Mumbai’s creative landscape is gearing up for a high-energy weekend as IFP returns for Season 16 on October 24 and 25, 2026, taking over the iconic Mehboob Studios in Bandra. Spanning two full days, the gathering brings together writers, filmmakers, musicians, visual artists, and designers for a weekend of live discussions, workshops, and performances.
Standout talks and masterclasses
Across the weekend, festival stages will host an expansive roster of craft deep-dives and creative masterclasses. Among them is ‘On Craft, Creativity, & Writing Across Mediums’, where screenwriters Juhi Chaturvedi and Varun Grover unpack how storytelling approaches shift when jumping between feature films, streaming series, and the written page. At the intersection of creative expression and new technology, multidisciplinary artist Raghava KK takes the stage for ‘Art After The Algorithm & AI’, exploring how visual artists are responding to and experimenting with generative machine learning tools.
The programming also stretches well beyond modern entertainment formats. In ‘How To Live Simply’, renowned innovator Sonam Wangchuk leads a grounded conversation on conscious living, environmental stewardship, and the everyday choices that shape our future. Meanwhile, centuries-old performance traditions take the spotlight in ‘Navrasa Sadhana 101’, where scholar Guru G Venu—joined by Manjiri Pupala and Kapila Venu—breaks down the nine classical emotional states (navrasas) and their enduring place in contemporary acting.
Literature and narrative arts also claim their own spotlight, featuring actor Shefali Shah discussing vulnerability in ‘Pustakalay Ft. The Audacity of Being’ with Saurabh Dwivedi, investigative author Hussain Zaidi unpacking true-crime writing alongside Bilal Siddiqi in ‘Penning India’s Underworld’, and graphic novelists Sarnath Banerjee and Appupen exploring sequential art in ‘Between Two Worlds’.
Spotlight on music
Music holds a dedicated, major space at IFP this season with curated conversations, interactive spaces, and specialized challenge panels. The festival hosts the ‘Indie Musicians Roundtable | On Reclaiming The Roots’, where Aneesh Poojari, Banjaare, Swara Oza, and Utpal Udit join David Britto to deep-dive on independent music, modern sounds, and their connection to their artistic roots. For those looking to see collaborative music-making in real-time, electronic music producer Curtain Blue leads the interactive ‘Collab Room With Curtain Blue’, bringing an experimental, hands-on audio experience straight to Mehboob Studios.
Star-studded juries for Season 16’s creative challenges
At the core of IFP are its celebrated creative challenges, designed around giving emerging creators a platform, a deadline, and the push to make original work. This season, the festival has announced an exceptional roster of industry veterans across distinct creative categories:
- Music: Khalid Ahamed, Kanishk Seth, Kavita Seth, Uday Benegal, Nucleya and Dabzee.
- Writing: Karan Anshuman, Abhay Koranne, Sumit Roy, Rashmi Bansal, Tara Khandelwal, Chiki Sarkar and Prayaag Akbar.
- Design: Muhammed Sajid, Amrit Pal Singh, Omkar Patil, Shayak Sen and Mira F. Malhotra.
- Photography: Joseph Radhik, Vineet Vohra, Rid Burman and Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo.
- Performing arts: Tess Joseph, Akarsh Khurana, Aalok Shrivastav, Kena Shree and Aleena.
- Filmmaking: Raam Reddy, Pushkar-Gayatri, Karthik Subbaraj and Anusha Rizvi.
A 16-year creative legacy
Speaking on being part of the jury, filmmaking duo Pushkar-Gayatri shared, “IFP is rare in the way it gathers creators from films, music, literature, design, comedy, photography and beyond under a single roof, honouring the craft in each.”
What began in 2011 as a 50-hour filmmaking challenge has grown into a multidisciplinary platform connecting creators across the world. Marking the milestone, Ritam Bhatnagar, Founder, IFP, noted: “Season 16 feels deeply personal because while so much around us has changed, that fundamental excitement of making something and putting it out into the world has remained exactly the same.”
Plan Your Visit
