He loved films, and that drove him to the ad world. Today, Anand Menon, MD, Footcandles Film, has no regrets, but just a dream of a Cannes Gold

What inspired you to enter a production outfit after IIM?
The production house was started by my brother, Manav Menon in Chennai in 1993. I joined him immediately after I passed out of IIM in 1996, as management jobs never really attracted me because of my love for films. Here also we operate in a different manner. While Manav is a director, I am more involved with the operational aspects. It’s tough to believe, but for quite some time, our company was a single director production house and we continued working from Chennai itself.

Despite being in the industry for long, why has Footcandles Film experienced slower growth rate as compared to others?
Yes, we have been growing at a very slow rate. It’s only in 2001 that we shifted our base to Mumbai and started expanding our operations in terms of infrastructure. But, this has been a conscious effort from our side as we are quite selective when it comes to our work. Even today, we are just a team of 20 people (including directors) and we work closely on each and every film.

What has been your most satisfying work till date?
I tend to look at it differently. I believe every single work that we do is equally important. But to name a few – the initial work that we did for Aquafina in 1999, Vodafone (class room commercial), Airtel (Vidya Balan & R. Madhavan commercial), Bingo films and last year’s IPL commercial have been our most sought after works till date.

So, is it just the quality of your work that helps Footcandles Film differentiate itself from others in the business?
People primarily come to us for ‘quality work’. We are a company, which has a proper representation of clients’ schedules. Thus, we not only deliver on time, but our processes are also fairly monetised. This ultimately benefits the clients in more ways than one. But then, it’s not only the client-side that distinguishes us from others, our team also plays a pivotal role in the process. We share a unique bond with everyone and that in a way makes our work a lot easier, too.

Do you have any regrets about your professional life?
Although we don’t have any grey areas, but despite a fair amount of good work done in the past, we still have not been able to win much of international acclaim. So, my biggest goal in life is to win a Cannes Gold soon and register ourselves as a global name.

Any specific agenda for Footcandles Film for the coming three years?
I believe the Indian market is poised for a dramatic change over the next few years as more European directors are finding their way into the country (one can thank recession for the same). Thus, we have already started representing many foreign directors as it also helps us to get some international presence. We already have a high reputation for good work in India, so now we want our businesses to flow into bigger markets across the globe.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website

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The journey for Vikram Kalra & Shashank Chaturvedi, founders of Goodmorning Films, has been Kafkasque

History: (Shashanka Chaturvedi) I started with Channel V as a production assistant and then joined Ambience in their film department. Subsequently, I started assisting Kunal Kapoor at Adfilm-valas.
(Vikram Kalra) I entered college with plans to do an MBA after graduation.

Inspiration: (Shashanka Chaturvedi) It really started as an hobby. While I was working with Kunal Kapoor, in my spare time, I used to borrow his temperamental and Hi-8 camera and started making films using scripts, which my creative friend wanted to test.
(Vikram Kalra) After working for various agencies and ad films for many years, I finally branched out independently and started writing scripts for MTV. Soon, I wrote, produced and directed two documentaries for the channel. (One on the Kumbh Mela and the other one on the Pushkar Mela.)

Turning point: After making films for Lifebuoy, Director’s Special, LG washing machines and Hutch together, we finally cobbled up together in 2004 and started Good Morning Films with a bootstrap investment of just Rs.25,000 and Hutch as our first account.
 
Highlights: We believe the most important work for us till date has been the Vodafone series with Irfan Khan, the Sushma Reddy commercial for Limca and the ‘Muft ki advice’ commercial for Reliance Mobile.

Prized possession: It’s definitely the television commercial we did for The Times of India. It was named A Day in the Life of Chennai - ‘Nakka Mukka’ campaign. It is quite special to us because it won two Golden Lions for us.

USP: We are a production house specialising in documentary film making.

Future Agenda: We are in the process of taking things to the next level; and working on a feature film too as Bollywood is our next big step.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website

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Already known globally, Nirvana Films is amongst the fastest growing production houses in India. 4Ps B&M catches up with its founder, Prakash Varma

You were into Malayalam feature films for over three years, and had also worked as a director. With such experience, when you started Nirvana Films in 2001, how difficult or easy was it for you to get your first client?
Having been in the industry and knowing the tricks of the trade, it was not that difficult to sneak in and seek work. But then, proving ourselves was certainly the most difficult task. I was really lucky to get the opportunity to prove myself. During those initial days, I took up everything that came my way and tried to put in everything that I could.

What is the most challenging work that you have done till date?
I am not trying to be diplomatic but every single work is challenging, simply for the fact that we cannot take anything for granted. So, every single project that we have worked on was challenging. A director always stays dependant on many people and the toughest job is to get all these people to think along the same lines to get the job done to perfection. That’s the most challenging part of any film because every person is different.

There has been no dearth of metals for you and Nirvana Films in this short period of time. After these achievements, do you still think that awards are a great motivating factor or do you believe that actions speak louder than words?
For me awards are something that definitely gives a lot of satisfaction. However, what matters the most is the success of the project and what people talk about it. Here, I am not talking about the ad guys alone. It includes people from different walks of life. When they say ‘good’, it brings in a feeling that is much better than any award.

Is your pitching process today any different from the day when you went out to a client for the very first time?
This is something that I have never thought about. I have never got in to the marketing strategies or any kind of pitching process. I have been lucky because from the beginning itself I have tried to do justice to whatever I have got. Maybe that has worked for me.

Who all are your biggest clients at present?
Vodafone, Bajaj, Incredible India... and lots and lots actually.

Do you have any regrets from your professional life?
Absolutely none. I am so so so glad.

What is your current career goal?
See, the most common answer at this stage of life is obviously that people want to get in to a bigger medium, the feature films. And my answer is no different. More so, for the fact that I have come from the same background and I have spent quiet some time in the industry. I would love to continue with ad films for the rest of my life, but I would also love to do couple of bigger films when I get an opportunity to do so.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website

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The ex-HUL and Gillette veteran, Anil Dua, currently Senior VP – Marketing and Sales, Hero Honda, takes a tactical look at various strategic manoeuvres over the past years

That’s more of an urban story but rural India is where the company earns its bread and butter from. Do you see the rural boom continuing for the years to come?
During slowdown, the industry declined by 7%, which was unprecedented in this industry; but it is now back on a double-digit return. However, we outshone the industry in all these years. In fact, in a way, we were pulling the industry up during the slowdown phase. We increased our market share – this has happened because of many reasons and this is what we say is our ‘Multi Focal’ approach. In urban areas, it was premium and attitude bikes and products focused on women that kept the flag flying high. In rural parts of the country, we launched a campaign called Har Gaon Har Aangan, which was a big hit. We have even done various programs like the Mandi activity that we keep on doing on regular basis. We have built an infrastructure of almost 525 sales points. The contribution from the rural areas is close to 42% and in urban areas it’s 58%; this is the best in the industry; and the share is better in rural areas. It’s a typical case of being a huge company – but you still can’t afford to lose a segment of your market.

It is indeed ironic that when you entered the Indian market, Bajaj was the leader in scooters. Now, you are into scooters with Pleasure but Bajaj did decide to exit the segment. How much potential do you believe the segment?
When we decide to enter a segment or a market, we see that either there’s a huge market or there is no market. When we entered the market with bikes it was mostly filled with scooters, but today it’s just the opposite. But once we came with Pleasure, no one was looking at scooters. But now we are growing every year by double digit growth. From the marketing point of view, it’s not only fun but also comes with empowerment. The ‘why should boys have all the fun’ campaign comes with freedom for women to enjoy a ride. We had Priyanka Chopra shown as a fun loving girl and similarly our scooters are. We have ensured a very pleasant atmosphere for ladies – if any customer goes to the service station, a lady will be collecting the scooter, which makes them more comfortable and women friendly.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website

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