Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, 38
Filmmaker

Hyphenated identity is Ashwini Iyer Tiwari's pet peeve. "Why is a woman always someone's someone?" she rightly asks. Filmmaker Nitesh Tiwari and wife Ashwiny, as she's often referred to, for instance. Rather than Ashwiny, hit director of Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017), and the critically acclaimed Nil Battey Sannata (2016), sitting on a two-film deal with Ekta Kapoor's studio, whose next is a comedy-drama with Alia Bhatt.