Voices and Visions: Articulating the Margins through Art, Literature, and Film

Mahishaa is a Bangalore-based filmmaker born and brought up here. Most of his work focuses on showcasing the unseen side of Bengaluru & challenging traditional narratives of the city.His works have been showcased in Melbourne, Australia. Berlin Germany and Nottingham, United Kingdom.

A Bengaluru-born (1963) Dalit feminist writer and theatre artist, Du Saraswathi has spent over 25 years engaging with both the Women’s and Dalit Movements in Karnataka. Author of poetry and stories, she also writes the satirical Kannada column “Sanntimmi,” weaving together Ambedkarite thought, Marxism, feminism, and grassroots storytelling.

Rahee Punyashloka (they/he) is an artist, writer, researcher, and experimental filmmaker based out of Bhubaneswar and New Delhi. Working across disciplines, he seeks to illuminate the vastly unrepresented/underrepresented artistic history of the anti-caste struggle and the Dalit identity. His works have been exhibited in numerous venues including Pulp Society (New Delhi), Latitude 28 (New Delhi), International Film Festival Rotterdam, Athens Video Art Festival, Tribeca Film Festival (New York), ARKIPEL (Jakarta), Ishara Art Foundation (Dubai), KHOJ (New Delhi), Museum of Art and Photography (Bangalore), Arts House (Melbourne), among others.

Vijeta teaches Communicative English at St. Joseph’s University, Bengaluru, and is a writer and researcher specialising in narrative journalism, creative writing, autoethnography, and Dalit literature. She writes for platforms such as Deccan Herald, India Today, The Third Eye, and maintains the blog rumlolarum. In her scholarship and writing, she advocates “full-body writing”—an emotionally grounded, embodied style that draws from lived experience and Dalit expressive traditions.