Anupama Chopra is a National Award-winning film critic, television anchor and book author. She has been covering the Hindi Film Industry since 1993. Her work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Hindustan Times, The Los Angeles Times and Vogue (India).

Akshita Wadhwana is currently a Senior Creative Producer at FC Content Studios. She’s one half of the team that designed and structured TakeTen’s first edition. As a producer, her choice of projects veers towards social impact. She spearheaded the seminal report ‘O Womaniya’ in 2022 that highlighted gender equity in the Indian film industry. As founder of The Empty Crate Company, a design and animation studio, she ensures fair pay practices for artists as her way of activism towards pay-parity in the industry. She has produced for multiple formats of content – from feature length documentaries to commercial ads and everything in between. She looks at producing as a puzzle waiting to be solved. Her viewing appetite ranges from reality TV (fake or otherwise) to well crafted stories which sit in your heart for eons to come.

Aritra Banerjee, an engineer who became a film critic by accident, learned everything on the job. He sees film reviewing as more of an emotional expression rather than an intellectual dissection and lives by the remark from Alfred Hitchcock, "Cinema is not a slice of life, but a piece of Cake." He feels a series is a character driven thing. Characters like Walter White, Ganesh Gaitonde, Saul Goodman stay with us even after the show ends. Hence, in depth character exploration is very important in case of a series rather than just jumping from one plot point to another.

Deepanjana Pal is a Mumbai-based author and journalist. She is the author of ‘Hush A Bye Baby’, ‘A Book for Puchku’, ‘Puchku Seeks a Song’, and ‘The Painter: A Life of Ravi Varma’. She studied English Literature at St. Stephen’s College and postcolonial theory and literature at University of Warwick. Her non-fiction writing on culture and gender has appeared in publications like The Atlantic, Wallpaper*, Caravan, Buzzfeed and Vogue. She currently serves as the Managing Editor of Film Companion. She believes a show or series should be thought provoking. It should immerse her in its world, which means it needs to be imagined thoughtfully so that both story and characters feel compelling and well - observed. She is looking for storytellers who care about the world in which their stories are set, for characters who make you feel things, and ideas that linger long after the screen's gone dark.

Gayle is a senior editor at Film Companion, where she reviews world cinema and writes a pop- culture column. Her work has also appeared in BFI, Little White Lies, Inverse, Welt, Hindustan Times and Vogue India. In 2023, she was one of eight film critics from around the world selected for Berlinale Talents, the talent development programme of the Berlin International Film Festival. She loves cats, The Princess Bride references and hates having to talk about herself in third person. What she looks for in a series is great craft, a distinctive voice and memorability.

Hansal Mehta, is a Mumbai-based National Award-winning filmmaker, known for directing films such as Shahid (2012), CityLights (2014), Aligarh (2015), Omerta (2017), Scam 1992 (2020) and Scoop (2023) which have had their festival premieres at Toronto, Busan, and London.

He has often tackled subjects that escape the scrutiny of mainstream filmmakers and those that do not fall in the traditional binaries of good and evil. His most recent film, The Buckingham Murders (2022) had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival in October 2022 and its Asia premiere at the Mumbai Film Festival.

Presently, He is developing a multi-season biopic on Mohandas Gandhi, an official adaptation of noted Indian historian Ramchandra Guha’s book on the life of one of India’s leading luminaries, Gandhi Before India.

"Everybody has a story" is a saying Harshini strongly believes in. And what better way to narrate it than through a film? Looking for fine storytelling rooted in the world of its layered characters, Harshini, a film critic and writer, analyses Tamil cinema and its pop cultural influences.

Hriday Ranjan is a writer and film reviewer based out of Hyderabad. With more than a decade’s experience in the field of writing and performing, Hriday looks for freshness in a story, and appreciates when filmmakers take a risk with their art.

Manikandan Mathivanan, is a Director and Producer from India, holds a solid background in Filmmaking and New Media Producing. Known for his skill in design and production, he loves crafting stories that hit home and leave a mark. He's a team player who values different opinions and works well with others to bring the best out of every story. When it comes to watching a show or series, Manikandan is all about the characters. He's drawn to how they evolve, how they grapple with conflicts and, ultimately, how they transform. To him, these character arcs are where the real magic of storytelling lies - it's where humanity shines through.

Murtaza Ali Khan is an independent film critic/journalist who has been covering art, culture, and entertainment for over 10 years. Khan regularly appears on radio and TV as a film expert, including the DD Morning Show every Thursday on DD National wherein he makes his weekly recommendations. Khan has also curated film festivals and retrospectives for various Embassies and Cultural Centres. He has also served on the jury of various film festivals as well as the National Film Awards. He regularly conducts workshops on film history. Khan has translated the book 'Hindujas and Bollywood,' about the global journey of over 1200 Hindi films from 1950s to 1980s, into English. His education spans science & technology, mass communication, and management. He is always looking for content that not just entertains the viewer but also encourages them to think and question more often. For, when the audiences don't evolve the content creators too tend to get lazy and resort to formulaic methods instead of constantly trying to push the boundaries. He tweets at @MurtazaCritic

Nooryaab Nakhat is an artist born in Lucknow. She studied English Literature at Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Mass Communication at Jamia Millia Islamia University, and Screenwriting at the Film and Television Institute of India. Her creative documentary short, Waning Moons, produced by Public Service and Broadcasting Trust, was broadcasted on National Television in India and screened at the Open Frame Film Festival, New Delhi;International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala, and the 7th Kolkata People’s Film Festival. Her first independent feature film as an actor, Kosa, was officially selected at the Raindance Film Festival, London, November, 2020. She is currently working on a feature length fiction film (work-in-progress) and has recently finished directing her fiction short film - “Go Home!” which was screened at the Clermont Ferrand Film Market, 2022. She believes in ‘thinking’ content which is rooted in context, form and language, rather than one that hammers a mindless borrowed language. She greatly values originality and often, also, the quirk value of visual content, in this regard.

Prathyush Parasuraman is a cultural critic and writer with words in Film Companion, The Hindu, Verve, Firstpost, and News9. He writes Counter Culture, a column in the bi-weekly Frontline magazine on cinema, literature, and the broader zeitgeist. He is also the guest curator for Cinema House, a monthly film program at the G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture. All he looks for in a series is good storytelling.

Rahul Desai is a film critic with Film Companion, and a columnist who has written about Hindi and world cinema for a range of Indian publications since 2013 – including Mumbai Mirror, The Hindu, FirstPost, News9, Arre, India Today, Mid Day, Open and OTTPlay. All he looks for in a series – apart from sound film-making – is a sense of narrative integrity, a quality where the world and its themes reveal themselves to the viewer in unhurried and human detail.

Rajesh Rajamani is a filmmaker and film essayist. His writings offer a social commentary on mainstream Tamil cinema and they have been published in The Wire, The News Minute, HuffPost India, First Post and NewsLaundry. He won the RedInk award for the essay 'The Dharavi story in Tamil cinema: How Kaala inverts the Nayakan gaze' under the ‘Lifestyle & Entertainment’ category - 2018. His short films The Discreet Charm of the Savarnas (2020), Haiku Love (2023) and Lovers in the Afternoon (2019) were presented by Pa Ranjith’s Neelam Productions and they have received critical accolades. He prefers limited series that allow for enriching rewatches than those that are formulaically built around cliffhanger episode endings to enable binge watching.

Rayyan Monkey is a woman of transgender experience. She is a writer, visual content strategist and advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community. She has a decade of experience as a filmmaker, photographer, creative director and actor. Rayyan came to terms with her gender identity at the age of 29, after years of struggling with her identity. Today she is a certified Diversity and inclusion consultant, and uses her perspective to inform her writing and creative directing. She has directed, produced or acted in content for Disney Star , The Queer Muslim Project , Gaysi Family, and Filter Copy amongst others. Today Rayyan is a strong advocate for positive representation of trans people in the media, and has spoken out against the negative stereotypes that are often perpetuated about trans people. She uses her abilities as a writer and filmmaker to share her story and to educate others about the transgender experience and intersectional diversity. Growing up she was able to access mostly negative and misinformed representations of the queer community. This massively impacted her own gender identity and ability to accept herself with love. 89% of LGBTQIA+ youth reported that seeing positive and complex LGBTQIA+ representation in TV and movies made them feel good about being LGBTQIA+. She is looking for the kind of positive representation she did not have growing up. Where the topic of gender and LGBTQIA+ folks are positively represented. Representation that goes beyond simply their gender identity or sexuality and represents characters as complex individuals. She is looking for the positive representation she did not have growing up.

Sneha Menon Desai has been a film journalist for over a decade. She enjoys romance, drama and comedy and anything that can make her both laugh and cry is considered money well spent at the movies. Having realised early on that she can be a dangerous binge-watcher she now curates the content she watches carefully and often relies in an (unbiased) manner on Film Companion reviews!

Sruthi Ganapathy Raman is a Bangalore-based culture writer and film journalist, whose words can be read in Scroll.in, The Times of India, and The News Minute. She is currently serving as a writer and senior editor at Film Companion South. Having written about cinema and streaming content for the past seven years, a good show in Sruthi's books is something that is a subtle mix of originality and relatability — a show that has the ability to let imaginations run wild and yet ground us with certain realities.

Subha J Rao is an entertainment journalist based out of Mangaluru, Karnataka. She primarily covers the Tamil and Kannada film industries, writing reviews and interviews. What she looks for in a movie or series is good writing, assured direction, and performances that seem effortless and lived-in. She's most particular about the intent of a work of art.

Film Companion's reviewer for all things streaming, Suchin is one of the few critics and film journalists dedicated to covering India's bustling streaming landscape. Previously a Programme Coordinator at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, he also writes and reviews for publications including the Hindustan Times and hosts The Streaming Show podcast. An unabashed mainstream cinema lover, he sincerely believes that movies and storytelling can change the world. All he looks for in a series is sincerity, an understanding of long-form storytelling and characters to care about and feel with.

Tanvi Ajinkya is an Indian Filmmaker and Producer. She currently heads Film Companion’s FC Content Studios, where she spearheads, develops and executes all long form + branded IPs. She is the Co-Director and Executive Producer of ‘Modern Masters’, a docu-special on the life and work of SS Rajamouli. She was the showrunner of TakeTen Season 1 where she curated and mentored 10 directors, with one being nominated for the Critics’ Choice Awards for Best Direction. Tanvi is a serial-binger and enjoys watching shows and series that hold her intrigue.

Utsab grew up in Kolkata and studied fine art at UCA, Canterbury. Being an avid reader, he has been fascinated with storytelling from a very young age. He started out as a screenwriter and by happenstance came into producing. He believes stories are powerful devices for us to see our world and, more significantly, ourselves. He currently works as a creative exec. at Netflix India.

Vishal Menon is a film critic and journalist who has previously worked with Reuters News and The Hindu. He is currently the Editor of Film Companion South, writing about Tamil and Malayalam cinema. Apart from writing, he also creates video essays that go deeper into the visual aspects of film technique. A set of engaging ideas that teach you something new about movies, life or in the best case, both.