Prof. (Dr.) Piyush Roy
Professor and Founding Dean
School of Film, Media and Creative Arts
About
Dr. Piyush Roy is an Indian National Film Award winning critic-columnist, and an international author, curator, poet, filmmaker and professor in film, media and criticism studies. He brings over three decades of combined work experience in media, publishing, education and filmmaking.
Former Editor of popular film magazine, Stardust and film-weekly, StarWeek, he has worked at senior reporting positions in Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, the Society magazine, and has been published in The Times of India Crest Edition, The Speaking Tree, The Asian Age, Screen, Orissa Post and The New Indian Express, authoring over 1000 media publications. Presently, he writes a column in The Hindu, titled Friday Talkies, that critically reviews landmark Indian films and classics.
Author of five books and an online novel series, he has taught at higher education institutions like the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), Indian Institute of Mass Communication (Dhenkanal), Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad), MIDAS (Pune), Jain University (Bengaluru), and was the Founding Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences at RV University. His latest book, Appreciating Melodrama: Theory and Practice in Indian Cinema and Television (Bloomsbury 2022), argues for the study and review of Indian cinema using Indian aesthetic philosophies.
An advisory board member of Global University Film Awards (Hong Kong), he has been a jury member of Power Brands-Bollywood Film Journalists’ Awards, the Kautik and Chalachitram National Film Festivals in India and Star Writers Program, a talent hunt for television content writers organised by Star TV India Pvt. Ltd. He also is the Founder-Festival Director of Edinburgh Festival of Indian Films and Documentaries (2016-17), and Founder-Curator of the Teen Indie Film Awards (2022-), hosted by RV University, Bengaluru.
In the filmmaking world, his debut documentary feature, Pleasures Prejudice and Pride: An Indian Way of Filmmaking, has been the focus of multiple seminar screening tours across universities in the UK and India. His latest documentary, The Monarch of the Blue Mountain (2023), explores the timeless and universal appeals of Sri Jagannath culture and consciousness.
