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This interview was recorded on July 17-18 2022 An award-winning writer, director, producer, actor and philanthropist, Amole Gupte is associated with acclaimed films like Taare Zameen Par (2007), Stanley Ka Dabba (2011), and Hawa Hawai (2014). As a social activist, Gupte has been working with children for over 15 years. Volunteering in schools for the differently-abled resulted in the highly acclaimed Taare Zameen Par. He was the writer-creative director of the film, while also contributing to the lyrics and the artworks used in the movie. Apart from writing, directing and producing the film, he also plays a pivotal role in Stanley Ka Dabba. As an actor, he has made waves with his portrayal of Bhope Bhau in Vishal Bharadwaj`s Kaminey. He has also acted in other films like Singham Returns (2014), Phas Gaya Re Obama (2010), Bheja Fry 2 (2011) and Urumi (2011). He is an active volunteer with organizations like Aseema, Apne Aap`s Women`s Collective and Parivartan. Amol Gupte`s 2017 release as a director and writer includes the Hindi action-adventure film Sniff!!!. Directed by Amole Gupte, the movie stars Baby Sunny Gill, Surekha Sikri, and Sushmita Mukherjee in important roles. His 2019 releases include Dabangg 3. In 2021, he acted in the crime-drama film Mumbai Saga and directed biopic Saina starring Parineeti Chopra.

About Ritika Kochhar I’m an author, art writer, and founder of ArtRadio, a platform that brings audiences closer to South Asian art history through podcasts, masterclasses, and curated experiences. Media Work: I have published over 300 articles in platforms like The Hindu, India Today, and Frontline, focusing on South Asian art and cultural narratives. (Portfolio: https://muckrack.com/ritika-kochhar). I have also published 3 fiction books. Academic Credentials: My qualifications include a Postgraduate Diploma in Indian Aesthetics from Jnanapravaha, advanced coursework in Islamic and visual arts from Oxford, and a study of Mughal miniatures under Dr. Kavita Singh. Research Experience: I have given lectures at IIC, Delhi and RIC, Jaipur on ‘the Art of the Gurkanis- Myths, Masnavis and Miniatures’, written curatorial essays for Mythmaking and Divine Animals (2023), contributed to the Tantra Foundation on the Mahavidyas (2021), as well as a six volume series for Bloomsbury on South Asian Arts and Aesthetics (2026) and continue to explore how historical visual traditions shape our present.

Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbwwhiVCC-I14hNr_G3__gg/join To Support Karwaan: The Heritage Exploration Initiative - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/karwaanheritage Do follow us on our Youtube Channel: https://bit.ly/3EkY51p Stay updated with our stories through our social media channels: Website: www.karwaanheritage.in Twitter: https://twitter.com/karwaanheritage Facebook: https://facebook.com/karwaaninitiative Instagram: https://instagram.com/karwaanheritage WhatsApp Group: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HE2FAQ1M8h7AAHr6p9ivNI About Karwaan: One of India's leading Independent student-led history initiatives. It is a collective of students trying to revolutionize the way we approach history. It was started in 2019 and hosted heritage walks in and around Delhi. Since April 2020, we have been organizing online lectures with authors/scholars/historians on our platform and giving students a chance to interact with scholars, and trying to start a dialogue on our past through our posts on Instagram and YouTube. #History #IndianHistory #Lectures #Heritage

This presentation explores the evolving landscape of Bollywood dance and choreography from the 1990s to the present, a period marked by economic liberalization, globalization, and rapid technological transformations. It examines how Bollywood dance—once confined to cinematic sequences—has expanded into global popular culture, fitness regimes, stage performances, and participatory social media content. Central to this shift are the dancing bodies, gestures, emotions, and gendered expressions that both reflect and shape changing social imaginaries. By analysing the poetics and industrial dynamics of cinematic dance, the study highlights the role of dance as a site of creative labour, cultural negotiation, and commercial enterprise. It underscores the transformation of Bollywood choreography into a transnational phenomenon, shaped by media convergence, economic shifts, and new performance economies.

Dr Savita Kumari currently heads the Department of History of Art at the Indian Institute of Heritage (formerly the National Museum Institute), Noida, Uttar Pradesh. She has been actively involved in research and teaching since 2006 and specializes in Indian art and architecture. She has authored several publications and received national and international fellowships. Her most recent project was documenting the temples of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple Corridor. Dr Kumari worked for the UNESCO Dossiers on Intangible Cultural Heritage prepared by the National Museum Institute in 2009. Some of her notable publications are The Cham Sculptures of Vietnam, Tombs of Delhi: Sultanate Period and Heritage of Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan: Art and Architecture.

Soumik Nandy Majumdar, a faculty member in the Department of History of Art at Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan, has been teaching the history of Indian and East Asian art for the last 25 years. He has graduated from Santiniketan and completed his Masters from Baroda. He has done his Doctoral research on visual literacy of children and continues to conduct workshops on the subject. Majumdar has published several essays in national and international journals, written exhibition catalogues for prominent artists, including Ganesh Haloi, Jogen Chowdhury, Rafiqun Nabi (Bangladesh), Goutam Chowdhury, Jayashree Chakravarty and Debnath Basu. Besides English, he writes regularly in Bangla as well. Significant shows curated by him include 8 Bengal Masters: Miracles Of Existence, on behalf of Akar Prakar at Musee des Arts Asiatiques de Nice, Nice, France, May 2015; Compelling Presence – Jogen Choudhury Retrospective Show at NGMA, Bengaluru; and Jogen Chowdhury Show at Kalakriti, Hyderabad in 2016. He is visiting faculty at reputed institutes including NID (Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Vijayawada), IIT - Kanpur, FTII - Pune, SRFTI - Kolkata, and lectures at various other art and design institutions and schools.

Professor Penny is a renowned historian whose work reimagines German history through a global, polycentric lens—challenging conventional narratives and integrating themes of migration, transcultural belonging, and ethnology. His scholarship spans the globe and centuries, offering powerful insights into how German identity has been constructed, contested, and transformed across time and space. Glenn Penny studies histories of belonging, knowledge, and migration, focusing on German speakers and communities worldwide. His work with ethnological museums and deep exploration of German interactions with non-European cultures have earned him numerous accolades, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and fellowships in Berlin and Munich. German History Unbound by H. Glenn Penny presents a bold reimagining of modern German history, covering the period from the 1750s to the present. Rejecting the traditional nation-state-centered approach, Penny draws on insights from historians like James J. Sheehan to propose a polycentric vision of German history—one that embraces the experiences of Germans far beyond Central Europe. The book contends that German history must account for global connections, mobilities, and the lives of German communities in diverse locales such as Austria, Chile, and Russia. It argues that "Germanness" has often been hybrid and fluid, shaped by migration, plural identities, and transcultural interactions. By decentering the nation-state, German History Unbound challenges dominant historical narratives and insists on the intellectual and political necessity of recognizing Germany’s complex past. Rather than seeking a new master narrative, it advocates for multiple, overlapping stories as analytical tools to better understand human motivations and historical realities. In doing so, the book undermines exclusionary forms of nationalism and highlights the rich diversity that has always existed within German identities.

Appealing to history, rather than God, to provide an ultimate judgment about human actions can have a justificatory or consolatory function. The former grants proleptic absolution for acts that may be morally dubious because of their benign consequences, while the latter allows victims in the present to gain a measure of relief by imagining they will be honored by posterity. In both cases, problematic assumptions about “history” and “judgment” call into question their faith that future generations will vindicate their struggles today. The first of these assumptions is that “history” conveys worth by what might be called “victors’ justice,” in which success proves that the winner was morally superior. The second is that “history” is an impersonal process, which can be recounted in a single meta-narrative, rather than an ongoing series of different narratives, which are themselves variable depending on who is doing the narrating. When “history” means the community of historians who recount and analyze the past, there is rarely, if ever a grand consensus agreed upon by all. Finally, whereas the judgment of God is assumed to be qualitative and individual, perfect for each case, human judgment depends either on deontological rules, which may not be universal, or by analogies that are only roughly equivalent. In either case, the judgment can never transcend the fallibilities of those doing the judging and approach the perfection of a divine Last Judgment. Perhaps the most plausible version of “history will judge” is the realization that we are judged in the present by the still admirable aspirations of the past, which have yet to be realized. About the Speaker: Professor Martin Evan Jay is one of the most eminent intellectual historians of our time. A celebrated scholar of the Frankfurt School, critical theory, and historiography, he is Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor of History Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Member of the American Philosophical Society. With seminal works such as The Dialectical Imagination, Downcast Eyes, Refractions of Violence, and most recently, Immanent Critiques: The Frankfurt School Under Pressure (2023), Professor Jay has shaped generations of thought across disciplines. His ongoing research delves into the intersections of nominalism and photography, while his writing continues to appear in renowned journals like Salmagundi.