York, London and Paris, and has worked with brands like Gucci, Vans, Levis, Converse and more.

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Poornima Sukumar – Muralist, community artist and illustrator Poornima Sukumar uses large-scale public art projects to enable community engagement and amplify youth voices. She is also the founder of Aravani Art Project, a women and trans-women art collective that creates safe spaces for alternate voices through art. Through the project, Sukumar has executed public mural projects around the themes of gender and sexuality – from painting with daughters of sex-workers in Mumbai’s red light district to small-scale projects in schools and juvenile facilities in Bengaluru.

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Shubhangi Swarup – Journalist and filmmaker Shubhangi Swarup’s novel Latitudes of Longing (2018) won the Tata Literature Live! Award for debut fiction and was shortlisted for the prestigious JCB Prize for Literature. Her imaginative work sweeps across India and tells an extraordinary story of the love between humanity and nature. The novel made waves internationally in 2020 when Oprah called it “a marvel of magic realism” and included it in her summer reading list.

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Prateek Vats – His debut 2017 documentary won a National Film Award while his second outing, a 2019 indie feature film Eeb Allay Ooo!, won a Filmfare Award, as well as the Golden Gateway award at Mumbai Film Festival, and was selected for the Panorama section of Berlinale 2020. An alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India, director Prateek Vats’ social satire follows the life of a contractual monkey-repeller in New Delhi, and offers searing commentary on poverty, class dynamics and unemployment that plagues people living on the margins of society.

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25 Emerging Indian Cultural Names To Know

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