To me, PR is a kind of worship that I do every day. It involves a flair to relate to people, give shape to ideas and give a personality to an actor’s image. PR is my first love. I love actors with the right attitude. PR, to me, means a highly creative process of reinventing someone.
I was handling the marketing of a restaurant in Mumbai before I got into PR. We had a PR agency for the restaurant and I was the interface. After a few months, the owner of the restaurant, Rajesh Chaudhary gave me a chance to try my hand in PR. While handling the PR of the restaurant, actor Anuj Saxena, a renowned TV star in those days, threw a party at the same restaurant and after seeing my work, offered me his personal PR. Initially, I was reluctant and then eventually took up the offer. While taking care of Anuj Saxena’s PR, I came in contact with a senior person in the industry and she guided and inspired me to start my own company. She told me that I have a good style of functioning so I should start an independent PR agency. I valued her feedback and she became my inspiration since then. Today she is so caught up and doesn’t even give me time to meet her for a cup of coffee but still, my respect for her is intact and will stay so forever. She will always be special and it doesn’t make a difference even if she doesn’t reciprocate. It wasn’t easy to adjust to the fast pace of Mumbai. I learnt on the job with time, working on my skills.
I also want to credit my wife Reetu and my kids Aashay & Ishaan because they have been intensively supporting me. I am a workaholic and my profession has no time limits. They always give me space. My family is my strength and I had been always telling them that I have no friends outside. I do need my daily dose of hugs from my kids. Family is a big drive to work hard. When I see smiles on their faces, it makes my day. I may not be as expressive as one should be but I know I am intelligent and my emotional maturity and patience are extraordinary. At one point of time, people who meant the world to me failed to understand me and that hurt me but contributed to my growth in every sense of the word. That hasn’t stopped me from feeling love and affection for them which is unconditional, once I transformed myself rising above my circumstances. It is not necessary that your love has to be returned in the way you want. If I love, I love, it is my nature and personality. I focus on the positives otherwise I would have not survived in my career.
I have evolved as a person and the new me is far more vibrant, mature and understanding. I have guided my clients forever in their human relationships, knowing that I had no choice other than to guide myself perfectly in my life. I got into PR after my marriage and to get into a new profession without a strong basic knowledge wasn’t easy. I have given a lot of myself to my career. My wife is a qualified CA and she took full responsibility for my children so that I could focus on my career. I am a loner in spite of being in a people’s profession and that surely gives me individuality and a dash of magnetism.
Actors like Vivian Dsena, Arjun Bijlani, Shashank Vyas, Ssharad Malhotra, Shivin Narang, Munisha Khatwani, Ridheema Tiwari, Delnaaz Irani, Tinaa Dattaa, Mrunal Jain, Jasmin Bhasin, Shweta Rohira, Saurabh Pandey, Himanshu Malhotra, Rishina Kandhari and Rashami Desai are some of the actors with whom my name has been associated.
Images by: Prashant Samtani
Rashmi Desai
Tinaa Datta
