Chaitanya Chinchlikar

Chaitanya has had a multi-faceted career in Media & Entertainment. He is the Vice President & Business Head of Whistling Woods International – India’s premier Film & Creative Arts institute. He also serves as the Chief Technology Officer and heads the Emerging Media Lab.
Over the past 2 decades, he has been working towards strengthening Media & Entertainment education in India across all levels of education, while leading several academic & technological innovations at Whistling Woods, pioneering many verticals in M&E education as well as in emerging technologies like Virtual Production, Virtual Reality & AI. He has also worked in establishing several Tech Development Labs & technology partnership with several global M&E tech giants.
He has received several awards & much acclaim for his work, including being the first Indian to receive the much-coveted SMPTE Excellence in Education Medal 2024 and being invited to join as a Member of The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in 2025 in the Production & Technology branch.
He currently serves on several public policy bodies in India - including as a Founder Member in the Governing Council of the Indian Institute of Creative Technology. He has also served on the Board of Governors of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and on multiple public policy task forces related to both Education and Media & Entertainment for Government of India and various state governments.
He writes extensively in Indian & global media outlets and is an active speaker at global seminars & conferences on the M&E Industry, with special focus on Education and Technology. He is also a strategic advisor to several startups in the M&E, Technology & Education verticals.