From Playwright DJs To Image-Makers: 7 Multifaceted Homegrown Creatives On Our Radar

Over the past decade, South Asian popular culture has experienced a remarkable global resurgence. From Punjabi music dominating international charts to South Asian designers reshaping global fashion, and from filmmakers, artists, photographers, and DJs finding audiences far beyond the region to creative practitioners from South Asia defining contemporary cultures worldwide, the region’s creative practitioners are shaping global culture. Across India and the wider South Asian diaspora, a new generation of image-makers, storytellers, and multidisciplinary artists is using their work to explore identity, migration histories, ecology, community, and life in ways that resist easy categorisation.

Here are seven homegrown creatives whose work deserves more attention:

Vikram Valluri is a creative director, photographer, and filmmaker working between India and the United States. His practice centres on documenting everyday life while tracing the shared threads that connect people across cultures, religions, and geographies. His 2024 monograph Cow Corner spans Pune, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai, and Ladakh, exploring cricket as a social and cultural force woven into the fabric of Indian life. Valluri’s work has been featured in Vogue, Paper Magazine, GQ, WWD, The Cut, i-D, Rolling Stone, and Interview Magazine. Follow @vikramvalluri on Instagram.

Aaryan Sinha is an Indian photographer and visual artist whose work examines Indian identity within Western contexts. Working across photography, archives, and text, he explores themes of colonialism, memory, cultural appropriation, and inheritance while challenging reductive representations of India. His work has been exhibited at Luma Arles, the Nederlands Fotomuseum, and the Belfast Photo Festival. Sinha is a Foam Talent 2024–25, a finalist at Encontros da Imagem, was shortlisted for the PhMuseum Photography Grant 2025, and received the Aperture Portfolio Prize 2026. Follow @aaryansinha on Instagram.

Amina Aaliya Beg, better known as Amina B or @aminabonthebeat, is an Edinburgh-based DJ, multidisciplinary artist, and playwright. One of the most exciting emerging voices in the UK club scene, she is known for high-energy, genre-fluid sets that move effortlessly between Arab and South Asian sounds, Amapiano, Jersey Club, Baile Funk, GQOM, and other global club traditions. Follow @aminabonthebeat on Instagram.

Hansraj Dochaniya is a photographer and creative director whose work explores the intersections of fashion, identity, and visual culture. Drawing on his background in fashion communication, he creates images that balance fine-art sensibilities with editorial storytelling, often focusing on the relationship between subject, setting, and self-expression. His work has appeared in Vogue and other leading publications, and one of his photographs was exhibited at Kühlhaus Berlin as part of the One Shot Award. He has collaborated with brands including Ekaya, Kardo, Almost Gods, LOQ, and Zero Tolerance. Follow @hansrajdochaniya on Instagram.

Nirali Naik is a Mumbai-based cinematographer and photographer whose visual language is shaped by her love of cinema. Her work explores colour, mood, symmetry, and the quiet narratives embedded in everyday life. From documenting stories of young women in rural India to producing travel and documentary work across Europe, she has developed a versatile approach to visual storytelling. Naik has worked alongside cinematographers including Pratik Shah, Harshvir Oberai, Will Humphris, and Sylvester Fonseca on projects such as Jubilee, Choona, Kathal, Chakda Xpress, and CTRL. Today, she works extensively as a director of photography across films, documentaries, and commercial projects. Follow @nirali.n on Instagram.

Kira Issar is a Delhi-born visual artist currently based in London. Working across image-making, research, and critical inquiry, her interdisciplinary practice investigates the relationships between silence and violence, bodies and landscapes, and human and more-than-human worlds. Rooted in ecofeminist thought, her work examines memory, ecology, and interconnected ways of seeing and inhabiting the world. Follow @kiraissar on Instagram.

Homegrown videographer and visual storyteller @trufflefriesandcholula39 documents the poetics of everyday life through an observational filmmaking practice. What began as simple skits shot on mobile phones with friends has evolved into a body of work grounded in attentiveness to ordinary moments, fleeting encounters, and overlooked details. Working with a minimalist approach, they focus on capturing life as it unfolds, approaching each subject with curiosity and care. Their films explore the subtle relationships between people, places, and emotions, revealing the extraordinary within the everyday. Follow @trufflefriesandcholula39 on Instagram.

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