Storytalking with Lakshya

In the 50th(!) episode of Storytalking, Lakshya speaks with Brooke Shaden - a person who fulfills every possible definition of an ‘artist’ - she’s a US-based photographer, a writer, an educator, a speaker - she does it all. She talks about her creative process, how she finds inspiration and motivation to create something new every day, why she shares the behind-the-scenes of her work, how she uses social media to connect with her audience, how perfectionism isn’t a goal for her as a storyteller, why she mentors aspiring artists, and how she came about creating a nonprofit movement called ‘The Light Space’ in India.

In episode #49 of Storytalking, Lakshya speaks with Ruchika Nambiar, an almost-26 year old artist / writer / designer / illustrator from Bangalore, India. Ruchika tells Lakshya about how she got into writing, how she found her creative voice, what it was like to be in Art school (she went to the Srishti School for Art & Design in Bangalore), how she finds the work-artist balance now that she’s an Interaction Designer, and how she conceptualized and wrote her graphic novel memoir: ‘The Breadcrumb’ - which you can read for free on her website www.ruchikanambiar.com.

In episode #48 of Storytalking, Lakshya speaks with Sanjoy Roy, a National Award winner and Managing Director of Teamwork Arts - the company behind over 25 art and culture festivals including the ‘Jaipur Literature Festival’. Sanjoy tells Lakshya about how he got involved in the theatre community in India, what lead to the creation of Teamwork Films and Arts in 1989, what contribution technology has to the arts, how cultures feed the creativity of a country, and how he and his team brought Indian arts and films to the world stage.

In episode #47 of Storytalking, Lakshya speaks with Ruchir Arun, a National Award winning director and screenwriter, who is currently working on the shows What The Folks, and Little Things - season 2 of which was just picked up by Netflix. Ruchir shares stories of his first experiences with a camera, making short films with his friends in school, what it was like to study at FTII Pune, how he put together his final thesis film ‘Mandrake Mandrake!’ which won him the National Award for best short fiction, what it is like to be a director in ‘Bollywood’ in the digital landscape, and how he collaborates with writers and actors on his TV shows.

In episode #46 of Storytalking, Lakshya talks to you about his experience with education and learning, why he got into teaching, how he imagines an ideal student-teacher relationship to be, and how the concept of 'learning together' can be applied in every day life.

On episode #45 of Storytalking, Lakshya speaks with Tanya S, aka 'airlesspromises' - an Indian-Irish poet/writer/illustrator who Launchora is currently running a collaborative storytelling adventure with on Instagram. Tanya tells Lakshya about her upbringing, how she found her creative voice, why she writes about nature and the different stages of falling in love, what advice she has for aspiring poets, why she loves storytelling, what inspires her, and why and how she published her first book 'Roots Of Chaos' (which you can buy wherever books are sold online!).

In episode #44 of Storytalking, Lakshya speaks with Venkat Ramachandran, a ‘multi-story-teller’, who does a lot of things related to storytelling, such as running ‘Mandram’ - an organization to promote Tamil language and literature, and teaching workshops about the possible futures of storytelling. Venkat shares stories of how he got into studying storytelling, why he uses the Mahabharata to talk about it, why he considers himself to be a ‘bad storyteller’, and what he believes makes us humans ‘storytellers’ and ‘information architects’. You can read Venkat’s articles on Linkedin.

In episode #43 of Storytalking, Lakshya speaks directly to you in another solo session. The episode is called ‘Creative Hub’, but it could also be called the ‘Launchora Birthday Special’. Listen in to hear about Launchers Fest, why we’re starting the Creative Hub, what it hopes and goals are for it, and where Launchora is going from here!

In episode #42 of Storytalking, Lakshya speaks with Sidhanta Mathur, creative producer at Pocket Aces | Dice Media, who is behind TV shows such as ‘What The Folks’ and ‘2 by 3’. Sidhanta shares stories of how he went from studying Genetics to an internship at MTV, what goes into conceptualizing and producing a web series, what exactly does a ‘creative producer’ do, and where he thinks this over-the-top online media industry is headed. To watch all the shows mentioned in this episode, find the ‘Dice Media’ channel on Youtube.

In episode #41 of Storytalking, Lakshya’s guest is Arka Mukhopadhyay - a theater teacher / performer / director based in Kerala, India. Arka shares stories about growing up in Kolkata, his early exposure to theatre and performance art, acting in school, engineering and dropping out, performing and directing theatre, training and workshops, where his creativity comes from, why his practice is about the human body, a dance/workshop he created named after Hamlet, and how he helps his students find truth in their own creative work.