For the last twenty years, we have been telling stories, championing talent and inspiring cultural enthusiasts. As we look back on our journey, I feel extremely proud that we have not deviated from our very first thought or diluted our intention - of presenting emerging talents, following their impressive trajectories and applauding the masters.
Over the years, our talent pool has exceeded thousands and continues to grow. Our community has strengthened and has seen many debutants, we have featured, thrive in their industries.
Platform is shaped around the arts and the most beautiful aspect of the arts is that each genre tells stories in their own format, structure and interpretation. Part of our job is to interact with the creative industry, have important conversations and ultimately invite our readers to what we hope, engages, enlightens and motivates.
We are also no longer only a publication. Platform is a creative playground that presents a bi-annual bookazine, which tells stories that last a lifetime, we have a digital zine that illustrates culture of the month and a dot com that keeps the imagination fired daily and stage where stories come to life.
This year, we celebrate all that we have built. We celebrate all the people who have helped us along the way and inspired us to grow, explore, experiment and encouraged us to continue to tell stories of exceptional people. Issue after issue, we have conversed with auteurs and delved deep into their artistry, learned from their journey and at the same time, interacted with next-generation talents, to know where they are going and what they are doing to get where they want to go. We have fashioned some incredible visual narratives, have collaborated with great minds and artists, with the aim that people will find truth, hope but above all, joy and inspiration across our multiple creative channels.
This edition of our bookazine, is a culmination of all we have been curating and creating all these years. We have the brilliant artistic mind of Hans Ulrich Obrist, sharing his process, journey and thoughts. We have the master storyteller, Jeet Thayil, who continues to experiment with words and structure, as his book of poetry The City Under the City and genre-bending novel The Elsewhereans finds a space on bookshelves. One of the most important producers of the Indian Film Industry, Guneet Monga Kapoor takes us on a joyride of all her struggles, choices and accomplishments. We shine the spotlight on model Lakshmi Menon who has created her own fables in the fashion and modelling industry. Designer Rooshad Shroff invites us to his studio that houses his artistry and mood board. And Shilpa Chavan and Avani Rai create a wonderland that exudes spiritual ecstasy.
Twenty years and still more to come…
Shruti Kapur Malhotra
Editor-in-chief