Manoj Singh, Manoj, an IT Consultant, has always had a passion for the arts. He has acted in several prominent plays, including: Mere Bachhe, Jisne Lahore Nahi Dekhya woh Jamiya Nahi and A Tryst with Destiny. He is a member of Natya Bharati, the Actors Center, and Storytellers Short Film Club. In 2012, Manoj and his wife Geeta started Ceasar Productions – it has fast become DCs premier company for hosting South Asian TV Talk Show, Theatre, Music, Films and Book-Reading events. In 2018, we started Not for Profit 501 (c)(3) organization DC South Asian Arts Council Inc under which we now host the DC South Asian Film Festival and DC South Asian Literary Festival and soon to add more year round programming.
Geeta Singh, Geeta is an executive in the banking sector. She is the hospitality chief and plays an integral role in the management of logistics for DCSAFF. Geeta is involved with several outreach programs in the community and is a key figure for raising funds for South Asian events in the Washington, D.C. area.
Mansoor Ahmed, Mansoor Ahmed (Moonie), DCSAFFs Technical Director, retired as the Division Director for Astrophysics at NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center. During the day he studies the stars and in the evening he shoots them. Moonie made his directorial debut in 2013 with the critically acclaimed film, Bhool. His passion for filmmaking can be traced back to his childhood days in Peshawar, Pakistan, where he lived across from the only English language cinema hall in the city – it wasn’t long before he became mesmerized by the world of international cinema.
Shirish Nene, Shirish Néné has served on the jury of the DC South Asian Film Festival every year since 2016, and can regularly be seen at this and other film festivals in the larger metropolitan area. A brief training period with noted Indian dramatist Badal Sircar, started a love for the visual and auditory story telling arts spanning almost forty years, and expanded from the stage to large and small screens. This passion is a family affair today, finding expression in audition workshops with his daughter an LA based actress, and film-making with a son training to be a film director in Virginia. Most recently he and his wife have joined DC Storytellers a dedicated band of moviemakers in the DC metro area.
Vikram Kolluru, Vikram Kolluru works for Thermo Fisher Scientific as an automation systems design engineer by profession. As someone with a great affinity to socialize and deep passion to utilize his creative juices, he has placed himself in community groups linked to theater, cinema and entertainment. Indulging in acting, screenwriting and direction have been his top interests. As team member of DCSAFF Vikram has taken upon multiple hats of media management, organizing volunteers and technical support.
Rajiv Paul, Rajiv is a full time Management Consultant helping organizations with their Digital Transformation. He manages Apnee Community web services for South Asian businesses and events. In addition he is passionate about acting and acted in theaters and movies and also is a Radio Jockey, he does his Suno Audio radio shows every weekend. He has been an active volunteer for the DC South Asian Film Festival that is held every year in the Washington DC area.
Himank Pande, Himank Pande, Himank, is a Technical Program Manager at Amazon with an incredible passion for arts & culture. He is part of the Amazon Leadership team who is responsible for productivity, engagement & team collaboration at Amazon. Associated with the theatre group Yugmanch, Nainital, India, he is a strong proponent of the Kumaoni culture of Uttarakhand (Himalayan Hill State). He has acted in different plays at college level like “Jinne Lahore Nai Vekhya O Jamiya Nai” by Asghar Wajahat and “The man who married a dumb wife” by Anatole France & has been a part of amateur rock bands. His interests include fusing folk music with modern rock, acting, singing & sound engineering. As a volunteer with DCSAACI, Himank is helping with program management, events coordination for DCSAACI at Amazon & its technical support.
Vandana Narang, Vandana Narang is a member of the Storyteller Film Club. She enjoys writing, script development and directing. Her debut film The Ring,which she wrote and directed, won the Audience Choice Award at the 2014 DCSAFF. In 2017 she wrote and directed The Girl on the Bridge and in 2019 A Night at the Bar both of which were also shown at DCSAFF. She has adapted two screenplays ( Relativity and Mango Party) from short stories that were made into films by the Storytellers Film Group. She owns her own interior design firm and is a running coach.
Alisha Parikh is a second year MPP student at Georgetown University. In her free time, she loves to dance. Last year she performed at Rangila as a member of the Georgetown raas team. She volunteers with the social media marketing team at DCSSACI.
Chhaya Nene is an actress, director, and journalist. As an actress, she’s currently starring in ‘Yoniverse’ an award-winning play she co-wrote and produced, Nene has also appeared on ABC’s Big Sky, General Hospital, Speechless as well as Netflix’s The OA, and BET’s Sacrifice. As a writer/director, Nene directed ‘Kurta Pants’ an episode she wrote on the award winning series Civil Disobedience. She also has articles published in The Washington Post, The Global Post, and Reader’s Digest.
Niharika Kalkeri, Niharika Kalkeri is a freshman in college. She is pursuing her passion in computer science and marketing. She is a marketing and admin assistant for DCSAFF. She enjoys the arts and wants to apply her computer science skills to help DCSAFF reach the masses effectively.
