Akhila Krishnamurthy is a freelance journalist and the founder of Aalaap, a boutique arts management company based in Chennai. Akhila has had a long career in journalism as well, during which she worked across leading publications, including The Times of India where she was the Editor of all the supplements. As a freelance writer, Akhila has contributed essays and features across The Hindu, the India Today Group, Outlook, Tehelka, Open, Elle and Harper's Bazaar.

Founded by Akhila, Aalaap is an ideas and innovations company that works with classical artistes from across the world across aspects of ideation, curation, production, publicity and strategy. She is a mother of an eleven-year-old and has spoken at TEDxNapierBridge on her two babies - Aryan and Aalaap - and how the principles of parenting and that of entrepreneurship, in a sense, mirror each other. She is also the winner of the Original Idea of the Year award from Femina and the Woman Entrepreneur of the Year at the Startpreneurs by the CII.  She lives in Chennai