The Darshana Shah Show

You know the work you put in. But do you know what people see when they decide whether to hire you, listen to you or trust you to lead? Arundhati Bhattacharya joined SBI as a probationary officer and rose to become its first woman Chairperson. Across four decades, she experienced what it means to work under authority, challenge it and eventually hold it herself. In this conversation with Darshana...

Why do so many marketing campaigns fail to move the business, even with millions of views, clicks and likes? Attention is not the same as impact. In this episode of The Darshana Shah Show in partnership with Marketing + Media Alliance (MMA) India | SMARTIES India 2026, Darshana Shah speaks with Arvind R P and Moneka Khurana about marketing effectiveness and what happens inside the SMARTIES jury ro...

What makes a marketing campaign successful? Is it millions of views, clicks and likes, or the real impact it has on a business? In this episode of The Darshana Shah Show , marketing leaders discuss what makes a campaign stand out and deliver meaningful results. The conversation explores how brands can better understand their customers, build long-term trust and compete in a crowded market. It also...

Most families spend their lives building wealth, buying property and securing insurance. But what happens when the people they've built everything for don't know what they own, where the documents are or how to access them? In this episode of The Darshana Shah Show, Kulvinder Rastogi, Founder of The Plan Beyond, shares why inheritance planning, family wealth protection and preparing for life after...

Wealth can solve many problems, but it cannot remove every problem. Leading numerologist Shradha Salla explains why even highly successful people, wealthy families and business leaders continue to struggle with three areas: health, wealth and relationships. In this conversation with Darshana Shah, Shradha explores how numerology, astrology and vastu are used in decisions involving business partner...

Hanuman Ansh was reportedly declared a flop within days of release. Its screens had fallen sharply, the film was close to disappearing from theatres, and co-producer Anupriya Nagar was considering returning to Zurich. Then the audience changed the story.  In this conversation with Darshana Shah, Anupriya Nagar reflects on the making and marketing of Hanuman Ansh , what she learned about conviction...

In this episode of The Darshana Shah Show , Gautam Raj Anand, Founder of Hubhopper, shares how he built one of India’s early podcast infrastructure companies and why podcasts are becoming a powerful tool for founders, leaders and businesses. We discuss why successful podcasts are not measured only by views and downloads, but by the trust they create, the communities they build and the business imp...

Career success can give you achievements, titles and recognition, but what happens when it stops feeling meaningful? In this conversation, Molly Kapoor explores the deeper side of leadership mindset, purpose and the search for fulfilment beyond professional success. Molly Kapoor shares her journey from becoming Miss Agra to building a career across technology, financial services and eventually hol...

A ₹925 crore exit is easy to remember. What is harder to see is the 30 years of trust, systems, people and difficult decisions that made it possible. In this episode of The Darshana Shah Show, Dr Sanjay Arora, founder of Suburban Diagnostics, shares how he went from being a pathologist behind a microscope to building one of India’s most trusted diagnostics businesses, before its ₹925 crore exit to...

Leadership looks powerful when a company is growing. But during a crisis, the visible leader can be held responsible even when the CEO has no control over the decisions, ownership or circumstances behind the business. In this episode of The Darshana Shah Show, Vineet Relia, crisis management professional and author of Relax, It’s Only a Raid, explains the dark side of being a CEO and what happens...

For years, India struggled to move money digitally. UPI changed that. But digital payments were only the first step, and India’s wider digital finance ecosystem is still unfinished. In this episode of The Darshana Shah Show, Navin Surya, one of the early builders of India’s fintech and digital payments ecosystem, explains what must come after UPI and why payment access alone cannot create true fin...

most recognised D2C innerwear brands. In this episode of The Darshana Shah Show, Neha Kant, co-founder of Clovia, shares how she saw an awkward, underserved problem in India’s lingerie and innerwear market and built a consumer brand around trust, comfort, data and timing. This conversation explores the founder mindset behind building Clovia, the early days of D2C in India, how customer insights sh...

Building a successful restaurant business in India takes more than good food, funding or fast expansion. In this episode of The Darshana Shah Show, Gauri Devidayal shares the founder mindset behind building The Table, staying consistent for 15 years and becoming one of India’s most respected names in premium hospitality. In this conversation, Darshana Shah and Gauri Devidayal discuss what it reall...

Gabit Co-Founder Arpana Shahi shares what it takes to build a healthtech business in India, where health tracking, preventive health and longevity are becoming part of everyday life. In this conversation, Arpana talks about her journey from a small town in Bihar to IIT, IIM, McKinsey and entrepreneurship, and why her own health journey during Covid shaped the idea behind Gabit. She explains why lo...

What does it take to build a leadership mindset that chooses discipline over speed, trust over noise, and consistency over shortcuts? In this episode of The Darshana Shah Show, Darshana Shah speaks with Vikram Bhatt, Co-founder of Enrich, on building one of India’s most trusted salon and grooming businesses from an unorganised market into a company-owned, professionally run service brand. This con...

Building a food brand is difficult. Building one for 24 years, surviving failure, pivoting with the market, and still staying focused is a different kind of founder journey.  In this episode of The Darshana Shah Show, Darshana Shah and Dheeraj Gupta, Founder of Jumboking, discuss the founder mindset behind one of India’s most recognisable homegrown QSR brands. From starting with vada pav to pivoti...

Untitled

What does India’s wealth creation story really reveal about entrepreneurship, ambition, and leadership? In this episode of The Darshana Shah Show, Anas Rahman Junaid, Founder & Chief Researcher of Hurun India, breaks down how India’s richest entrepreneurs, unicorn founders, and next-generation business leaders are shaping the country’s future. This conversation goes beyond billionaires and rich li...

What does the mental operating system of a high achiever actually look like beneath the surface? In this conversation with Nipa Asharam, founder of Eat. Breathe. Smile, we explore the hidden patterns, subconscious beliefs, and emotional habits that quietly shape performance, success, and personal growth. After spending fifteen years inside high-pressure leadership roles at Ogilvy, Times of India,...

What does a real entrepreneur mindset look like when you’re building through uncertainty, bias, and pressure? In this conversation with Akanksha Hazari, founder of LoveLocal, we explore the leadership mindset behind building a mission-driven business in India. From leaving the policy world to building a tech platform for local retailers, this episode goes deeper into decision making under uncertai...

What does a true leadership mindset look like when success, identity, and purpose collide? In this conversation with Dr. Aditi Govitrikar, the journey moves beyond achievement into the deeper question of how successful people think, adapt, and rebuild their lives. From medicine to modeling to psychology, this episode explores the real tension behind high performance - the pressure to succeed acros...

Why do some founders win by going slow?  In this episode of The Darshana Shah Show, Nayaan Ratandhayara, Co-founder of Shipyaari, breaks down the entrepreneur mindset behind building a logistics business through patience, failure, and disciplined execution. From shutting down an early venture despite being ahead of the market to going back to a job and rebuilding from scratch, this conversation ex...

In this episode of The Darshana Shah Show, Puru Gupta, Co-Founder of True Elements, shares the journey behind building one of India’s leading clean-label health food brands. What started as a personal turning point eventually led him into entrepreneurship, but the path wasn’t straightforward. The company went through nearly 17 pivots before finding product-market fit. Puru talks about the realitie...

Most people see the saree as tradition. But for many younger women, it once felt impractical, heavy, and reserved only for special occasions. In this episode of The Darshana Shah Show, Sujata Biswas and Taniya Biswas, founders of Suta, share how they left their engineering and corporate careers to build a brand that reimagines the saree for modern women. What began as a small idea soon grew into a...

In this episode, we sit down with Tarun Katial, a veteran media CEO who traded the corporate limelight to build Coto, a revolutionary emotional wellness platform. From the "loneliness at the top" in the boardrooms of major media companies to founding a purpose-driven startup, Tarun walks us through his transformative journey. He shares insights on identifying the deep need for safe digital spaces,...