Our team

After some time in the brewing, Satsang Productions came together in 2008, when a group of like-minded media and creative professionals decided to follow their instincts and start the company they had long envisioned.

Satsang’s team come from many backgrounds, including film production, digital media, documentary and print journalism, music, photography, art direction and design.

We are brought together by our wish to bring stimulating, informative and innovative media to a wide audience. Our productions strive to please their eyes and ears, while engaging their minds and hearts.

Satsang’s work is characterised by collaboration, and a large number of associates contribute their expertise through creative and technical inputs across our various projects.

We offer expertise in a wide range of media to individuals or organisations who require high-quality productions for business or educational purposes. Our contributions could include film, music, images, text, design, and events.  

Our core team:

Shubha Giri

Shubha Giri hails from Nepal. After leaving school he plunged straight into the professional world, working in TV, documentaries, publishing and community outreach projects for the ILO. He came to England aged 21 to study anthropology but as his ambition was always to bring inclusive and substantial media to a wide audience, he ended up switching his degree to broadcasting. Since graduating he has made documentary films and consulted for a number of NGOs. Feeling that much coverage of his native region lacked a human edge, Shubha started initiating community outreach projects under a mixed media-art collective called Satsang - Voices & Visions Of The Himalayas. His mission is to create media which gives equal respect to all cultures, and explains the real context of a story, so often is missing in current broadcasting. Shubha loves roots music and Urdu poetry, and he is into fusing dub and funky bass with Himalayan melody. He is Satsang's director.

Aniruddha Das

Aniruddha Das aka Dr Das was a founding member of the internationally acclaimed group Asian Dub Foundation (ADF), which grew out of a community music project in East London in the early 1990s, which he was in charge of. The group pioneered the fusion of electronica with Asian music, and was known for the political conviction of much of its work. After 2000, ADF began to experiment with musical scoring for films, performing live accompaniment to showings of titles such as La Haine and The Battle of Algiers. Aniruddha left the group in 2005 to pursue his exploration of dub and experimental world music. His debut solo album Emergency Basslines was released in 2006 to enthusiastic reviews, and he has been playing and touring with global acts such as the Ethiopian group Dub Colossus, Baba Zula from Istanbul and Brittany's best known band Red Cardell. He now joins Satsang as the music director.

Tom Owen-Smith

Tom Owen-Smith is a linguist, researcher, journalist and an academic geek at heart. While studying Modern Languages at Oxford University and Language Documentation at the School of Oriental and African Studies (London), Tom sharpened his linguistic skills in Italy, Greece, India and Nepal. In recent years he has worked in research and communications at an NGO based in Delhi, and as desk editor of Nepali Times, an English language weekly published in Kathmandu. He now works at a university in London. Tom believes that every language and every culture carries knowledge and experience valuable for humanity's future, and he aspires to pursue further research in minority languages of the Himalaya. He is a founding member of Satsang Productions, and serves above all as "Satsang's mouth" – copywriter and press officer. He also helps out with research and production.

Rebecca Van Ommen

Rebecca Van Ommen is a photographer, artist and art director, with a professional background in advertising. Having done her apprenticeship in the Philippines, in charge of key accounts such as Uniliver and Pepsi, she currently works at Getty Images in London as an art director. Her work calls on traditional motifs and digital expertise to create original and beautiful images. Her artistic aim is to bring socially uplifting messages into the public sphere. Rebecca is Satsang's design consultant.

Taran Wilkhu

A born and bred Yorkshireman with his roots in North India, Taran graduated in Law before embarking on several journeys across Asia, where he worked in many fields including research, teaching, humanitarian work in India and as a TV presenter on a Japanese music channel. Since, he has developed his career as a Cultural Events Manager and has led numerous charity, fashion and sports-related projects with NGOs such as the World Food Programme, Disasters Emergency Committee, and Children Toy Foundation. Taran has organized countless conferences, roadshows, product launches and exhibitions, and he is passionate about developing links between businesses and local communities through partnership projects. At Satsang, he is responsible for much of our networking with the corporate and NGO sectors. He is at home anywhere in Asia, and speaks fluently Japanese and Panjabi.

Zahra Qadir

Zahra Qadir was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, though her family came to the UK when she was a child as refugees from the Soviet War. Zahra has been involved with major arts projects in Afghanistan and the UK like Reel Afghanistan and of the Great Game Festival. Her other work has included a short films project commissioning Afghan filmmakers to produce films for Channel 4, and production on several independent documentaries. She is also working with the National Film Archives of Afghanistan and the Afghan Embassy in the UK on various projects for promoting cultural exchange between Afghanistan and the UK. Zahra is a core team member of HIMALAYA Film & Cultural Festival.

Premila van Ommen

Premila van Ommen is one of the original progenitors of the idea of Satsang. An anthropologist who is also a painter and writer at heart, Premila has organised artistic events, and promoted a number of concerts and exhibitions in London and elsewhere. She also juggles academic work with running a fashion label. With her far-reaching networks and intuitive knowledge of what works and what doesn't, Premila is Satsang's moral guide, and advises the organisation on its path on the information highway.

David Calvo

David was born is Northern Spain but he grew up in  Andalusia. He ran his own communications company in Spain before selling it to move to London in 2000. Over the last decade he has spent lot of time in Italy and Hokkaido in northernmost Japan, and has put his globetrotting experience to good use working for several international companies in the travel industry, in sales, marketing and distribution, especially for the winter sports. He has studied business at Bachelor's and Master's level and has a lot of practical experience in small organisations.  An avid reader and writer,  he speaks several languages and loves learning about new places, especially where mountains are involved.