Shekhar Kapur is one of the world’s great filmmakers and activists of the imagination: across disciplines, across cultures, across media.

His first English language film, Elizabeth, was nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture. He is a founder of Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation with Richard Branson and Deepak Chopra, a venture now involving 150 artists and writers in Bangalore and New York who are successfully creating new characters for multi-media exploitation in the international marketplace. Virgin Comics writers include John Woo, Guy Ritchie, Nicholas Cage and Dave Stewart.  Shekhar brought the idea of the hit West End / Broadway show Bombay Dreams to Andrew Lloyd Webber, co-creating the story and co-producing the show. His versions of the Ramayana stories are currently being made into mobile games in Mumbai.

Shekhar recently returned to the UK to direct The Golden Age, bringing Melbourne’s own Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush back together in the sequel to Elizabeth. This highly anticipated film is now in post-production and due for release in late 2007 (hint, hint: it’s a trilogy).

Shekhar has directed some of the most celebrated, successful, and controversial films of the Indian film industry to date. Perhaps the most notable of Shekhar’s Indian films are three very different pictures: Mr India, which is widely regarded as India’s greatest ever mainstream film for kids; the critically acclaimed and box office success Masoom; and one of India’s most famous films, Bandit Queen, which has now attained cult status (music by the immortal Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan). Bandit Queen caught the attention of the worldwide film community when it became the rage at the Cannes Film Festival.

After Elizabeth, Shekhar directed the film version of the best-selling book The Four Feathers for Paramount / Miramax. Shekhar has also co-produced films such as The Guru in the UK with Universal Studios and Dil Se in India and continues to work on a variety of projects. Amongst other things, he is currently co-producing the animated musical A Suitable Cockroach with Prana Animation studios in India, and producing an Indian feature film entitled Mantra.

Shekhar has also been an award-winning director of commercials; a leading actor in Indian film and television; and a talk show host for three seasons of On The Other Hand for Channel 4 in the UK.

He is currently working on pre-production for his forthcoming feature film, Paani, a story based in 2025 where a city of 20 million people has gone to war over water.

Shekhar is also an Advisory Board member to the Media Development Authority (MDA), Singapore.

Shekhar is a regular speaker at the World Economic Forum and runs a very successful website www.shekharkapur.com on media, culture, arts, and international politics.

A preview of The Golden Age can be found here

International Speaker at Chinas International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo (ICCIE).

International Speaker at Chinas International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo (ICCIE).

International Speaker at Chinas International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo (ICCIE).

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International Speaker at Chinas International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo (ICCIE).

International Speaker at China's International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo (ICCIE).

International Speaker at China's International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo (ICCIE).

Brendan Harkin founded XMediaLab in June 2003. XMediaLab is the internationally acclaimed creative thinktank for digital media professionals that brings together the world’s outstanding creatives, executives, and power-brokers who work as mentors with local companies on their own digital media project ideas.

XMediaLab focuses on 1) creating high-value networks among the emergent digital media markets of China, India, the Middle East, and North and South Asia; and assisting local companies get their ideas successfully to market by involving them directly with the world’s leading digital media practitioners.

Brendan has held a number of high profile positions in new media industry development: founding the first Asia Pacific Multimedia Festival; and as Australia's first General Manager for Public Awareness at the National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) and was awarded an “Australia Day National Gold Medal” by the Australian Government for his services.

Brendan’s most recent honors include:

• International Jury Member for the Interactive Emmy Awards held at MIPTV in Cannes
• Appointed “Foreign Expert Advisor” to the Beijing municipal government on Digital Media industry development
• Consultant to the Suzhou Industrial Park on Animation industry development
• Named as one of the “Top Ten Most Influential People” in the Australian Digital Media industries
• Named as one of the “50 Most Influential Australians in Asia” by the Advance Organization
• Panelist at the 4th Al Jazeera Media Forum in Doha

Brendan combines his involvement in the Digital Media industries with an academic background in philosophy, and was awarded a Doctoral Scholarship by the University of Melbourne where he studied ‘philosophy and technology’.

He has consulted to the United Nations Committee on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the European Union’s EUROPRIX initiative, most of Australia’s leading creative industries and media agencies; and has served as an Advisory Board Member to a large number of digital media, cultural, and technology events throughout Asia.

International Speaker at Chinas International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo (ICCIE).

International Speaker at Chinas International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo (ICCIE).