 Very warm welcome to Dr. Mimi and Madhuri here today who've joined us and made this evening very special for all of us here at Entrepreneur Awards. Thank you very much for joining. You know it's a power packed evening. We call it the power session but it's a power packed evening for a reason. And because you know we have got such intelligence sitting right here in this drawing room and I see so many musical instruments behind you as well. You know there is Madhuri who's done 30 years of Indian cinema. She's got 70 movies behind her that she's done in her career. And then there's Dr. Nene who has such a vivid career in healthcare sector in the US where he spent 30 years of trying to understand first. Both as a doctor and now trying to as an entrepreneur to make his best and give his best in the healthcare sector. So thank you very much for joining us here today and for the Entrepreneur Awards and the Entrepreneur Conference. We would love to speak to you about wonderful things that you're doing today. And I mean I've been reading about what you've been doing. There is a production house which is R&M that you're managing which is actually behind your name that it's so nice to see that. And then you have an edtech venture that you're doing with a dance school with Madhuri which I thought was you know you thought of it way too early because back in 2012 or 2013 nobody was thinking of edtech and particularly performing arts coming in this particular space. So I think that was really early for you to plan it and then of course you have a content platform with R&M you know which is agnostic and you're producing for OTT and lots of other platforms. So you know please tell us about how this collaboration, the business collaboration you brought together between yourselves. You come from such different industries and yet you're here as entrepreneurs trying to build this all together. So how has it been for you for the last 10 years since you started working together as entrepreneurs? Well I think it started with you just having a conversation one day we were in Denver and I was saying that you know I love dancing so much it's my passion. And is it possible to share this passion with each and every person in each and every family you know in the world. And my husband is very good with technology he is a surgeon he's a cardiothoracic surgeon but he's also very good at technology. So he said yes why not and you know that's how the conversation started and it actually developed into this whole idea of dance with Madhuri which I think Ram will be able to take you through that because I'm just the creative you know person I can think of ideas but how do you actually make them happen you know that was something I you know relied on him to tell me how he made it happen. So I think to add to that we when I came to India my view was that there's lack of access and it is for various reasons that people can't get to their doctors to the best masters for teaching or learning and for other things so in 2012 we created aren't moving pictures which is a platform agnostic digital content company. And the idea was simple that all screens would converge and become one and in the process of doing that the user would decide how they learn what they learn what content they took in and what access they got. Along that journey I was building out the health related entities and one day we started looking at it and we said look why couldn't we do this for education. And really the kernel of the germ of this wasn't dance it was to teach in a disseminated fashion using technology media and brick and mortar come together and go to the last mile. And the challenges back then were that in 2011 when we arrived in India there were only 150 million internet users and very scarce 2G 3G in the rural areas. But nevertheless we decided the you know her passion for dance was huge let's use it as our proof of concept. And so we loaded it up in three months we ideated and executed this and this was December 2012 and by February 2013 we had launched. Didn't know her popularity because and the launch included the the IT platform on AWS the front end UI UX and then the filming done by BBC and our teams with her teaching 40 lessons. That was our first start of dance with mother and then we were able to barter all kinds of deals with Viacom with other people to kind of blow this up and within you know six or eight months we then launched the apps because we knew we had traction and all that. And what we were finding is people weren't just learning but they were using that information to get jobs and so they were closing the loop. So this was like the beginning of skill India and our thought was that by building a platform like this we could give people the opportunity to learn with no boundary and dance was just the first one. And the remarkable thing about this was that it only 50% of our users were in India 50% were outside of India and according to our Google analytics and a lot of these people were parlaying their knowledge and sharing it and the goal was to create a global village for culture. Now what happened was we couldn't handle the volume and as it scaled our servers on AWS would always crash. So then we had to up our game and we had to build in redundancy and build an EC2 and and elastic redundancy we put in separate CDNs and we got it up to where you could serve a million people per second and relaunched it in 2015 with a second iteration. And that went viral and then at the same time, you know, to take it to the masses back then we didn't have 3G 4G. And so we tied up with data and launched a dance studio powered by Dance with Mathery and in doing that they already had the ground links to take it to the farthest reaches at the time. And within a month of launching our joint venture channel, we had over 100,000 paid users and we became a beta positive and profitable. But more importantly, the price was so small. And that was the other vision, right? We wanted to keep it free forever. We wanted people to be able to learn without any impasse. But what ended up happening is through sponsorship and advertising we couldn't generate enough revenue. And so we had to figure out another way to sustain it. And we contemplated taking on money because we had a lot of traction, but the visions weren't aligned. We wanted this to be a true teaching platform. So instead we turned to the DTHs, the Director Home Services, and then at the same time put a payment gateway in our own thing. But at the same time we charged very little to teach and made it an affordable thing. So in the end, my view of this, my humble view of this, and I don't have any formal business education. It's mostly in taking care of people. And the way I looked at it is my patients were my family. I would treat them the same way as I treat my own family. It's the same way with your customer. That you have to build solutions which add value to their life. And when you do that, they will take them and say, wow, this is great. I don't have any problems, you know, with this. And I align with you and I pay for this. And in fact, that's what exactly happened. Now it's scaled to where it's on four different DTHs. It goes to 206 countries with our apps and our online platforms. And now we're scaling it up. And in the lockdown, it's been really amazing because we've given people the opportunity to learn. And we kept a bunch of stuff free. I mean, we wanted to give people. We did like summer camps, you know, so that people can pop on and learn any kind of dance that they want. We had competitions, you know, keeping people busy so that, you know, they have something to do during the lockdown and something creative, something they love doing and something they can carry forward, you know, they can teach others, they can do whatever they want with the art that they learn. And so we did a lot of free lessons, summer camps. I think we've entertained people quite a bit. And then the other thing is a feature which we're launching is a live feature which actually gives you one-on-one teaching. And so we think that'll help because a lot of choreographers in their schools are shut down. And similarly in other educational fields, so we want to give them one platform where they can just sign up, we'll help them market, they'll put their price, whatever they want, and they'll get most of it, right, with the route shares and whatnot. We'll allow them to work. And at the end of the day, this is about rethinking how we do business, right? And pivoting so that we can stay skinny and, you know, attend to as many people as we can because not everyone has the opportunities right now. Sure. Totally agree with you. And I think it would be given the fact that, you know, in the pandemic, nobody can step out. Choreographers can have actually, and dance teachers, they can absolutely use your platform and do so much more. So I think in one sense, you'll probably, you may not even have started like that. You'll be an aggregator of dance schools at some point of time, which would be very interesting to see. So, you know, one of the questions I would love for both of you to answer, particularly Madhuri, let's start with you. You've been on top of the game in the film industry, and then you got married, you moved to the US, and then you came back again. How have you seen in all these cycles the entertainment industry changing? And now that you've got your own venture and you're producing content which is absolutely, you know, platform agnostic, you can do it on OTT, television, or wherever it is that you're looking at. How have you felt that the entertainment industry has evolved over a period of time? Well, I think there's a lot more discipline now in the entertainment business. When I had started, it was not a very streamlined business. It was a very skewed, you know, where people were making movies for passion. And, you know, once they have an idea, then they, very few production houses which were like, you know, like these big corporates that have stepped in now. Very few production houses like ESG, SBR, Chopra, or Subhash Gai who thought, you know, all these were, the only ones were established, and that was their business moviemaking. And a lot of other people used to come in, make a movie because, you know, it was their passion. But today, when I came back, it's much more disciplined. Everything is streamlined, you know, right from the scripts to what you're going to wear, how you're going to look, and, you know, everything is worked out beforehand. So, for an artist, it's a great thing because once you're on the set, you're completely prepared with whatever you're supposed to do. Everything is in your head and you're right there. But of course, there was a spontaneity when we used to work before when I used to walk on the sets. Sometimes we didn't have our dialogues ready and, you know, we used to wonder when will we get our dialogues? When can we learn it and, you know, actually perform the scene? So all that is taken care of, all that is gone. There's no uncertainty. Everything is planned. And I think another thing that I see which is wonderful on the sets is when I used to walk on the sets in the 90s, the only women on the sets were the hairdressers or the actress and her co-actors were women. But today, when I walk in, you know, they're women everywhere in every department over there. Yeah, yeah. I even have, I'm just making a film right now, which is nearly complete. It's called Panchak in Marathi and the DOP is a woman. And, you know, I'm so happy to see that. And women are everywhere now. And I think that's just great. And like Ram said, you know, it doesn't matter which screen you're working on, whether it's the theater like a huge screen or it's your big TV or, you know, it's your little iPad or, you know, or a little phone, iPhone or any of the smartphones. I think people will choose how they want to get the entertainment, where they want to go and get the entertainment. Sure. That's what, that's what we even talked about when we started dancing. I think the bigger issue right now is theaters are closed. Yeah. How you do things are different. Filming is done for now. You're starting in serials, you're doing things. So we really have to re-engineer what we do. And it's slowly coming back, but it's going to be up to another year and controversial issue. But the bottom line is that in order to do this, you know, we need to be very smart so that we don't end up with huge problems. And so I think now more than ever, it's going to evolve very, very quickly. Sure. And you know, I mean, given the fact that Hadiri just mentioned about how disciplined the industry has become, do you think with OTT platforms there and your own production house, which is R&M, you're able to do so much more in the industry because of that. Of course, the whole platforms in which people consume content has increased. I mean, even though there are more, I would say, formal platforms like OTT, but people are consuming it of social media, right? So how do you think content production and what is the ultimate purpose of the content production going to be going forward? I think one thing is clear. The chances that OTT takes are vastly different than what traditional studios have in the past. When you looked at tent poles, when you looked at standard things, you had to have a certain formulaic way to handle your things. You always had to have the hero, you always had to have the heroine. You had to have him doing this, that, and the other. Well, you know what? The story time scene coming out from not just India, not just the US, but everywhere on the planet are amazing. At the end of the day, as filmmakers, we're storytellers. And India bounds. We've got 1.3 billion people. Imagine the comedy, the tragedy, the sheer drama that you see in everyday life here. So I think India has a lot to offer. And to answer your question, I think OTT and all of the other players have democratized how things happen. And their motives are not always the same. You don't have to worry about your box office returns to make an amazing film. So it leaves the director and the filmmaker and the producer with a little more freedom to develop subjects, to really focus on the creatives and to build it out. And I think when you agree that the type of things which are coming out now are amazing. The stories that we're seeing now unfold. And like Ram said, you don't have to make a particular kind of a movie. You can tell your own stories the way you want to tell them. And that's what's really lovely about the OTT platform. Yeah, and we've already seen some spectacular content. And I think post-pandemic, there'll be even much better content coming through. You also, I understand, have a health tech venture, where you're planning to give advice to patients as to how they recuperate and how they sort of feel better. So please tell us a little more about it. Yeah, so thanks for asking. You know, for 20 years of my life, I practiced as an art surgeon. And we would fill the gap. We would take care of people when they were the sickest and try to bring them back from the abyss. And fortunately, with the techniques we used and science the way it is in medicine, in most cases they would do great. I couldn't turn back the clock. No matter how hard I worked, I couldn't undo what they'd done their whole lives. The same thing is, I think as a thing, what we're envisioning is, what is it that every person needs from healthcare, right? It's when you don't have it and a catastrophe happens, no matter what else you have in your life, you're in jeopardy. So what we have cooked up is something which is personalized precision healthcare, which really focuses on individuals and tries to create an entity which protects them from cradle to grave and is aligned with their well-being forever and their families and all that. And so it looks at their different variables including their lifestyle and what they have to go through because no two people are like. And the disease can be similar. How you manipulate the variables is very different. I mean, your life is going to be very different than mine than hers. And so we're actually looking at that sort of thing and it's a combination of media technology and brick and mortar, which serves to educate the patient and take care of them, give them the building blocks of cloud-based MMR which is smart and then a smart services marketplace. And so, you know, in the end with all the IoT devices, all the other things that will have, it's going to be a feedback loop which continuously monitors you. It's almost like in a car when you have a check engine light. That's what you'll end up having, not a check engine, but you'll have something which links and fills the gap between the patient and the medical community. Because I mean, let's face it, in India alone, there's 1.8 million docs, 1.33 billion people and not enough medical expertise to go around and that includes the allopathic NIU stocks, right? And the only way we can do it is to build something more than that and the pandemic has taught us that more than ever, right? I mean, I would say edutic and health tech are the two big things. We've been working on them for years but now all of a sudden they've blossomed and well, they should, right? I think we need them badly. Yeah, I totally agree with you there. So, you know, we'd love to know about what you've been doing during this lockdown. I mean, it's been challenging times, most of us. The work, probably, while we've all had massive workloads in the pre-pandemic times but I think we've all kept busy in some ways and I also see that Madhuri has just launched her first song. You know, we've seen her as a dancer, as an actor but it's the first time we've seen you as a singer. So, you know, how did you collaborate to get the song out? I understand it's an at-home venture that you did in terms of, you know, you shot it at home, so how did it happen? We had recorded the song in LA and the purpose of the song was, I love to sing. And, you know, we thought there's someone who heard my voice and they said, why don't you sing? Because you have a great voice, you should try singing. And so we got into the studio with Raja Kumari and Narendra Kumar and Narendra Singh and Ram and me and we all got together and we said, okay, what do we want to sing about? And I thought, you know, that one thing which is common to everybody and in everybody's life is struggles. And when you are faced with struggles, how do you overcome it? Sometimes you feel so down and so uncertain about the future that, you know, you have to really look into yourself and gather the strength and light a candle, you know, for sorts which can be placed in a hurricane or a storm and you're still going to be burning bright because we are public figures and we have to be like the beacon of light for everyone, whatever may be happening in our lives. And so that was the idea behind the song and that's when we wrote the song and I sung it. And now during lockdown when I looked around and I saw, you know, that everybody is going to the same kind of emotions right now because, you know, this is like an unprecedented time you're going through. There's so much uncertainty, you don't know what's going to happen and everybody was in, there's a big question mark everywhere. And I thought that maybe we should release the song during this time to give a, I could call it the candle of hope, like some positivity in their lives that, you know, it's okay. You have to burn bright and you have to help not only yourself but also others. And we dedicated the song to the doctors and nurses and the frontline workers, like the sanitation workers because they are the candles burning the brightest right now despite all odds. They are out there working for us. They are, you know, taking the risk. They're risking their own families. Sometimes they're away from their families and they're working for us. So I thought we should dedicate this. But the biggest issue is how do we shoot it? Because we cannot go out, we cannot do anything. And so, like he said, you know, YouTube was our school. We went to the YouTube and we found out how to light up and Ram, you know, kind of, we had just gifted him with a great camera for, but he loved photography. So we had bought a great camera for his birthday and a very professional. So we thought, come on now, let's be, and there were some lights in the house as well. So we kind of lit up everything. We learned how to do that. And then because I have been in the street for so long, I knew what kind of, you know, cuts we need or what kind of shots we need for the song. And so we just made it very simple. We just kept like a mic and I'm singing into the mic and, you know, we shot the song and of course we got footage for the doctors and nurses and how they're struggling right now. So we all put all that together. And because I have R&M, you know, we make so much content that our editors kind of put it all together and finally released it. So it was, it was a lot of work, but it was so much fun to learn all that. Sure. How was it for you, Dr. Naini? He was a cameraman. You know, lockdown has made us self-reliant. And this is another example of that. I've always loved toys, technology and playing and I've got a whole toolbox of different things. And so, you know, we had iPhones up and we had this up and that up and you had to adjust the lighting and it was a challenge, right? And I love challenges. And so the other advantage I had was I could talk to some of her buddies from the industry and they could coach me a little bit but doing it remotely versus doing it in person is tough. But you know, the real vision was this, look, we've got a lot of people suffering and we have a set of people, government workers, the police, the sanitation workers, the doctors, the nurses, all these guys on the front line, we're like, look, we want to be behind them 110% and say, look, we need to all band together and we need to support each other right now. And so it was a labor of love and the whole project was, to be honest, I mean, when we started this in LA, there was a lot to be sung about and a lot to develop and it was really the backstories of what she'd done through her career and so that was fun but then filming it now and putting it out and then getting it out and I don't know if you saw it but it went out to about 1.2 billion people. It blew my mind. Another digital kind of crazy. And so, you know, the message is clear that for all people who are trying to do something and make a difference, whether you're an entrepreneur or whether you're a social entrepreneur or whether you're anyone else, digital is powerful. And this lockdown will have some silver linings and we will learn together about them and for no other reason, I mean, you have to, you know, when life gives you lemons make lemonade and this is like the classic example that figure it out and see if you can make it better for everyone else around you. Absolutely, totally agree with you. So we've got some questions coming. One question we've got is that, you know, since you've got your own ed tech and health tech ventures and you're sort of very passionate about technology, are you looking to sort of invest in other startups also which are technology oriented? Yeah, so absolutely. I've been investing for many years and I run our family office and we have seated a number of health tech and ed tech and other ventures. Look, I look for amazing people who are, you know, doing things and then try to support them and, you know, the financial part of it is a small part of it. The bigger part is to bring together talented pools of people and create universes because what I see is that, you know, we need to look beyond ourselves and we need to look into worlds which haven't even been invented yet and we need to see if we can inspire India in a different way, right? And also give people opportunity. This whole ed tech was so that I could go out into the farthest reaches of the 70% rural India and find the next mother ethics, the next Piju Maraji and nurture them and bring them to the forefront and similarly, you know, we built it for dance, we're now going into other areas and so the idea is where we may teach acting, you know, filmmaking, cricket, this, that and the other, the platform can handle it and so the beauty is absolutely I'm interested in that. If there are people who are doing crazy stuff, I'd love to hear about it and I'd love to help you. Well, Dr. Naini, I have been a 90s kid and I can tell you there is only one motherly big ship so you cannot fight another one. So, you know, somebody is also asking that, what is it that you do when you're not working? How do you sort of, what is the quality time that you spend, you know, I mean, particularly in this lockdown, we've all been learning so many things. Maraji, did you cut his hair also? Yes, I did, I cut my hair. What is your job of it? You know, I mean, her rationale, I think was Sayi, she said that, look, my hair can grow out but yours can't. I think what she's trying to say is, I don't trust you with my hair. I would have gone to YouTube and saw how to do it and, you know, tried to make it symmetric and, you know, I'm a surgeon so you measure twice, cut once and make it all work. But there's a lot of things we got to do and another thing I think this lockdown has given us is time to spend with our families. Because everybody is so busy and everybody used to complain, we don't get enough time with the families, dinner was the only time where the whole family used to come together because everybody is working, the kids are busy, you're busy. But this time, I think we got a lot of time with the family so I tried to spend as much time as possible, though both of them are teenagers and boys. So as much time as I could, you know, with them and read a book finally which I was not getting to do then, you know, cooking and like the song that we shot and, you know, doing so many different things, that has been amazing. I think in the end you realize how lucky all of us are and the idea is I look at the bright side, there's going to be a lot of neat things coming out of the post-COVID era, no traffic, no pollution, working with Zoom, spending more time with your kids and your family and her mom, I mean, she's a gem, she's 88 years old and she's got a wit, which, I mean, she's the one who made mother who she is. But the bottom line is it's been, and even our people, a few of them supported us through this, right, and they stayed with us and we are eternally grateful and, you know, my whole team, 20 people, 16 are sheltering at home, four have stayed with me and I've supported all of them and the amazing part about it is we have these, you know, Friday night kind of get-togethers on Zoom just to talk about stuff and we'll play guitars and sing and even inside we'll make music. I have a full studio here now and do stuff together and so, look, you have to not worry about what you can't change. You have to cherish what you do have and enjoy life because you don't know, you know what I mean? And then change other people's lives. Yes, yes, and we've worked hard on that one. And I think, you know, I talk to many couples but I think you're such a perfect couple, you know, you compliment each other in so many ways and you know, just this talk, I mean, you know, I've always seen the couple, one person is able to cut each other and not even once in this entire talk did we see that, you know, there was any overlap. So I think you're truly the power couple and you're blessed to be with each other and together what you'll do is going to bless the world so much more just because of the kind of work that you do and some wonderful chemistry that you have both as a husband and a wife and as well as entrepreneurs. We've got you on the digital cover of Entrepreneur 2020 in for August 2020. We love to showcase the cover to you which I'm sure you want to see for the first time. So can we please have the cover on screen? That's not him though. What a gorgeous looking couple for the power. It's truly a power partnership what you've brought together and I think whether it's business, movies, health or the fact, you know, as a family you've done some brilliant stuff. Also, you know, because I think very rarely do I find couples which are so much in sync in terms of the kind of work that they do and then how they're able to plan the family together. We would also like to present to you a great honour which is the couplepreneur of the Year Award from Entrepreneur. Can we have the screen please? Thank you. I think it's well deserved indeed. Doing some brilliant, brilliant work together. Please keep it up. I'm going to give to Kavya to announce the other awards as we see some other young entrepreneurs being awarded today. Thank you so much. Thank you so much indeed for joining us as well, Madhuri Ji and Dr. Nene. Thank you so much for sharing your valuable words. Many of the people who are sort of putting their thoughts on the discus box along with me, we've all been ardent followers of yours and on social media. We managed to see what you've shared but now we got to hear how you were actually conceptualising all that you've shared. So thank you so much for that. While we have your presence here, I'll read virtually. I'll start also reading out some very interesting categories and we shall go ahead to also award them with the awards. So first up we're talking about the best social empire startup of the year. So ladies and gentlemen, this award goes to Euler Motors. So let's all come together and probably give a round of applause from our own comfort of home. Euler Motors it is. In fact, the mission is to accelerate India's transition to sustainable energy. I do believe that we also have it as Mr. Saurav Kumar who's the founder and CEO of Euler Motors. If I can quickly request him to join us, there he is. Well, Saurav, first of all, congratulations. Thank you. Thank you, Manu Maam and the entrepreneur and their team for giving us this award. It really means a lot to us. And from where I see, I think we have made some great early rights in the area of elected mobility. We definitely want to be a champion in this space. Thank you so much. This means a lot to my team and their families, my parents and teachers, investors and clients who have believed in our vision over the last two years and in this vision of sustainable India. Thank you so much for the award. Congratulations. Very well done. Thank you. Great job. Congratulations, Saurav and the team. In fact, Euler Motors, the name, it said, they get the name from the mathematician Leonhard Euler. So that's well deserved. Thank you so much for joining us. Congrats again. With that, let's take that inspiration forward and let's move on to the next category. And this is the young entrepreneur of the year. So ladies and gentlemen, young entrepreneur of the year and the award goes to Mr. Arjun Deshpande, who's the founder and CEO of General Adhar. So there we go. Congratulations to Arjun. I think Arjun will also be joining us in a minute. In fact, while he's joining, let me inform you all, 18 years' teenager who's the founder and CEO of General Adhar. He's created a new era in pharma industry. I think that's amazing. There we go. Hello. Yeah. Thank you. I always believe in blessings and special thank you to Honourable Mr. Ratatagasa for supporting my venture from seniors to senior citizens of most head of well and favourite, Madhuri Dixitji and Dr. Neneji. I extend my thanks, special thanks to you both of you to giving me Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2020. Thank you. Entrepreneur Global Media, Ritu Mariachi. Jante Kata is the first company to empower single medical store owners and we are providing affordable and quality medicines across India to every one of you. I'm not only creating jobs. I'm also creating entrepreneurs. It's time to stand up for India and become an entrepreneur. The only job to become job creators in this new era of pharma industry with Jante Kata. Wonderful. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Well needed. Love to talk to you. Yeah. Thank you very much. Honourable as well for giving me such a great honour and Madhuri Dixitji as well. So really she's also inspiration for our young youth. Yeah. Thank you. Congratulations to the Raju and the entire team. I mean, it's amazing how the baton has been taken forward by the young generation over here. With that, let's quickly move on to our next category and here we're talking about the Woman Entrepreneur of the Year. We all know that a woman on a mission needs no permission. So we want to talk about Woman Entrepreneur of the Year and the winner is Mrs. Vinita Jain, the founder-chairman of Biotech. Beautiful indeed. I believe we do have a video, but I'm going to quickly check with the team if you're playing the video or shall we just move on to the next category? Of course, Vinita is a names synonymous when we talk about the pioneering biotech, the way the industry has shaped. In fact, biotech's mission is to satisfy diverse beauty needs of the customers and they are names synonymous with oak across all the generations. So congratulations to the entire team. Let's then move on to our next category quickly and we're talking about our final category in this set. We're talking about Intropreneur of the Year. The Intropreneur of the Year is Mr. Oliver Mirza, the Managing Director and CEO of Dr. Oatka India Private Limited. Huge congratulations indeed. As we all know that Dr. Oatka India are quite fun foods, which is a leading per-ware of Western cuisine in India. So it's only befitting that Mr. Oliver is the winner of Intropreneur of the Year.