About Us

PRAVALI VANGETI

Chief Mentor, Social Impact, Strategy and Expansion

Pravali Vangeti is a cultural professional working predominantly in international cultural relations and policies. For the past decade, she has worked across diverse roles in the cultural and creative industries, including as an artist, a designer, a researcher, a cultural manager, and currently, as a policy analyst.

Pravali started her career as a designer in India, working with artisan clusters in the country to revive the handicrafts sector and promote the intangible heritage of the country. Expanding the scope of her work internationally, she worked at the UNESCO Culture Sector between 2019 and 2023, where she led capacity building and education programmes for youth globally on heritage management. Over the years, Pravali has worked at or collaborated with various international organisations and institutions in the culture sector, including the Asia-Europe Foundation, the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies, the European Network on Cultural Management and Policy, and Europe Nostra; and has designed and implemented projects funded by the European Commission and other UN specialised agencies.

While maintaining an international scope in all her projects and initiatives, Pravali has developed particular regional expertise in designing and implementing projects in Europe, Asia and the Arab States.

Pravali works on cultural policies pertaining to issues within the sector, including heritage management, diversity of cultural expressions, working conditions of artists and cultural professionals, etc.; as well as transversal policy areas related to culture, such as climate change, education and sustainability. Since 2021, Pravali has been serving as a Steering Committee Member of the Climate Heritage Network (CHN) and a co-convenor of the CHN Youth Forum. She is a member of ICOMOS India, and Global Cultural Relations Programme fellow.

Pravali holds a Bachelor’s degree in Design (India), and a Masters – MBA in Arts and Cultural Management (France). She resides in Paris, France, and enjoys training in Latin American dance forms in her leisure time.

Pravali has been Junoon’s foremost mentor, giving the Foundation direction, impetus and counsel from its very inception. Her keen attention to developments and details over the years has ensured Junoon makes informed choices with regard to its pace, direction and goals (immediate and long-term).

Junoon constantly looks to her for advice and expertise in the realm of the Arts and social change, given her own engagement and passion for the Arts and the need to build a better world, reflected in her incredible work and profile built over the years.

DINANATH MAURYA

Sports Program Director

An accomplished long jump athlete and decathlete who has made it to several international competitive Track and Field Athletic Meets (including the Asian Games and Olympic try-outs), Dinanath Maurya, is the force behind Junoon’s Sports program that is obligatory for all our aspiring Dancers to enter into as they undertake their Artistic journeys.

An internationally accredited Coach by the World Athletics body and armed with a Master’s in Track and Field Athletics from the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz (Germany), Coach D (as we fondly call him), is truly an inspiration and provides all the impetus, structure, method and strength Junoon requires to create athletic, agile and supremely strong Classical Dancers.

He has always emphasized the need for Dancers to focus on physique, fitness and mental strength through individual and team sports and Junoon swears by his every word of advice, direction and invaluable guidance.

JAY MAURYA

Sports Program Advisor

An accomplished athlete, having competed at the Indian Nationals in the 400m track and field event, Jay Maurya, has conscientiously helped craft Junoon’s Sports and Fitness Program that is the foundation upon which Artistic training has been imparted to our students.

As a World Athletics certified coach in training children (especially) in Track and Field Athletics and Fitness, Coach J (as we fondly call him) has, from the very beginning, and constantly thereafter, provided Junoon with the necessary sports direction – through varied and innovative training techniques, insight and drills to make our Dancers agile, fit, athletic, fresh and constantly on the move.

HETAL KACHA

SANSKRIT CO-ORDINATOR, RESEARCHER AND ADVISOR

With a Master’s in Sanskrit and Education, Hetal is committed to furthering a lost language and empowering as many with its discovery, exploration and vast documentation.

She has been dedicatedly scripting, curating and enabling our Sanskrit Program (part of The Junoon Methodology).

NINA ROBIN

ARTISTIC ADVISOR AND PHOTOGRAPHER

Currently enrolled in a Ph.D. in France in Design & Photography in Virtual Reality, Nina has been covering artistic projects with a strong social angle.
In 2015, she completed her Bachelor’s internship in India (Pondicherry) as a video editor for a skill development enterprise.

ZEBA KHAN

CREATIVE SYNERGY AND INNOVATION ADVISOR

As an accomplished art educator, Ms. Khan’s journey has been one of continuous self-discovery and fulfillment. With a strong background in Advertising and extensive experience in Visual Arts, she has had the privilege of guiding students and training teachers through their creative endeavors for decades.

ANUSHA KAUL DATTA

Film Documentation and Visual Research Advisor

Anusha Kaul Datta is a Mumbai based filmmaker, documentary practitioner and researcher who focuses on ethnography, performance arts and community impact films. For over six years, Anusha has built a niche in non-fiction film production as a director, cinematographer and editor.

Currently pursuing her post graduation from The Steve Tisch School of Film and Television at Tel Aviv University, Anusha is building an academic portfolio which explores documentary studies through a phenomenological approach to image making, animation and archive materials. Anusha has sought mentorship from senior filmmakers like Ran Tal, Oren Rosenfeld, Netalie Braun and Malati Rao. Her films have explored the archival of classical performative arts, politics of socio-economic subjects and dynamics of gender.

Since 2018, Anusha has been a media collaborator and filmmaker for Amara Nritya Kala Hansa and has worked closely with Artistic Director Gauri Sharma Tripathi and other significant classical performance artists in creating experimental films, dance films and video art. With a passion to grow as a visual media educator and implement impact through documentary studies as a practice, Anusha hopes to combine her theoretical and practical knowledge of documentary film production.

Anusha’s significant experience with collaboration and production includes working with local communities and international artists, filmmakers and musicians. She is associated with international communities and organisation like ODD-Open Door Docs, Bitchitra Collective and IWCC- Indian Women Cinematographers Collective and has an extensive network of creative professionals and resources, enabling her to pursue a step towards education at grassroot level. Availing an opportunity in partnership with Junoon’s vision encourages the scope of documenting performance arts and enabling students to explore digital medium like photography and filmmaking.

MAAHI SHAH

Multi-Media Strategist and Advisor

“In the end we all become stories.” — Margaret Atwood.

Maahi Shah is a lover of stories— listening to them, watching them, reading them and perhaps, most importantly, telling them. She’s a media consultant and a freelance journalist and has contributed to publications such as Harper’s Bazaar India, Cosmopolitan, Conde Nast Traveller India, and The Established among several others. To her, Mythili has been a guide, philosopher, friend, mentor ever since she was a teenager. Inevitably therefore, Maahi has been involved with Junoon since it began in 2020. Despite her two left feet, she is passionate about the purpose and vision of Junoon and strives to tell its story however she can.

RAMAKANT YADAV

Technology and Presentation Advisor

Ramakant has been a close companion of Junoon ever since the branding and our online presence was being strategized for from the very start in 2020. As a web developer and entrepreneur of a successful website and tech business named Sriyaan, along with his team of designers and coders, he has contributed greatly towards organizing and coding our ethos, heavy documentation and the constantly evolving structure of our Foundation.

We have artistic developments and updates going out every day, across multiple projects and Ramakant and Team Sriyaan, help put these out in a well arranged and user-friendly manner. Junoon owes its web presence to him and his team and continues to work towards portraying our work efficiently online.

OM ZAJAM

Indian Classical Music Advisor

Having achieved a Sangeet Visharad in Tabla and Harmonium, a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and a Bachelor of Education, Om Sir (as we call him) has been teaching Indian Classical Music – instrumental and vocal – for the past decade.

As a Classical Musician, he has provided Junoon with immense and detailed guidance as we construct The Junoon Method and the many programs that fall under it that involve singing, enhancing musical ability and a deeper study of music notation, composition and generation.

The complicated theories and intricacies of Indian Classical Music are made so beautiful and so much more known to us because of his sincere, meticulous and fun approach and lessons.

ANISHKA PARASWANI

Visual Art Design Advisor

A passionate artist and interior designer dedicated to transforming spaces and creating captivating visual experiences, Anishka is currently enrolled in a Masters for Interior Design in London.

Anishka has been discovering aesthetics with functionality and crafting environments that are both beautiful and practical, with vibrant colors, intricate patterns, and thought-provoking themes. She has hand-drawn the Junoon logo and has been on this journey with us, most ardently, from the very start.

In 2019, she completed her Bachelor’s in Arts alongside a Diploma in Interior Design before beginning her practice as an Interior Designer. Her company, ‘Just Craftin’ by Anishka’ has been featured in esteemed interior design publications.

With her experience in luxury design, she continues to discover unique ways to blend Design and Art. Junoon is an opportunity for Anishka to collaborate with and create for a socially engaged project that has placed faith in her to artistically curate its look, design and identity in various formats, with the highest taste and energy.