It’s always a good idea to develop related skills. People who’ve been following my blog know that I’ve done my fair share of bouncing around, from Investment banking to publishing to adventure sports to multimedia to writing, I’ve done it all (you can read all about it here).
Okay, so you don’t have to be all that adventurous but if you want to be in the fiercely competitive media industry, it is essential to experiment a little, at least with other media. So photographers might want to fool around with a DV Cam; singers might want to have a crack at composing; writers may want to experiment with print media and if you’re a production person, it may be a good idea to have a look at the creative side as well.
I’ve known singers who struggled for years, unsuccessfully I might add, to make a mark for themselves as singers only to get a stray break composing for the title track of a show. And now there’s no looking back for them. They are not known names (they are certainly not Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s of the world), nevertheless, they make a very comfortable living.
You never know when a door may shut in your face and another one opens. You have to be nimble and have to have the necessary skill to be able to capitalise.
Now, I’m not an expert on all the aspects of TV production/film-making so I’ll just stick to what I know best – writing. For instance, did you know that regional pulp fiction is huge business? I certainly didn’t, till read this article. I mean I knew it was big but not big. The point I’m making is, if you’re a screenwriter – fluent in a regional language and struggling to find work, you might want to contact those publications.
On a separate note, I watched the Incredible Hulk over the weekend. It’s just another superhero story. Edward Norton is good, Liv Tyler is soporific and the visual FX good. Total timepass stuff.
On a yet more different note, had an interview with the Pioneer and the Indian Express, Delhi. These articles have some more tips on writing for TV. You can read them here and here. They are there on the Kkrishnaa’s Konfessions website as well.
When tall, suave, handsome Kaustav Kapoor walks into her office, ditzy private investigator Kasthuri (aka Katie) Kumar has anything but detection on her mind. He is, after all, a scion of Bollywood’s first family—perhaps he has a role for her? Perhaps she will, at last, get to sashay down the red carpet in a designer gown, with flash bulbs following her every move?
But Kapoor’s intentions are much more prosaic: he wishes Katie to trace the heroine of his new blockbuster (and, if Katie’s read the glossies correctly, his life) who is mysteriously AWOL. Despite her misgivings, Katie finds herself unable to refuse the task entrusted to her, and thereon follows a bewildering hunt for the film star across a trail of corpses.
And if that isn’t excitement enough, she has to contend with the maddening and mysterious, but, oh-so-hot, Tejas Deshpande.
The first in a brand new detective series.
IN BOOKSTORES NOW.
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