Monika Panwar

Mukesh Chhabra is a Mumbai-based casting director, acting workshop director and actor who has cast several actors for movies including director Vikas Bahl's Chillar Party, Anurag Kashyap's Gangs of Wasseypur, Abhishek Kapoor's Kai Po Che and Nikhil Advani's D-Day. Chhabra graduated from Delhi University with an acting diploma from the Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts. He completed a six-year acting and teaching stint with the ‘Theatre in Education’ Company (TIE) affiliated with the National School of Drama.(NSD) Chhabra came to Mumbai in 2007 and worked as an Assistant Casting Director before setting up his own casting company. His first film as independent casting director was the small budget film Chintuji. His casting for the film Chillar Party won him accolades based on which director Anurag Kashyap engaged him for the casting of his crime thriller Gangs of Wasseypur and also its sequel. Subsequently, Chhabra did the casting for films of different genres like Kai Po Che, Shahid, Chennai Express, Jai Ho, Hasee To Phasee, Mastram and D-day. Apart from films, he's also done casting for TVCs. In his career, Chhabra has employed several unconventional casting methods. For example, he spotted the budding actor Irfan Khan, who played the character 'Fatka' in the film Chillar Party, on the streets of Mumbai. Chhabra's democratic style of auditioning has previously invited nuisance value from potential actors. Actor Rajkumar Yadav (now Rajkumar Rao) was chosen to play one of the leads for the film Kai Po Che only on Chhabra's insistence. Rao's talent in the film won him critical acclaim and later Chhabra cast him in Shahid as the leading man.

Pankaj Tripathi is an Indian actor who appears predominantly in Hindi films. Famous for his natural acting, he debuted in 2004 with a minor role in Run and Omkara and has since worked in more than 40 films and 60 television shows. Tripathi's breakthrough came in 2012 for his supporting role in the Gangs of Wasseypur film series. He has since received critical appraisal for multiple films, including Fukrey (2013), Masaan (2015), Nil Battey Sannata (2016), Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017), Newton (2017), Fukrey Returns (2017) and Stree (2018). For Newton, Tripathi earned several awards including a National Film Award – Special Mention.

Piyush Mishra is an Indian film and theatre actor, music director, lyricist, singer, and scriptwriter. Mishra grew up in Gwalior and graduated from the National School of Drama, Delhi in 1986. Thereafter, he started his career in Hindi theatre in Delhi. Over the next decade, he established himself as a theatre director, actor, lyricist, and singer. He moved to Mumbai in 2002, receiving acclaim for his acting in Maqbool (2003) and Gangs of Wasseypur (2012).

Anurag Kashyap is an Indian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is often regarded as the face of an emerging new wave cinema for producing numerous independent films with newcomers. For his contributions to film, the Government of France awarded him the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) in 2013. After writing a television serial, Kashyap got his major break as a co-writer in Ram Gopal Varma's crime drama Satya (1998), and made his directorial debut with Paanch, which never had a theatrical release due to censorship issues. Apart from filmmaking, Kashyap serves as the Member of board of the Mumbai-based NGO, Aangan, which helps protect vulnerable children around India. He is the founder of two film production companies: Anurag Kashyap Films, which is run by Guneet Monga, Phantom Films with partnership from directors Vikramaditya Motwane and Vikas Bahl and producer Madhu Mantena.