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The Team
Joshua Upputuru, Founder & Creative Director
With over 23 years of experience, Joshua has built a career at the intersection of advertising, filmmaking, and innovation. He began with a decade in global ad agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi, Ogilvy & Mather, and Contract Advertising, where he helped shape leading international and Indian brands through strategy, creative, and marketing. He went on to establish Joshua Tree Films, one of India’s prominent production houses, producing and directing ad films and original content for over 13 years.
Joshua has also led as Head of Films at MediaMonks India, where he set up the Films vertical and pioneered India’s first Virtual Production Studio with Unreal technology. Most recently, he completed two full-length feature films, delivering the entire VFX for both.
Joshua brings together the rare balance of brand-building vision and production expertise, positioning him as a business head who can seamlessly bridge creativity, strategy, and execution.
Kannan Lakshmanan, Business Head
Kannan is an accomplished leader who combines deep technical expertise with strategic business acumen. With experience across leading studios including Rajtaru, Reliance MediaWorks, Prime Focus, Teamworks, FireFox, and Famous Studios, he has played a pivotal role in building scalable infrastructures and driving transformation in media businesses.
He is known for aligning technology and talent to achieve organizational growth, crafting business visions, and simplifying complex projects into cost-effective, high-impact solutions. Skilled at orchestrating synergy between cross-functional teams, Kannan thrives in guiding organizations through pivotal transitions and delivering outcomes at scale. Kannan combines technical mastery with strategic foresight, making him a business head who can build scalable systems and lead organizations through transformative growth.
Riya Sood, Producer
Riya Sood is a producer, movement artist, and creative strategist from the mountains of Himachal Pradesh. With a multidisciplinary background spanning film production, choreography, psychology, and movement, she brings a distinctive perspective to developing and executing stories that resonate deeply with audiences.
Having worked extensively across the Indian film and entertainment industry, Riya has contributed to feature films, commercials, digital campaigns, live experiences, and branded content, collaborating with some of India's leading production houses, including Dharma Productions, Bhansali Productions, and Tips Industries. Her experience extends to projects for renowned brands such as Hero, Harley-Davidson, Nykaa, Nike, Bajaj, Blue Heaven, and Real Fruit Juices.
Years spent on film sets shaped her understanding of the creative and logistical demands of production, naturally evolving her role from choreographer to producer. Today, she focuses on building ideas from the ground up—overseeing development, assembling teams, and delivering projects with both creative integrity and operational excellence.
As a Gen Z creative, Riya embraces technology as a catalyst for innovation, believing its greatest potential lies in enhancing human imagination rather than replacing it. Her work sits at the intersection of storytelling, culture, movement, and emerging technologies, driven by a commitment to creating meaningful experiences that connect people, ideas, and emotions.
Prakash Sahoo, New Technology Head & VFX Lead
With over 17 years of experience, Prakash works at the intersection of filmmaking, real-time 3D, and next-generation VFX. His expertise spans AI-assisted workflows, Unreal Engine, Blender, previs, virtual production, and on-set VFX supervision, enabling directors and teams to visualize and execute complex ideas with clarity and precision.
He has contributed to high-pressure productions across globally recognized studios including Joshua Tree Films, DeePixel, Non-Fungible Labs (New Zealand), REDEFINE/DNEG, Trace VFX, Deluxe, Technicolor, and Reliance MediaWorks, building pipelines that merge artistic excellence with technical efficiency.
A collaborative leader, Prakash bridges directors, cinematographers, and production teams, helping projects move faster, smarter, and more creatively aligned. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts, he blends artistry with innovation, ensuring every frame serves story and emotion.
Prakash believes the future lies in the seamless integration of AI, conventional VFX, and real-time production, a workflow where ideas move faster than limitations. This convergence reduces cost and friction, accelerates decision-making, and unlocks new creative possibilities.
For him, this isn’t just innovation, it’s a new era where imagination leads, and technology follows.
Vinisha Tauro, Creative Lead
Vinisha Tauro joins Joshua Tree as Creative Lead, bringing over a decade of experience in shaping digital content, film journalism, and impact-driven campaigns. Her work with platforms like Film Companion, Mashable India, Breakthrough Trust, and the Screenwriters Association of India has honed her instinct for stories that both resonate and provoke thought. At Joshua Tree, Vinisha will helm the creative direction across projects—melding insight, emotion, and craft to create stories that connect, challenge, and captivate.
A“I’m so excited to join Joshua Tree and dive into this space where AI and creativity meet. I’ve always believed tech should fuel imagination, not replace it and Joshua Tree is building exactly that future. After working across so many storytelling formats, I can’t wait to see how AI opens new doors for how we think, write, and create together.”
Amay Arora, Creative Associate
Amay brings experience across filmmaking, advertising, and creative development, with four years working inside India’s rapidly evolving film and content space. He has worked in direction teams across roles including Assistant Director, Script Supervisor, and Director’s Assistant, with hands-on experience on commercial productions and an international project The Amazing Race Australia.
Alongside his production work, Amay has directed short-format content, developed original scripts, and completed a three-year filmmaking degree, grounding his craft in cinematic language, structure, and practical storytelling.
His skill set extends beyond set life with experience in creative research, pitch deck development, photography, graphic design, and story consulting, giving him a holistic understanding of visual communication and narrative design.
Most recently, at Chalkboard Entertainment, he contributed to concept development, screenplay evaluations, and project packaging — sharpening his ability to take ideas from spark to strategy.
Amay believes the future of filmmaking will belong to creators who understand both story and system where AI, VFX, and new-age production methods expand storytelling rather than replace it.
For him, Joshua Tree Studios is the right place to grow
not just as a filmmaker, but as a voice shaping the cinema of tomorrow.