Since my childhood days, I had an immense interest in being a performer and a storyteller. This passion led me to select the top media institute in the country 'Indian Institute of Mass Communication' to complete my graduation. After the successful completion of the formal training, I got into All India Radio in Thiruchirapalli as the News Head of and later shifted to Doordarshan channel in Thiruvananthapuram as News Director. But, I realized the passion for movies which made me start a career as a Scriptwriter in the film industry. I got the opportunity to script two Malayalam feature films, Ayaal (2013) and Pokkiri Simon (2017) in which Ayaal film won five state awards and got screened in various International Film Festivals.
The Indian Media has a lot of talented professionals from different parts of the country making the industry diversified and fast growing. With Netflix and Amazon Prime leading the content revolution, the demand side has increased. The major challenge faced by the Industry is the dearth in the number of talented individuals who can understand the dynamics of the new age content and platform requirements. So, I decided to teach the right skills of the media to the aspirants who wanted to enter the film industry. I accepted the offer provided by the K. R. Narayanan National Institute of Visual Sciences and Arts (KRNNIVSA) to train their students. The institute was set up by the Government of Kerala as a professional film and audiovisual training and research centre. Here, we teach students to understand the needs of the industry.
The academic qualifications are one aspect of the game as it gives you just the fundamentals. In a fast changing scenario, it's the inquisitiveness of the students, observational power, adaptability, practice and perseverance that will make them hot properties in the media market. It's better to do an internship in different media organisations, for instance, let it be a media house, PR or AD agency, publications or entertainment platforms for some time as it will make the aspirants understand the best place to be around. This will help to them to identify their core strengths to excel in that field.
The Media Industry doesn't select aspirants based on a degree. A Few years back, I got a call from the Director of a leading Indian News channel that they are in search of a correspondent to be placed in Thiruvananthapuram. When I asked him about the requirements, he promptly replied 'He or She should be proficient in English and preferably Hindi and more importantly be able to spin around a story for few hours in case of a breaking situation. That's it.' The requirements of the media organizations now have nothing to do with your academic qualifications but on your preparedness and talent to meet their expectations. This will vary with media organizations, their vision and ethics, as well as the nature of openings available. The only thing I want to say to the media aspirants are - "If there is real passion, you can find your own way."
