Nagesh Kukunoor, known for films like Hyderabad Blues, Iqbal and Dor was part of the 'XCLUSIVE bunch of XEMPLARY individuals' at the TEDx event at SITM, Pune on February 22nd. The theme for the event was 'Together Towards Transition'.

The TEDx program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue at the local level. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis. Other speakers at TEDxSITM, Pune were Poorva Joshipura, Harish Iyer, Benny Prasad, Durjoy Datta, Suneet Singh Tuli, Jithin Nedumala and Ravi Subramanian.

Nagesh Kukunoor spoke on 'Can Cinema Can Cause Social Change?' He spoke about human trafficking, sexual exploitation and about his new film Lakshmi that aims to spread awareness on these very delicate topics. Lakshmi is a film about a 14 year old girl who is kidnapped and forced into prostitution. She is rescued, fights back and wins- a story about hope and courage. Monlai Thakur plays Lakshmi and movie also features Shefali Shah, Satish Kaushik, Ram Kapoor and Nagesh Kukunoor himself.

Kukunoor on the event, `The TEDx event was stimulating. Speaking about Cinema as a means of social change is a topic I am passionate about and reaching out to new well informed audiences as TEDx audiences generally are, is always exciting.`