CONVERSATIONS WITH ATUL

EPISODE 20 : A DEGREE IN PSYCHOLOGY & YET AN ENVIABLE CAREER IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY. DR. CURTIS COLE CONVERSES ABOUT GROWING UP GAY IN AMERICA, AIDS ACTIVISM & CONNECTING THE DOTS IN HINDSIGHT His family includes the 12th President of the United States, folks who made a famous brand of bourbon in Kentucky and women who excelled in golf, at a time when it was frowned upon. However, all t...

EPISODE 19 : PART 2 (OF 2) WITH AD DIRECTOR RAVI GUNDYA DESHPANDE AS WE CONVERSE ABOUT HIS JOURNEY AS A SON, A STUDENT, A FATHER, A WRITER, A FILMMAKER AND MOST OF ALL ‘A GAON DOST’ In the second part of my conversation with advertising and film director Ravi Deshpande, we conversed about a father, who used to read the vedas to him, his career as a writer on some wonderful films like ‘The terroris...

EPISODE 18 : PART 1 (OF 2) WITH AD DIRECTOR RAVI GUNDYA DESHPANDE AS WE CONVERSE ABOUT SHARING BOOKS WITH SMITA PATIL, AN INFERIORITY COMPLEX & A REBELLION AGAINST PATRIARCHY WITHIN HIS OWN FAMILY He comes from a family of landlords who were given Jaagirs by the Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. He has spent his childhood on the laps of greats like Kumar Gandharva, who used to hold pri...

EPISODE 17 : ALMOST ORPHANED AT 17, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER ARUN MATHIAS SAT AS DUMMY IN EXAMS TO PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE AT HOME. A WISE CONVERSATION ABOUT HOW TO FACE THE DEMONS OF LIFE AND YET STAY HAPPY He grew up in a chawl in Worli village, an iconic part of Mumbai which is fast being gobbled up by high rises. At 16, his mother died and his father was bedridden after a freak road accident … and he...

EPISODE 16 : PART 2 (OF 2) WITH FILM SOUND RECORDIST INDRAJIT NEOGI WHO CONVERSES ABOUT HIS RICH EXPERIENCE IN WORKING ON CULT ART FILMS & HOW THE AUDIENCE VALUES SOUND FAR LESS THAN VISUALS IN FILMS Imagine a train passes by on screen and you don’t hear the passing train at all or a tiger roars in a film but instead you hear a dog bark. These are not really good examples but I guess you now u...

EPISODE 15 : PART 1 (OF 2) WITH FILM SOUND RECORDIST INDRAJIT NEOGI, WHO CONVERSES ABOUT A BURNT SCHOOL, ATHEISM, IIT, HIS CAREER IN FILMS & HAVING THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE, IF LIFE HAS TO WORK OUT He saw Naxalism real up close when a dear friend joined the movement and was killed by the cops. He studied in a school so seeped in religion that he became an atheist who refused to do his mother’s sh...

EPISODE 14 : A FATHER AND HIS TEENAGE SON BOND ON A ROAD TRIP TO GOA. A CONVERSATION WITH JEHANGIR SURTI ABOUT HOW EARLY LIFE EXPERIENCES CAN SENSITISE & MAKE CHILDREN AWARE OF THE WORLD THEY LIVE IN He had worked on ad films for almost a decade before he directed ‘Aa Dekhe zaraa’, one of India’s rare science fiction films. After the birth of his son, he voluntarily decided to become a stay at...

(ये एपिसोड हिंदी में है। )  (This episode is in Hindi) EPISODE 13 : THE CONTRIBUTION OF CARROM CLUBS TO CREATING WORLD CHAMPIONS WITH MUKHTAR BHAI. A CONVERSATION ABOUT HOW CARROM CLUBS KEPT THE YOUTH OUT OF TROUBLE AND OTHER INTERESTING ANECDOTES Behind every champion are selfless folks who wish for a small contribution in the champion's success. In generous spirit, the only thing these gener...

EPISODE 12 : PART 2 (OF 2) WITH CLASSICAL SINGER SRABONI CHAUDHURI. A CONVERSATION ABOUT THE KIND OF SUPPORTING PARTNERS ARTISTS NEED AND SRABONI’S HARROWING NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE What would you do if you see yourself losing the one thing that you are passionate about? What would it feel like for a singer to almost die for real and then die metaphorically when told that they might never be able to...

EPISODE 11 : PART 1 (OF 2) WITH CLASSICAL SINGER SRABONI CHAUDHURI. A CONVERSATION ABOUT THE VALUE A GURU ADDS TO A SINGER, HOW RAAGS ARE USED TO COMPOSE FILM SONGS & LITTLE LESSONS IN CLASSICAL MUSIC She had a budding teaching career but she could never really free herself from the lure of the arts. She has learnt classical singing from some of the best names in the business including the ill...

(This episode is in Hindi) EPISODE 10 : THE UNFORGETTABLE ERA OF THE ORCHESTRA IN THE 80’S AND 90’S, WITH SUDHIR SINHA. A CONVERSATION ABOUT A TIME WHEN THE ORCHESTRA WAS AS BIG A SOURCE OF ENTERTAINMENT AS FILMS & CRICKET Orchestra! What is an Orchestra? In Bombay terms, an orchestra is a live programme with songs and comic skits. Orchestras existed thirty years ago and exist even today but b...

EPISODE 9 : PART 2 (OF 2) WITH FILM HISTORIAN KARAN BALI. A CONVERSATION ABOUT THE HARD ROAD TAKEN BY THE PAKISTANI FILM INDUSTRY AS KARAN IMPRESSES WITH HIS KNACK FOR NARRATING FILM HISTORY When speaking about cinema, quite a few film theorists use a language which is complex and disconnected from ground realities but I have seldom felt that way whenever I have heard Karan Bali speak or read his...

EPISODE 8 : PART 1 (OF 2) WITH FILM HISTORIAN KARAN BALI. A CONVERSATION ABOUT CHICKEN, SHEEP, COWS, VIDEO RECORDERS, THE 1983 WORLD CUP, NOORJEHAN, LATA MANGESHKAR, DILIP KUMAR AND HAMAM SOAP He comes from a family of lawyers in a country we now call Pakistan. He has lived on a farm with chicken, sheep and cows. In his formative years, the VCR, also called the Video Cassette Recorder was his best...

EPISODE 7 : THE JOURNEY FROM RIOT VICTIM TO ATTEMPTING GUINNESS RECORDS, WITH BIJU KUTTY. A CONVERSATION ABOUT A SHARED CHILDHOOD, A SAD MEMORY & A HARD-FOUGHT BATTLE FROM VICTIM TO VICTOR He was uprooted during the riots and yet, stayed positive. He changed his name and yet, never really changed at all. He never went to Engineering school and yet, is a better Engineer than most engineers I kn...

EPISODE 6 : SHE TRAVELS, ON A BICYCLE, AROUND THE WORLD, ALL ALONE. BHARATHI RAJARAM IS A CORPORATE HONCHO BY PROFESSION AND A BACKPACKER AT HEART. A CONVERSATION ABOUT HER CRAZY TRAVEL ADVENTURES As a 21 year old, she traveled all alone to Kashmir in the middle of the conflict. She has cycled from Mumbai to Goa and through half of France all by herself. She has been to 72 countries on budgets mos...

EPISODE 5 : PART 2 (OF 2) WITH HUNTER AND BADHAI DO DIRECTOR HARSHVARDHAN KULKARNI. A CONVERSATION ABOUT THE STRUGGLE TO FIND A UNIQUE VOICE IN FILMS AND THE TRICK TO ADAPT LIFE EXPERIENCES ON SCREEN In the 1970’s, there was the rise of  writers Salim-Javed’s angry young man, a world which was largely unreal, stylish, violent and very popular with the audience. Around the same time, two Bengali fi...

EPISODE 4 : PART 1 (OF 2) WITH HUNTER AND BADHAI DO DIRECTOR HARSHVARDHAN KULKARNI. A CONVERSATION ABOUT SACHIN TENDULKAR, VINOD KAMBLI AND HOW LIFELONG FRIENDSHIPS CAN BE THICKER THAN BLOOD RELATIONS While in school, he kept wickets as he watched Sachin Tendulkar half-complete a difficult challenge. He then shifted to Engineering where he graduated with hardly any engineering skills at all. At fi...

EPISODE 3 : THE BIZARRE SUCCESS STORY OF SUPERSTAR VOICEOVER ARTIST NIKHIL KAPOOR. A CONVERSATION ABOUT LUCK, LOVE & OTHER THINGS AS NIKHIL SHARES HIS SECRET PROCESS WHILE RECORDING VOICEOVERS He has sold suitcases, soaps, hair cream, biscuits, cars and every conceivable product possible but not on the streets, not in a shop or in a mall but simply through a voice you know really really well a...

EPISODE 2 : A DIFFICULT SPORTS DREAM OR A LUCRATIVE CORPORATE CAREER? WHAT DID VAIBHAV KORGAONKAR CHOOSE AND WHY? A CONVERSATION ABOUT TOUGH LIFE CHOICES In 1995, he defeated the India number one. Three months later, he beat the Maharashtra number one. The very next day, he made a life altering decision to quit a very important match and a budding sports career. He left the tournament midway. Afte...

EPISODE 1 : A FUN CHAT ABOUT CHILDHOOD IN THE 80'S & 90'S, WITH THE FUNNY JANHAVI SAMANT. A CONVERSATION ABOUT HOW GROWING UP JUST THREE DECADES AGO WAS DIFFERENT, SIMPLER & SO MUCH MORE AWESOME How different was life before the advent of the mobile phone? How was childhood in the eighties different from how it is today? Dadar hurricane Janhavi Samant converses with Atul Taishete a...