Ready For The Future

Power Punch: PaperCut by Parth Kothekar is a design studio in Ahmedabad where the 26-year old Parth recreates everything under the sun using a surgical knife and 120 gsm paper. Each piece is hand sketched, to begin with, then carefully fleshed out using a knife and board, made from a single piece of paper by the animation dropout. Kothekar opened his first studio in January 2016, in front the NID campus and that has opened a new gateway of success. He also runs a merchandise label called ‘Ohpapercut’ and that sells products through online shopping networks like Flipkart and Amazon.

Abhishek Kaushik, Florist
Power Punch: With more than eight years of expertise and experience in decor and set designing, Abhishek Kaushik is a renowned floral and set designer from Chandigarh. Within a short period of time, he has successfully offered design solutions to Indian and international clients spanning the globe, including Asia, the Middle East, and western countries. From doing the decor for Yuvraj Singh’s wedding to designing the ramp for internationally acclaimed fashion designer Rahul Mishra, he has all the talents and imagination that can match your style and theme and transform your wedding venue into a dreamland. For each project, he creates a blueprint focusing on floor plans first and later uses digital 3Ds max design tools to map dimensions. Some of his signature set designs include recycled paper, plastic PVC pipes and eco-friendly materials.

Manushi Chillar, Miss World 
Power Punch: Manushi Chillar is an Indian model and the winner of the Miss World 2017 pageant. Earlier she represented the state of Haryana at the Femina Miss India 2017 pageant, which she won. Chhillar is the sixth Indian woman to win the Miss World pageant. She had been named as the “Times Most Desirable Women of India 2017”. Her journey in pageantry began with fbb Campus Princess 2016 where she was crowned one of the finalists from All India Institute of Medical Sciences medical college during her college (Pulse) fest on December 20. Thereafter, she went on to win the title of fbb Femina Miss India Haryana in April 2017. Chhillar represented the state of Haryana in annual Femina Miss India competition and was crowned Femina Miss India 2017 in the finale held on 25 June 2017. During the competition, Chhillar was crowned Miss Photogenic,[15] and went on to win the competition as well, earning the right to represent India at the Miss World 2017 competition. At present, she is travelling different countries with her first social project ‘Beauty With A Purpose’.

Saransh Goila, Chef
Power Punch: Saransh Goila, who calls himself as ‘Sadak Chef’, is one of India’s youngest celebrity chef who started cooking at the age of 12. Saransh Goila graduated from the Institute of Hotel Management – Aurangabad (Taj group of hotels) and got a degree in B.A. Honors in Culinary Arts in 2008 and trained in the highly professional Taj Kitchens for six months. To get a deeper knowledge of the culinary arts, he worked with The Leela Kempinski, Bangalore for a year in 2009. At present, he is an anchor, consultant, food columnist and much more. He has hosted India’s biggest food travelogue show ‘Roti, Rasta aur India’ where he had set a record in the Limca Book of Records, 2014 of being the first Indian chef to travel 20,000 kms by road in 100 days to discover India’s rich food heritage and tracing its history.

Faraz Arif Ansari, Filmmaker 
Power Punch: Faraz Arif Ansari is filmmaker and writer who has worked in close association with filmmaker Amol Gupte. He has been the co-writer and c-director on Bollywood projects like Taare Zameen Par, Stanley ka Dabba and Gippi. He has written and directed Sisak- India’s first silent LGBTQ love story in the format of a short film, starring Jitin Gulati and Dhruv Singhal. With 43 international awards for Sisak he has proved the power of his vision that received the first attention in January when Sonam Kapoor launched the trailer of the film on her Twitter page. In past his another work called Siberia was honoured with Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival Award for Best Director – Jury’s Choice, apart from others.

Keshav Suri, Hotelier
Power Punch: Keshav Suri, the youngest executive director of Lalit Group of Hotels is known for his creative and futuristic style of working that has helped in driving a lot of unique initiatives at the Lalit group. He started Kitty Su in 2011 that has now become a landmark in the clubbing industry. Keshav is also an icon for the LGBTQ community and has made the properties more inclusive for the community people. Recently, he filed a petition with the Supreme Court on challenging Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that criminalizes a consensual relationship between consenting adults of the same sex. He has also played a key role in conceptualizing ‘The Lalit Food Truck Company’, a one of a kind outdoor catering business.

Rupinder Pal Singh, Sportsman
Power Punch:  Rupinder Pal Singh is a professional hockey player, who currently represents India in the Indian Hockey Team. He plays as a fullback and is known for his abilities as one of the best drag-flickers in the world. He represented India in the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow, 2014 Asian Games at Incheon, 2016 Olympic Games held at Rio de Janeiro, and at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, held at Gold Coast, Australia. With his roots in Faridkot, Punjab, he is the youngest of the family, who took up hockey at the age of eleven. He is related to an international hockey player, Gagan Ajit Singh. His interest in hockey got a boost when got selected for the Chandigarh Hockey Academy. Singh’s international debut was in May 2010 in Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh.

Kazem Samandari, Businessman
Power Punch: Kazem Samandari, 66, is a Ph.D. in Industrial Economy, an MS in Electrical Engineering and a Business Degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. He is a serial entrepreneur – having worked over 4 decades in 6 continents – and is currently the Executive Chairman of French Bakery Pvt. Ltd. In 2015, he was inducted by the French Government to the rank of “Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Mérite” (Knight in the National Order of Merit) for his contributions to the promotion of French culinary culture and four decades of professional life. Throughout his career, he has travelled to over 60 countries and has been professionally exposed to various cultures and traditions across the planet.

Devutt Pattanaik, Author 
Power Punch: He is an Indian author known for fictional work and interpretations of ancient Indian scriptures. His books include Myth= Mithya: A Handbook of Hindu Mythology; Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata; Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana; Business Sutra: An Indian Approach to Management; Shikhandi: And Other Tales they Don’t Tell You; Shiva to Shankara : Giving Form to the Formless. Devdutt distinguishes between mythological fiction and mythology. He notes that mythological fiction is very popular as it is fantasy rooted in familiar traditional tales.

Harsh Bhargava, Designer
Power Punch: With an attitude of fighting until the end, this young designer has made it large at an early age and that reflects in his achievements. Harsh realized he was encapsulated by men’s fashion at an early age and that’s the reason he took up fashion as his career. His need for perfection reflects in each outfit that he creates and especially with his clients as they have become an extension of him when they wear his label Harsh Bhargava- House of HB.  All this was proved when he was featured in GQ magazine for India’s Best Dressed Entrepreneur back in 2014. He has always been a passionate sportsman and is a state level tennis and football player.

Mallika Jain, Entrepreneur
Power Punch:  She is a diva and a fashion entrepreneur too. As a woman of substance, she started Fashion Capsule, a platform that helps other creative souls to showcase their work to the world through a common platform. She established Fashion Capsule with a serious motive to provide a platform to aspiring designers who have such immense talent but lack the desired platform to showcase their products. According to her, an exhibition provides a platform to designers all across India to showcase their collection to a wide footfall and provides a shopper with a wide variety which they can otherwise never see.

Deepshika Deshmukh, Businesswoman 
Power Punch:  She is a wife, mother, entrepreneur, and producer. Deepkshika had been the key role player, the front lady and business development head for Stalwart Puja Films. She debuted as a producer in 2016 with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Randeep Hooda starrer Sarbjit which won her accolades at the Cannes Film Festival.  She believes that talent has no boundaries and has been a big supporter of regional cinema. She partnered with Priyanka Chopra on her first Punjabi film ‘Sarvann’. She is also the owner of Love Organically, India’s first organic skincare brand for kids and adults. She has brought nature science and a touch of mummy magic into skincare in it best and purest form with innocent ingredients and gentle formulations. In a very short span, she has won various awards and the credit goes to her hard work and genes that belong to Vashu Bhagnani’s family and the Deshmukhs.

Rachna Chandiramani, Businesswoman 
Power Punch: Rachna Chandiramani, the founder of Ortus Consult, is an experienced global media and marketing professional who has significant experience in brand management, business development, commercial negotiations and talent management. By creating a real difference in the lives of people, the company believes in creating deep and enduring relationships that matter. Over the last five years, Ortus has swiftly emerged into a creative talent and brand advisory, where people, principles and strong values are the very core of everything they do. Some of the Ortus regular clients include Discovery communications, Jyothy laboratories, Bollywood celebrities like R Madhavan, Shibani Dandekar, Gaurav Kapur, Chef Sarah Todd, musicians Monica Dogra, and Meiyang Chang.

Karan Khilnani, Businessman
Power Punch:  Karan Khilnani, owner Elephant & Co Gastropub is a young 27-year old guy who has changed the ideology of neighborhood bar concept at the age of 23 when he took the leap of faith and quit Taj Dubai and came to Mumbai to start his own brand. Today, he has two branches in Pune and expansion plans are on in other cities of India. With a motive to serve the best of cocktails and customize them to the needs of customers, this young lad is making people take him seriously with his vision and flavours that are definitely out of the box.

Pavan Anand, Businessmen
Power Punch: Pavan Anand, 30 is the designer and CEO of Dagmar Jewellery and Pavan Anand Fine Jewels. The architecture graduate with an exquisitely honed sense of aesthetics, accumulated over year of travel to the US, Europe, Middle East, and South East Asia, today has a jewellery empire with 32 global representatives selling his exclusive pieces- for fine jewellery it’s by appointment only- to Hollywood A-listers like Goldie Hawn, Nicole Kidman, as well as the Royal family of Morocco. He created his first capsule collection of 40 pieces for a preview in Mumbai, mixing diamonds, uncut diamonds, and precious stones with leather from Italy. The collection sold out in six hours. He dreams to create jewellery for Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Duchess Kate.

Srikanth Bolla, Businessman
Power Punch:  Srikanth Bolla is the founder of Bollant Industries. He is the first international blind student in brain and cognitive science and business at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bolla was denied admission to coaching institutes for Indian Institute of Technology, where he wanted to study engineering because he is blind. He attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was the first international blind student. Bolla started a Braille printing press in the Samanvai Center for children with multiple disabilities in Hyderabad, India, which provides accessible educational material available to disabled students. In 2012, Bolla started Bollant Industries, which manufactures Areca based products and provides employment to several hundred people with disabilities, with funding from Ratan Tata. Bollant has shown exceptional growth averaging 20% a month since inception, with 2016-17 fiscal year revenues over 25 Crores.

Sona Mohapatra, Singer
Power Punch: Sona Mohapatra is an Indian singer, music composer, and lyricist. She came to mainstream prominence with the trend breaking talk show with Aamir Khan [Satyamev Jayate] in which she frequently appeared as a lead singer and performer. At present, the outspoken Sona Mohapatra is enthralling listeners with her new shoe on 93.5 FM in her Lal Pari Mastani avatar, bringing her own brand of female power and challenging social norms. With her afternoon show on radio, she mixes up with live performances, collaborates with other musical guest artists, and feature non-celebrity guests- people who changing things in the way they defy social expectations-giving them the chance to speak their mind.

Prateek Jain and Gautam Seth, Product Designer 
Power Punch: They began klove studio in 2006 with the goal of making light products that merged fantasy, reality, functionality, and design. Bent on experimentation and inspired by the skills they learned from working with traditional Indian craftsmen. The duo began to hone their dream of creating a hands-on, locally grounded brand that was synonymous with the highest quality of hand-blown glass possible. Now, more than a decade into business, klove has become a globally applauded brand. Employing over sixty highly skilled workers, the brand has developed a wide range of products that span larger than life 3D installations and basic, functional lighting for the home. Each product is stamped with what has become klove’s signature: bold, refined design that borrows equally from Prateek and Gautam’s roots Indian roots and their love for global travel and adventure.

Power Punch:  Rakhee Mehta, born and brought up in Mumbai is a self-driven businesswoman, who is also the Director at Idea Shop Designs Pvt Ltd and is also the founder of India’s first-morning wellness party MagicRise. In 15 months, her brainchild Magic Rise has done over 200 wellness concept morning parties, in 15 cities, with an army of 300 trainers, with prestigious brands, and have also organized on-air with jet airways. Rakhee has with time been associated with the best in the business. From working with Ved Prakash Arya to seeing the expansion of Future Group and working under Kishore Biyani… being in an advisory role to Nandan A. Piramal, and working in Corporate Strategy for Aditya Birla Retail Limited’s property More, her career graph is exceptional.