Puja Sarup has been working in the theatre industry for the past 18 years. She is the co-founder of Patchwork Ensemble, a Mumbai based theatre company, and has co-directed Ila, as part of the company.  

She completed her MA in Theatre Arts from Mumbai University, after which she was associated with theatre companies based in France. 

She is an awardee of the J.N. Tata Endowment scholarship for a Diploma from Helikos International School of Theatre Creation, Italy. She is also the recipient of the Vinod Doshi fellowship.

Since 2003, she has been acting in plays like ‘Sex, Morality and Censorship’, ‘Sounding Vanya’, and ‘Hamlet- the Clown Prince’, for which she won the Best Supporting Actress Meta Award. She has also acted in films like ‘Sui Dhaaga’, ‘Rangoon’, ‘That Girl in Yellow Boots’ and ‘The Sky is Pink’. 

Puja has been part of the DSM family since 2014. Besides acting and directing, she enjoys conducting storytelling and theatre workshops for children and adults.

Niketan Sharma is a Mumbai-based actor, writer, and theatre director. Having grown up in Delhi, Niketan’s journey in theatre began ten years ago from the theatre society at Kirori Mal College’. 

In 2014, he got professional training at The Drama School Mumbai to become a first-generation actor and theatre director today. 

Niketan has been a part of many well-known productions. He collaborated with the renowned Mahesh Dattani in his play ‘Final Solutions’ as part of a Cineplay production for online media. 

He also has his own theatre company, NOW Productions. His creation, ‘Adrak’ (co-written, co-directed, and co-performed by him) has received tremendous appreciation in the independent theatre community in India and was also featured at the prestigious Serendipity Arts Festival Goa in their Theatre at Home series in 2018.
Most recently, Niketan acted in one of the upcoming web shows of TVF, which is known for its YouTube content. In his spare time, he also conducts several workshops for both children and adults who are theatre enthusiasts.

Hetal Varia is a world-renowned voice, accent, and dialect coach. She has been working in the theatre industry for more than 15 years as a singer and actor. She holds a Masters in Voice Studies from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London. Her accolades include awards such as Charles Wallace India Trust Award from the British Council, Diversity Scholarship from the Voice And Speech Trainers Association (VASTA), and Best Singer Award from Lion’s Club. She was the only Indian invited as a delegate to VASTA’s annual conference in 2018. 

She was also invited by the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama to offer her research-based work on ‘Exchanging Pedagogies’ as a Masterclass for their International Voice Network Symposium. As a founder of HV Voice Work, she is constantly researching and creating performances based on vocal explorations and music.

She has been recently invited to speak on an upcoming international panel of BIPOC (Black, Indeginous, and Person of Colour) TV/Film Accent and Dialect Coaches for VASTA Conference, 2021.

Hetal has been a voice, accent and dialect coach to many industry professionals including Mithila Palkar, Sonali Kulkarni, Abhimanyu Dassani, Manoj Bajpayee and many more. Most recently, she served as the Dialect Coach for the cast of ‘A Suitable Boy’ that was released on Netflix earlier last year.

Lakshika Pandey is an actor, dancer, and theatre-maker with over 15 years of experience. She is trained in Bharatnatyam, Chhau (a martial-art Folk dance form), Yoga, and Butoh (Japanese dance theatre).

Trained at the prestigious Trinity Laban Conservatoire in the UK, she is India’s leading expert in creative movement and expressions. 

Lakshika is the founder of the Mumbai-based theatre company: The Shakti Ensemble, under which she devised and directed ‘Bebaak Beckett’, based on Samuel Beckett’s life and short plays, a play that was performed in six languages. 

Her production ‘Walking Naked – a journey of the women saints of India’ was commissioned by the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (Shimla) & the Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi). Her works as an actor and director have received fame and accolades at the Kala Ghoda Festival and the National Centre for Performing Arts.

Lakshika also provides body movement and physical conditioning coaching for IIT Mumbai, Flame University, Drama School Mumbai and can also be found training for Acting Adda at Tata Sky.