Meet The Founders
We came together with the common belief that theatre transforms us all into better human beings. Ekalavya is our way of building a better society by helping as many people as we can work towards being the best versions of themselves.
Maneesh Verma
Co-founder & Executive Head
Maneesh has over 25 years of extensive theatre experience with 60 major theatre productions. For the last 12 years, he has been producing theatre in multiple genres like musicals, social drama, comedy, and plays for children. He holds a Master’s degree in acting and theatre-making from the National School of Drama. Apart from being a professional actor, he is also a corporate trainer and regularly works with CSW Associates as a performance consultant on training projects for multinational companies like Goldman Sachs, Apple, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch, UBS, Microsoft, Barclays, and others. Since 2007, Maneesh has worked in over a hundred productions, performing in Dubai, Japan, Hong Kong, and America.
Hetal Varia
Co-founder & Curriculum Head
Hetal Varia is a world-renowned Mumbai-based voice, accent and dialect coach. She has been working in the theatre industry for more than 15 years as a singer and actor. Her accolades include awards such as Charles Wallace India Trust Award from the British Council, Diversity Scholarship from the Voice And Speech Trainers Association (VASTA) and Best Singer Award from Lion’s Club. She holds a Masters in Voice Studies from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London. She has also been invited to speak as part of an upcoming international panel of BIPOC (Black, Indeginous, and Person of Colour) TV/Film Accent and Dialect Coaches for VASTA Conference, 2021. Hetal has been a voice coach to many industry professionals including Mithila Palkar, Sonali Kulkarni, Abhimanyu Dassani, Manoj Bajpayee and others. Most recently, she served as the Dialect Coach for the cast of ‘A Suitable Boy’ that was released on Netflix earlier last year.
Jehan Manekshaw
Co-founder & Director
Jehan is the Head of the Drama School Mumbai and leads pedagogy and course design for the faculty and guest faculty teams. He has co-designed and developed many strategic Drama-in-Education programmes for schools. Jehan also oversees multiple workshops and residencies for drama specialists and drama educators to advance the practice of applied drama. He has directed numerous plays in different languages in India, the US, the UK, and Japan. Jehan is a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for his work towards the advancement of the practice of theatre in India. Jehan holds an MFA in Theatre Direction from the University of London and a BA in Theatre and International Relations from Wesleyan University, USA.