MUMBAI: Rolling Stone India has announced its ‘Women In Creativity’ Power List. Honouring 25 women across the spectrum of music, cinema, OTT, content creation, entrepreneurship and fashion, this marks a celebratory IP with a first-of-its-kind index of exceptional names. The esteemed recipients include Oscar winners Guneet Monga and Kartiki Gonsalves, groundbreaking trans person and drag artist Sushant Divgikr, breakout musician Asees Kaur, acclaimed content creator and sexuality educator Leeza Mangaldas, content creator and diverse artistic force Mithila Palkar, lyricist and screenwrite Kausar, amongst others.

Rolling Stone India has a strong history of chronicling and amplifying women in all sectors of music and pop culture through notable features and covers. The Indian edition of the iconic Rolling Stone magazine has previously heralded women creatives and leaders such as Srushti Tawde, Raja Kumari, Selena Gomez, Katy Perry, Lilly Singh, Mithila Palkar, Koli, Niharika NM, Lisa Mishra, Dhee, CL, Vidya Vox, Divgikar, Jonita Gandhi, Monica Dogra, Anushka Manchanda and more.

Says Rolling Stone India Executive Editor and Digital Director Nirmika Singh, “The ‘Women in Creativity’ honors are designed for, of and by women. They come at a time when India is experiencing a creative movement across music, entertainment and entrepreneurship with significant contributions from women. This is historic and we have to capture, chronicle and celebrate this moment.”

The jury for the Power List comprised acclaimed artist and curator Brinda Miller, distinguished marketeer and sustainability advocate Jasleen Kaur, Nirmika Singh and Team Rolling Stone India. With these honors, Rolling Stone India further strengthens its commitment to equality, brick by brick, backed by a team comprising a majority of women across the verticals of journalism, branding, partnerships, art, business, etc.

The ‘Women in Creativity’ Power List is significant as women continue to be underrepresented at large. We’re nowhere close to equality and equity. According to USC Annenberg and Spotify’s ‘Inclusion in the Recording Studio?’ 2022 report, of the 180 artists featured on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Chart in 2021, 76.7% were men and only 23.3% were women. Women have also been marginally nominated for key awards; 85.8% of the 2022 Grammy nominees in major categories were men and 14.2% were women. India’s ‘O Womaniya’ 2022 report too has noted low presence of women behind the camera with only 10% of head of department (HOD) positions across key divisions such as production design, writing, editing, direction and cinematography, held by women. Furthermore, in media and entertainment corporate houses, only 10% of senior leadership roles were held by women. The sixth economic census, by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, also highlighted that women comprise 13.76% of the total entrepreneurs in India which is 8.05 million out of the total 58.5 million entrepreneurs.

The full Women In Creativity Power List by Rolling Stone India is below (in alphabetical order):

Arati Kadav
Asees Kaur
Dolly Rateshwar
Falguni Peacock
Guneet Monga
Harshdeep Kaur
Kamiya Jani
Kartiki Gonsalves
Kausar Munir
Leeza Mangaldas
Lisa Mishra
Malini Agarwal
Masaba Gupta
Mehek Malhotra
Mithila Palkar
Nagma Mirajkar
Niharika NM
Pooja Jauhari
Prajakta Koli
Raja Kumari
Sejal Kumar
Sujata and Taniya Biswas (of Suta)
Sumukhi Suresh
Sushant Divgikar
Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju