Our Team
A glance at the individuals behind red river & blue hills...
Bidyut Kotoky
Writer/ Director…a dreamer, who makes films to live those dreams...
Very early in life, Bidyut had decided his vocation - Filmmaking. For his stories he never had to look further than his bond with his homeland, northeast of India. In the year 2006, his film ‘Bhraimoman Theatre- where Othello sails with Titanic’ based on the travelling theatre of Assam won a special mention in the National Awards. In the year 2010, Bidyut’s documentary ‘The Mighty Ahoms’ was telecast on National Geographic and Fox History channels. His first feature film as writer/ director is ‘ekhon nedekha nadir xipare’/‘as the River flows’ is a bi- lingual (Hindi & Assamese) one and is produced by National Film Development Corporation (NFDC). His documentary ‘Guns and Guitar- a musical travelogue’ is selected as one of the top 100 documentaries of this year by Color Tape International Film Festival – considered the largest festival of the Southern Hemisphere. The film is an Official Selection of the Indian Panorama in the International Film Festival of India (Goa) 2016 – the top international festival of this country. His second feature film, ‘Xhoixobote Dhemalite’ (Rainbow fields) deals with the effect of violence on kids growing up in conflict zone, won many awards in festivals across the globe and is an Official Selection of the Indian Panorama in the International Film Festival of India (Goa) 2017. In July 2018, it become the first Assamese feature to get a commercial release in US. Recently Bidyut has completed a 26 episode TV series for Doordarshan called ‘Kaziranga’.
Prashant Kalantri
Financial Strategist
In last 20 years of Post Qualification experience As Chartered Accountant, Prashant has focused mainly on fund raising activities for SME. Prashant is the founder Partner of CA Firm Rajdeo Kalantri & Co., He was associate director of BDO consulting Pvt. Ltd., Pune (2007-2012) and was heading the branch. BDO is 5th Largest CA network in world. Prashant has undertaken various due diligence, business Valuation and fund raising on behalf of various clients including multi-national companies and Banks. He is associated with more than than 15 public sector and private sector banks. Success ratio achieved is more than 95% when it comes to sanction, as he handholds the clients through each stage of fund raising.
Pradip Das, Ph.D
Technology innovator, an entrepreneur and an angel investor
Pradip is a technology innovator, entrepreneur, and an angel investor working to bring innovative technology solutions to solve real life problems besetting our communities. Based in St. Louis, USA, he is founder of The Exponential Group (TEG) LLC, with an investment portfolio that includes startups to: 1) deploy scalable solutions to eliminate inequities in delivering plentiful nutrition to children and adults in our communities - in a self-funding, environmentally sustainable manner; 2) promote extraordinary opportunities for K-12 students and teachers to prepare the most-skilled workforce of the future, and 3) preserve and promote language, art forms, natural and cultural heritage of Assam and her sister states of the North East India Pradip originally hailed from. Pradip has a passion for mentoring entrepreneurs. He serves on the board of directors of Arch Grants, a non-profit that provides seed grants to startups, selected through global competitions. As angel investor, TEG LLC provides seed funding to startups as well as promotes them to other investors in the designated focus areas.
Vivek Bansal
Experienced strategist, business leader and mentor
Vivek is a seasoned business and operations professional. He provides strategic consulting services to corporates, specializing in business transformation and his current day job is Group CEO at a $100 Mn size, specialist Marine EPC Organization in India. He also consults/advises a few start-ups and other companies. This rich entrepreneur experience of over 10 years enabled him to understand ground realities of founding, growing and running a business successfully from scratch with limited resources. Vivek has independently managed large projects of over $50M. Vivek's visionary interests lie in the areas of business transformation, design and innovation, enabling technologies, and management innovation. Vivek’s passion for meaningful cinema and music has drawn him to red river & blue hills.
Pallavi Kotoky
Editor & ideator...warp time & space to reveal a story where it is invisible!
Her very first documentary (co-edited) 'The road less travelled… where the journey is the destination’ was screened in the Mumbai International Film Festival, for documentary, short and animation films. Another nonfiction, “Bhraimoman Theatre- where Othello sails with Titanic” (co-editor), won the Special Mention in the National Film Awards (2006). Her other work as independent editor includes the docu-feature ‘Guns & Guitars… a musical travelogue’. The film was the official selection of the ‘Indian Panorama’ in the International Film Festival of India (Goa) 2016. Pallavi's first independent ‘feature film’ as editor- 'Rainbow fields (Xhoixobote dhemalite)', was again an official selection and part of the prestigious 'Indian Panorama' IFFI, Goa 2017. She won best editing award in northeast India’s biggest popular award show, “Prag Cine Awards (2019) for this film.