SIDDHARTH BAHUGUNA | DIRECTOR
An avid mountaineer, trekker, and rally driver, BAFTA Award winning director Siddharth Bahuguna brings adventure into the mix at Maximus with his immense experience directing several well-known series for AXN, National Geographic, Channel V and Discovery Channel – highlights of which include Mission Everest, Mission Navy, Extreme Dhamaka, and Adventure Diaries with (now BBC host and ad- venturer) Stephen Backshall. He has also helmed documentaries for National Geographic and MTV India on Cutting Our Carbon Footprint and Sold, on Human Trafficking in South Asia.
Sid went on to head Non-fiction Programming for Colors (a Viacom owned Hindi General Entertainment Channel), where he oversaw the productions of some of the largest international and adventure / reality TV formats, including Fear Factor (Khatron Ke Khiladi), Big Brother (Big Boss), India’s got Talent, Guinness Book of World Records, and RAW Wrestling (Ring Ka King). He was equally responsible for several popular home- grown formats like Kitchen Champions and Chak Dhoom Dhoom.
No Reservations, the Emmy-award winning series hosted by the acclaimed chef, Anthony Bourdain, got Sid to handle its creative line production for its Kerala episodes. Sid has also worked extensively with short formats like advertising films and promos for MTV, while assisting film-maker, Shashanka Ghosh. In fact, he was Creative Director and Director of India’s first full-blown advertiser-funded program, Lakme Fashion House.
When he isn’t working on capturing adventure on film, Sid is training for his next triathlon and working towards his first half Ironman.
SONIA CHOWDHRY | DIRECTOR
A squash player and experienced marathoner, Sonia Chowdhry has a brilliant eye for non-fiction, and is best-known in the industry for her two long and successful stints with the BBC in India. Her first stint saw her in the role of Series Producer for an international award-winning youth reality series on HIV / AIDS in five northern Indian states, Haath Se Haath Milaa produced by the BBC World Service Trust in association with NACO. The path breaking series triumphed against tough competition from across the Commonwealth winning the Commonwealth Broadcasters Association / UNICEF Award for Outstanding Local Children’s Broadcasting, for being a “vigorous and pioneering TV cam-paign on AIDS aimed at young people which challenged minds and changed behaviour”. Sonia went on to lead the show in its next successful season for the BBC World Service Trust as its Creative Director.
Her second stint was with BBC Worldwide India, where she set up and headed Development and Non-fiction Programming for seven years — establishing BBC Worldwide, India as a major player in the content and production space in India. Her tenure saw her responsible for non-fiction shows for major broadcasters like Star Plus, Colors, NDTV Imagine, MTV, Discovery Channel, TLC, Discovery Kids, The History Channel, Epic and Disney, where, her role encompassed ideation of original formats, adaptation of BBC formats, pitching, and overseeing execution to deliver high quality and engaging content. She was also responsible for identifying and adapting formats from other international producers for BBC Worldwide to bring to India.
Sonia was approached by Fremantle Media (India) Pvt Ltd to be the Creative Director on the prestigious TED Talks India Nayi Soch hosted by Shah Rukh Khan, which brought together Indian speakers from various disciplines speaking on a range of themes. This unprecedented series, which has been extremely well received, and won the IATA Award for Best Mini Series, launched in December 2017 across multiple channels on the Star Network. The series has been recomissioned for another three seasons. Sonia continued to lead the second season which aired in November 2018, TED Talks India Nayi Baat, as the Senior Creative Director. This season featured talks in both Hindi and in English, and aired on Star Plus, Star World and Nat Geo. The entire series is also available on Star’s digital platform, Hotstar.
In 2020 she worked with Fremantle India again as the show runner for a brand new series they produced for YouTube Originals, India called YouVYouTube. In 2022, she was the Project Head on a series produced by them for Colrs Infinity called The Inventor Challenge.
When she isn't thinking up new ideas, Sonia is training hard for her next marathon/ultra marathon.
She ran the New York marathon in November, 2017, her first Ultra Marathon of 50 Kilometres in Mumbai, February 2019. In January 2024 she ran her seventh Mumbai Marathon followed by her second Ultramarathon, the Tata Ultra, in Feb 2024. In September 2024, she completed her second World Major Marathon - the 50th edition of the BMW Berlin Marathon. She ran her ninth Tata Mumbai Marathon in January 2025. She aims to run all the World Majors before she needs a new set of knees.