In Pursuit of Passion..
There is a small NGO called the “Passionate Foundation” in Hyderabad. Their prime goal was to motivate the youth in the state to select alternative careers which they are passionate about & make it big in it. Dr Reddy Labs, Shantha Biotech, GVK Industries, GMR Group, Lanco, Nagarjuna Constructions – almost every success story from Andhra Pradesh comes from the traditional fields of Engineering & Medicine. Passionate Foundation bought out a book, which would be freely circulated in colleges & other places. The idea behind this book is to feature people who have made unconventional career choices like hair stylists, fashion designers, fitness trainer, florists, city planners and made a successful career out of it.
The obvious ones are biggies like Saina Nehwal, Pullela Gopichand, Narendra Paruchuri of Pragati Offset Pvt Ltd. Some of the other names are big in the Hyderabad society, like a Dinaz who made a career as a fitness trainer, Suhani Pittie – a jewellery designer, Arvind Chenji a leading photographer, Ali Baig – a theatre personality. It has also some really less known names, which make more interesting stories.
I would like to thank Hemant at Radio Mirchi for telling the guys at Passionate Foundation my story and recommending them to feature me. Not many people know that my family wasn’t too happy with my choice to get into films initially. I was coerced into Engineering stream in junior college (MPC) & failed miserably despite best efforts. Despite being from a film family, why wouldn’t my parents want me to join films? Its a long story. It an interesting argument they had. Will save it for another day! Getting into the highly capital-intensive business of print media was my choice. I had no mentors in it. I jumped into it purely out of passion, made mistakes, learnt from them & totally love my job now. Southscope will be the beginning to my longer journey in the media.
While I am amongst the fortunate amongst the ones featured in the magazine, having faced very less obstacles in my career, my choices have been unconventional & I am as passionate as the rest of them. Do read my story. And do share yours if its an unconventional & interesting one. Adios!
Telugu Cinema : Small films. ‘Big’ Obstacles.
I’d like to cut to the chase. All of believe and agree that ‘Content in King’. Agreed. But that comes with an asterisk with a fine print below that reads ‘Marketing & Distribution is the King Maker.’ And this is applicable to all films, big & small. This means even more to a small-budget film. A lot of people might be pondering, why despite having good content many small-budget Telugu films are not making money. There are two reasons :
1) Getting the audience to the theatre
2) Getting enough audience to the theatre
iPad & digital distribution will be the future of magazine journalism
I always liked the form of journalism, where the stories are longer, have a narrative style & go in-depth yet not as much as a book. It need not be instant. For that we have TV news anyway, right? So, I was always a magazine junkie. No surprises, I’m also the CEO, Publisher of Southscope, which marries my two interests – movies & magazines.
I love the magazines America has, almost on every wide topic & niche. Wired, Fast Company, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, INC & T3 are amongst my favorites. I always end up buying the imported versions of these magazine at Rs 500-700 a piece, that too a month or so after they hit the stands elsewhere.
My Review : Prince of Persia & its similarity to Telugu films
Fantasy movies are one of my favorite genres. The Mummy (1999) and Jagadeka Veerudu Atiloka Sundari (1989) are amongst my most-watched film, which I would have seen over 30 times atleast. Prince of Persia is a film that falls in similar genre. Yet, my expecations were. modest as most video-game adaptation movies suck. But, then PoP (Prince of Persia) lends itself well to a movie, I thought. Also the man behind the film was the Jerry Bruckheimer, who I adore. Read my tweet about Jerry. Prince of Persia : Sands of Time is a story of an adopted prince Dastan (Gyllenhall) who is wrongfully framed for the murder of his father, the King. He was setup by his uncle, who uses him as a ploy to attain the a magical dagger that can reverse time. Doing with would let become the ruler of Persia.
Prasthanam, a little gem that went unnoticed.
Honestly, the movie wasn’t even on my radar. I just heard from the trade thats its “good”. But I really got curiou
s with so many telugu celebs on Twitter raving about it. I made an attempt to watch it but couldn’t as it was not around in cinemas. Thankfully, the director Deva Katta himself got in touch and arranged a show for Bunny & me. I am thankful to Deva for that because I would have missed one of the best Telugu films in recent times. This shows that the Telugu film industry which is notoriously popular for its racy, commercial films can also generate classics like this, something we can proudly showcase to rest of the world.
Be Updated!
