Vice-president, Zee TV, Middle East
My best friends were family members. Strong family bonds play an important role in shaping your personality and bringing out the best in any individual.
Since my father was a senior official in Indian Railways and had a transferable job, we couldn't think of long friendships in the neighbourhood or school. My best friends were my two sisters and a brother.
I was brought up with strict middle class values where nothing other than academics mattered. I was greatly interested in the entertainment and media industry, but the trend for all 'good' boys was to get a degree in engineering or medicine.
My father, a government servant, thought so, too. Eventually, I took the academic route, but later managed to hone my skills with a degree in business administration and computer software engineering as IT was another passion with me. My mother was very supportive.
She gave me the freedom to follow my dreams. But I was fortunate that in my management course, I got a chance to choose subjects that gave me a well-rounded education and helped me secure a job as a management trainee for a leading FMCG group.
Television was my destiny
Sometimes, many incidents can change the course of your life. At this job, I was required to travel extensively. A major car accident in our family that injured my parents and one sister made me rethink about the hectic pace of my life. I decided to leave my job as my family needed me.
For some time, I got into brand management, but once again the old bug of doing something with media and software was needling me. The convergence of the media - the merging of software products with television content - had to happen.
That was the time Zee (a TV channel) was launched in India. I had by then got a job with Times Television and was working there until I got noticed by Zee Telefilms and got a job as assistant manager.
That was one of the most productive phases of my life. I learnt a lot about the way media worked - the intricacies of the broadcasting law, programming, etc. I set up the first Zee cinema software and got a close look at the cable operation business. It was the most exciting time. I felt like I was the right man at the right place, at the right time.
IT and television continued to be my twin passions and I got exposure to all kinds of jobs associated with the visual media. When Zee took over Television Asia, I moved to London to handle its brand management portfolio for entire Europe.
Living in London, I learnt that when you talked about your identity, you were not referring to being just Indian, but Asian. We were addressing a large Asian market which included people from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and other places in the subcontinent where people spoke and understood Hindi and were fans of Indian films.
While I dabbled in glamour, media and films, I never really gave up my love for software and kept updating myself. Those were the days of venture capital boom at the Silicon Valley. I jumped onto the bandwagon and moved to San Francisco as head of a dotcom business.
But the crash in the industry brought me to New York as head of marketing for Rediffusion, an Indian Web-based company that had acquired India Abroad, one of the most prominent Indian newspaper publishing companies. We had created a model with three companies - Rediffusion, a Website company; India Abroad, a newspaper; and Valuecom, an organisation related to sales and marketing on the Net.
The big job
I think these experiences were all preparing me for the mother of all experiences coming my way, the job that I currently hold. Once you've worked in a visual medium, there is no way you can stay away from it. As a software person too, my heart was in developing visual content.
So, when I got this offer from Zee to head its Middle East division two years ago, I didn't think twice. I just packed my bags and came to Dubai. I was convinced that this was the place to be in. I was right because soon enough, I got involved in launching a separate beam for the Middle East and eventually a separate Middle East channel.
This meant a lot as it gave Zee an independent identity here with a distinct local flavour. Our high point was organising the Teen Queen contest, which was very successful, and the Middle East edition of Sa Re Ga Ma. With all these events, the holding of Zee Awards was a natural culmination or rather a grand finale. It has set a precedent and I intend to make it a permanent feature.
Media is a very fast-paced industry and it is not always easy to adapt to its speed of change. I want to make a name in the entertainment industry and everything involved with it, be it the merger of Television and computers, television screening, fight against software piracy for DVD, growth of cinemas, or amusement parks. And I think there is no place like Dubai to be able to see these changes actually taking effect in reality.
My best escape is music
The real Manish is a fun-loving guy. I love music. I love playing the guitar and my drum. Western, classical, jazz - music of all genres moves me and sometimes I lock myself in a room and play the guitar or my drums for hours. I am fanatical about keeping fit and spend hours at the gym.
I have started learning scuba-diving and intend to take a plunge one of these days into those blue waters off the East Coast.
Reconnecting with life means just sitting on the beach with friends, chatting about a lot of things under the sun but nothing in particular.
One must not approach a job with rose-tinted glasses
People often ask me if I swoon and sigh at the sight of mega film stars. I do not. That is a lesson I learnt very early in life - the entertainment world is no different from any other business. People talk about the make-believe world.
But look at the stars. They have a life, kids, wife, friends... It is a real world. Their pressures are real and they react like any other stress-ridden individual. So this industry is no different from any other industry.
The Zee Awards was a glamorous affair. But on a day-to-day basis, I am pretty much doing what other senior executives do in their jobs - generating business, chasing targets and delivering as promised.
I have a dream...
This is something that my wife, Samta, and I have dreamed of together. One day, when we have finished with our commitments, we will do something for the society, like open an old people's home... I don't quite know what it is going to be. Someday, the Almighty will show us the way...
