Today was no ordinary day. It was a day I was supposed to meet Arunabh Kumar of the TVF (The Viral Fever) fame.
It’s been long that I don’t get awestruck on meeting a celebrity.And the reason behind is my amazing encounter with Amrita Singh. Par I love meeting people who are fighters, who make it against all odds and who remain humble in spite of their huge achievements. Arunabh Kumar is one of them.
The place was perfect. It was the beautiful terrace of Imperfecto in Cyber Hub. The stage of the show Signature Startup series was perfect. While we sipped our Signature whiskey we could see the seats filling up and very soon we saw Arunabh Kumar and the host for the show Cyrus Sahukar walk in.
I went to fetch my second round of drinks and then Arunabh Bhai aur mera washroom ke saamne aamna saamna hua and I wished him “Sat Sri Akaal”. Told him I’m keenly looking forward to hear him. And then in instinct I asked him… Pic abhi le sakte hai ya baad mein. Shayad he was in a hurry to go to the loo, so he said “Abhi poori raat yahi bitani hai, Araams e le lenge” Smilingly I went to the bar, Picked my next glass of Signature Whiskey and rested in my seat. Shayad coincidentally tha ki we had 4 seats there and mine had a bigger circumference 🙂
Cyrus introduced Arunabh and he entered the frame in a “Garbage Bin” T-shirt and a Red Cap. I smiled that we are wearing headgear of the same colour. RED 🙂
The entire interview was a great one and one had to hear it in Arunabh’s voice to feel it. However, I shall try to put some of them in my language in my way.
- Spray and Pray – Some times when you life does not go in the planned way then spray and pray and then some thing does work.
- Listen : He said we made a short video and we did not like it. However, people loved it and praised it. Sometimes, we should keep our judgement aside and listen to public/Our Audience. Reminds me of the song “yeh public hai, Yeh Sab jaanti hai, yeh public hai” I’ve seen this with mistertikku.com too. Some times we may not like our content a lot, however it is appreciated a lot by our friends and readers and then we have to agree to what they say rather than cribbing. Customer is the biggest teacher.
- Use your resources well – He requested his brother in US to send him a camera and some how that helped him to explore photography and Video recording in a better way.
- Pagalpanti Zaroori hai– He was actually flying to Tokyo for a long term Job commitment. At the airport he stood still with passport in hand, Visa in hand, ticket in hand, Boarding pass in hand. Hand. However, after entering the airport the unimaginable happened. He exited the airport!!!! Does this remind you of Pitchers ka ek scene?? Mujhe to Naveen ka airport wala scene yaad aa gaya and I asked Arunabh if that scene comes from his experience. He replied in affirmative. 🙂
- Arunabh’s father was against movies. To an extent he has seen just one movie and that was Majboor. Same was at Home, Arunabh was not allowed to watch movies. It was only later that he was allowed one movie a week on Doordarshan. That too till Interval. That meant he would have seen 52 movies in a year and that too only half. Now the best part of this is that he became a Filmaker inspite of all these restrictions.
- He mentioned that he has attended many schools and colleges but the biggest lessons he got was while working as an AD in the Farah Khan movie “Om Shanti Om”. He religiously took notes each night of his learnings and uses them till date 🙂
- When he made his first episode of a serial, it was appreciated by all. However, there was one lady who was adamant on not having him as director. She went to an extent to say him “If you will direct this, then I shall never let it release”. End mein he had to shelve this serial. Now, just 4 months back she applied for a job in TVF. She was rejected. Not because of Arunabh’s ego, but because he believes that if hired she may hamper someones career at TVF.
- TVF was made 6 years ago to make Corporate films… And use jo paisa kamaya that was invested in making the first Episode by them. This is an interesting topic. One must never forget his main mission and uske liye if one has to pivot for some time, then it’s ok.
- Don’t work to prove people wrong, Work to prove yourself right 🙂
- Success was not over night. It happened after 4 and half years of Struggle
- Pitchers was written in 2012, however could see the light of the day in 2015 only.
- All good things take time to happen. On a similar note, Orgasm does not happen in a click… it takes time. So give your work the effort and time it requires rather than waiting for an overnight success 🙂
All on all it was an amazing session and I’m sure each one of the attendees came back with their own set of learnings and experiences.
