Slumdog Millionaire Shines for India

Posted on January 28, 2009 by Vikas Pota

What a film! I finally got around to watching Slumdog Millionaire last night and have to say that for once, the film exceeded all the hype that’s been thrusted on us since its release.

Quite uncharacteristically for a Gujarati to shower superlatives on someone else, but I have to break tradition and insist that we salute Danny Boyle for his direction, AR Rahman for a beautiful sountrack, and of course, Vikas Swarup for writing the book in the first place.

I can understand the reasons that some people – mainly Indians – are kicking off about the film – it shows India’s shameful poverty like no other film has – and in these times of intoxicating economic growth – I can see why they’d want a better narrative to portray India, but let’s not forget that a third of the world’s poor reside in the motherland.

Not surprisingly, those non-Indians who’ve watched the film – who i’ve spoken with over the past few weeks, have all said that despite the poverty depicted, they’d love to visit India.

Even if Slumdog walks away without winning any Oscars this year, this film will have done more for India and Bollywood than the past two decades of films (since Gandhi), heavy investment for the Incredible India advertising campaigns, her cricketing prowess, and diplomacy of India’s elite foreign service, all bundled together!

I recently interviewed Kishore Lulla, CEO of Eros, which is India’s most successful film production and distribution company, for a book I’m writing on Indian business going global, and it was he, who prophetically said that India’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon would come from nowhere – a total suprise at a totally unexpected time. Looks like he may have been right.

Slumdog, at least in my opinion, should surpass the impact of Crouching Tiger, as it speaks volumes not just about the Indian film industry but for modern India as a whole, unlike its Chinese equivalent, which for me demonstrated how far its industry had come along. In the case of Slumdog, its not Danny Boyle, Anil Kapoor, or even Dev Patel that’s on show, the story is simply about India.

Brilliant film, a must see for anyone interested in India.

Bollywood leads the way…

Posted on June 24, 2008 by Vikas Pota

With India being all the rage in London at the moment, it was probably quite apt that the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Business Leaders Summit concluded with ICICI Bank hosting an entertainment extravaganza in their honour with Shah Rukh Khan – bollywood superhero.

Vijay Mallya, Naresh Goyal, Deepak Puri, Suhel Seth et al rubbed shoulders with their contemporaries in London to the tune of some of Bollywood’s best loved songs (as performed by SRK).

In a Q&A response, Shah Rukh reiterated that whilst Hollywood is perceived as the epicentre of films, the Indian film industry isn’t far behind and he didn’t aspire to act in Hollywood.

When delivering intercultural training programmes for Western corporates (through our India Briefing Centre), we ensure that the participants watch a 15 min slice of a Hindi film. Just by watching these clips, your senses become accustomed to the huge gulf in western and eastern cultures. Apart from the singing, dancing and overdramatized action scenes, Bollywood flicks play a central role in shaping the identities of global Indians.

Ignore them at your peril.

Crack India – be better informed.

Posted on May 24, 2008 by Vikas Pota

Last week, my firm (www.saffronchase.com) launched the India Briefing Centre – a service that can help British firms crack India. The first being bespoke sectoral briefings and training programmes that can provide executives looking to engage with India, the vital information they require to make decisions. Whilst the focus is on briefings, our mainstay is delivering intercultural training for teams from leading companies visiting India, which we’ve been doing over the past decade in various other guises.

From the moment you land to the moment you return back to your home country, you’ll find India to be a land of contradictions. Because of her shared history with Britain and her contribution to the Commonwealth, it’s easy to make the mistake that the same rules apply in India as they do, for example, in the UK. Whether it’s in the workplace, in emails, on phone conferences, or after hours when you’re socialising with colleagues – if you don’t wise up and realise that the rules are different, you’re guaranteed failure and risk alienating yourself.

Our experience tells us that those contemplating working in India are better off having some form of orientation before they leave. Learn the rules behind creating positive relations with Indians and you’ll be far more successful.

From past experience, the segment that everyone really enjoys in our intercultural training programme, is the 15 minute excerpt of a Bollywood film.

Forget what I said earlier about learning the rules – just watch the latest Bollywood flick and you’ll be fine 🙂

If you’d like to read our press release, you can view it here: http://www.saffronchase.com/SC_press_release_May2008.pdf