Vista 2022
“FEAR AND INSECURITY DRIVE ME TO GIVE MY BEST”: AAMIR KHAN
From life lessons to film scripts to the economics of movie making, the actor covers them all and keeps his audience spellbound with his take on the facets of management in films and life
Invited by the organisers of Vista 2022, the business fest hosted by the MBA students at IIMB, Aamir had the audience eating out of his hand. “The moment I drove into the driveway I was nostalgic and I have fond memories of every nook and corner of this campus where we did naughty things,” he said, striking an instant rapport with the audience when he sought to know if there were still students at the auditorium from 13 years ago! “No? Well, I am glad everyone cleared their exams,” was his instant comeback.
The panel on Facets of Management in Films and Life comprised Aamir Khan, Naga Chaitanya and Mona Singh, and was moderated by Prof. Vasanthi Srinivasan, Faculty in the OB&HRM area at IIMB.
“Versatility and excellence are the hallmarks of your 30-year-old career. What keeps you going?” asked Prof. Vasanthi Srinivasan to which Aamir replied: “Fear”. Explaining, he said, fear and insecurity have their uses. “I don’t want anyone to see a weaker moment of mine as an actor. I am driven to entertain people in a better way. I am 57 years now but in my head I am still 18! However, I am constantly working to stay relevant to young people. That’s why I want to do films for children ever so often because when a five-year old loves your film, they will stay loyal to you for the next 15-20 years. That keeps me relevant to a younger audience.”
On the subject of creativity in different fields, he said: “Teachers and creative people play a very important role in society. If you have a bad engineer, a bridge may collapse but with bad teachers entire generations can collapse,” he remarked.
Mona Singh, who successfully transitioned from television to movies, said she always knew acting would be her choice of career. “I’ve adapted to theatre and movies. I only have Plan A – and I work towards making it happen.” Aamir interjected at this juncture, saying: “Mona has been exceptional – she has hit the ball out of the park with her performance in Lal Singh Chaddha.”
From Naga Chaitanya, who hails from the first family of Telugu cinema, Prof. Vasanthi Srinivasan sought to know what it takes for him to carve out his own identity. “Initially, there was a lot of pressure. I looked at it as a responsibility. Every generation is unique to its times and trends. Be adaptable and flexible and remember that trends may change but emotions are constant.”
On working with Aamir and Hindi films, Naga Chaitanya confessed that his Hindi was “very bad” and he used the time he got during the pandemic to improve his Hindi language skills. “I had the script six months before we started shooting and that helped,” he added.
Vista Elite Speaker Series
The theme for Vista 2022 is ‘Dream Dare Deliver’ and, through a series of events, the fest has been capturing the evolving nature of business. On Friday (5th Aug), the fest was inaugurated by Mr. Anil Agarwal, Chairman, Vedanta, Prof. Rishikesha T Krishnan, Director, IIMB, and Prof. R Srinivasan, Chairperson, Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP) at IIMB. In his address, Mr. Agarwal dwelt on his definition of success and encouraged students to be fearless in their pursuits. The second session was led by BOAT Co-Founder and CMO Aman Gupta who spoke of his journey starting with finding what he likes to do, working hard towards it and making it a reality. He also discussed how to make a brand and sustainably grow it, while focusing on consumer insights. His 3P mantra, he said, was “Peeche pado (Be Persistent), passionate raho (Be Passionate about what you do), aur paise kamao (Make Profits).” Mr. Punit Renjen, Global CEO, Deloitte, spoke about purpose-led business growth that stands to serve the community that one lives in. He touched upon several sustainable development initiatives carried out by Deloitte, and the challenges faced by the business during the pandemic.
One of the 10 most followed journalists in the world and an early adopter of social media, Barkha Dutt, said her sense curiosity keeps her going as a journalist. “Never think of yourself as too old, too big or too arrogant to learn new things. I do not want to follow the curve; I try and stay ahead of it. So, I must find the characters to tell my human stories. I must keep the sanctity of my story. That is where my skill, my training and my craft and my experience come to the fore.” Barkha, the Founding-Director of Mojo Story, was in conversation with Prof. Prateek Raj, faculty in the Strategy area at IIMB, on the ‘Evolution of Journalism in the Indian Context’, on the morning of 6th August.
In the afternoon, Mr. Sudhakar Naik, from Bank of Baroda, one of the sponsors of the fest, spoke on the evolution of banking technology. “Foreign banks and new generation Indian banks are all technology driven. What is good is that public sector banks too adopted technology. From having overstaffed brick and mortar branches with no machines, not even calculators, to moving to Core Banking Solutions, Internet banking and Mobile banking, public sector banks have come a long way,” he said. Fintech companis, he said, were now disrupting the banking sector with their swift and agile operations and acumen, forcing banks to keep pace.
On 7th August, the Elite Speaker series will include an online address by Peyush Bansal, Co-founder and CEO of Lenskart, Nikhil Vyas, Co-founder and CEO of ITW MediaWorx, and an in-person address by actor Boman Irani.
“At the heart of it all, I am a storyteller”: Barkha Dutt at the Elite Speaker series of Vista 2022 at IIMB
The Founding-Director of Mojo Story was in conversation with Prof. Prateek Raj, faculty in the Strategy area at IIMB, on ‘Evolution of Journalism in the Indian Context’
One of the 10 most followed journalists in the world and an early adopter of social media, Barkha Dutt says her sense curiosity keeps her going as a journalist. “Never think of yourself as too old, too big or too arrogant to learn new things. I do not want to follow the curve; I try and stay ahead of it. So, I must find the characters to tell my human stories; not just reel out statistics. I must keep the sanctity of my story. That is where my skill, my training and my craft and my experience come to the fore.”
The Founding-Director of Mojo Story was in conversation with Prof. Prateek Raj, faculty in the Strategy area at IIMB, on the ‘Evolution of Journalism in the Indian Context’, at the Elite Speaker Series of Vista 2022 – the business summit hosted by the two-year MBA students of IIMB, today.
“I love your beautiful campus and I hate long lectures, so let’s have a freewheeling chat on changes in the way people engage with current affairs content – from legacy media to new media,” she said to the packed audience of young people at the IIMB Auditorium, pointing out that from newspapers and TV, the two top sources of news for Indians were now WhatsApp and YouTube, and journalism had sadly become about either “chamcha or morcha”.
On her own journey as a journalist, she said: “Towards end of 2019, I had enough of TV. I was bored and I wanted to reinvent myself. Serendipity struck. Mojo (magic) struck. There were a lot of things happening – students protests, riots and, of course, COVID. The lockdown, the plight of the migrants and the humanitarian crisis triggered my journey at Mojo Story and helped me rediscover why I had become a journalist as I took to the road from Delhi to Kerala reporting on COVID. During this time, people told me that what is important to them never manifests in the mainstream media. I hope to fill this void, with Mojo Story. From Kargil in 1999 to COVID in 2020, I have witnessed and chronicled history. I hope to give voice to the voiceless as my job is to be an effective storyteller.”
Referring to Professor Noam Chomsky’s concept of manufactured consent, Barkha remarked that “TV created manufactured dissent. Polarities are often played up by broadcast media.” When asked if journalism in crisis in India, she said: “There is a breakdown of the relationship between the creator and the consumer of content. Everyone today thinks they are journalists. We must think of the cost that it takes to create content and the cost that consumers pay for it. At Mojo Story, we are exploring subscriptions, master classes and original productions for revenue. I would like to say here that for the price of two Starbucks a month, you can support an independent news platform for a year! To see journalism (TV) play in the background when you eat your dinner of alu paranthas is journalism’s biggest tragedy.”
Dream, Dare, Deliver: Vista 2022 captures the evolving nature of business and management
Industry leaders, entrepreneurs, policy experts and artistes engage with students and faculty at IIMB during the two-day fest
ista 2022, the business summit organized by students of the two-year MBA programme at IIM Bangalore on 6th and 7th August, celebrated the theme, ‘Dream, Dare, Deliver’, and focused on capturing the evolving nature of businesses. Competitions, events, workshops and panel discussions with industry leaders, entrepreneurs and personalities from the world of cinema, music, sports and media, marked the fest.
One of the highlights of the fest was the technology panel discussion on 7th August. The panel comprised Ganesan Ramachandran, Managing Director of Tech Strategy and Advisory at Accenture Strategy and Consulting, and Amit Sharma, Managing Partner of Global Delivery at IBM Consulting. The panelists discussed the latest technologies ranging from Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence to Blockchain, Metaverse, Quantum Computing and more and their impact on businesses, and how sustainability is under scrutiny due to them. They added that business needs drive the emergence of such technologies. In the current scenario, they believe, all business models need to be supported by the latest technologies and should have a good Technology Quotient and Sustainability Quotient to succeed.
In conversation with Dr. Gaurav Jakhu, faculty from the Economics & Social Sciences area at IIMB, Ashok Kumar Gupta, Chairperson, Competition Commission of India (CCI), shared his thoughts on the prevailing competition policy and its implications in the changing business environment.
Ravi Venkatesan, Board Chair for the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) was in conversation with Dr. Rishikesha T Krishnan, Director of IIMB and Professor of Strategy, on how to succeed in turbulent times.
A panel from the World Bank addressed social responses to crises and observed that such responses require multi directional analysis and coordination between government and businesses.
In his talk, which was part of the Elite Speaker Series, Peyush Bansal, Co-founder and CEO of Lenskart, and alumnus of IIMB, emphasized the importance of incorporating sustainability in business. He also talked about how upcoming business leaders need to prepare for future obstacles and challenges.
Paroksh Chawla, CEO, ITW Catalyst, Nikhil Vyas, Co-founder and CEO, ITW MediaWorx and Joshey John, Director and Head of Sales, ITW Universe, spoke on the changing landscape of sports marketing and the evolution of sponsorship. They also their views on current trends of Fantasy Sports and Sports in Metaverse.
Vista 2022 closed with a discussion featuring actor Boman Irani, Prof. Sourav Mukherji, Dean Alumni Relations and Development and faculty in the OB&HRM area at IIMB and Porf. S Raghunath on “Why Career is Not a Race”. Boman Irani’s advice to students: “Pace yourself; don’t be in a hurry”.
The ceremony concluded with an address by Prof. R. Srinivasan, Chairperson, Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP) at IIMB and faculty in the Strategy area, and Poorva Singh, secretary, Vista 2022.
