 U.S.T. Bar, Deshka Barosa, Morpin, Reliance Industries Limited, Education Partner, Chandigarh University, Nutrition Partner, Uttam Ghee, Special Partner, Deshbhagat University, Bhoparai Electricals, Jewelry Partner, Shams Jwellas, Digital Learning Partner, TC by Learning, Agri Innovation Partner, GSA Industries, Agri Zone, Associate Partner, Pranterra Immigration. This evening, the discussions will focus on rethinking luxury and reviving traditions in a new look. We have here with us the royals who are defining royalty by engaging with their tradition and history in a new way. Designers who are conserving tradition through interior designing, fashionistas and screen artists who are making choices that come. So let us begin this evening with an audio visual. In the radiant glow of success and under the banner of news 18 Punjab, the aspiration unfolds as an extraordinary event for its second season, promising an experience that transcends the ordinary. As the sunsets immerse yourself in a realm where dreams are not just dreamt but realized, where every individual story contributes to the vibrant mosaic of the human experience. Step into a world where the stars align not only in the night sky but on this stage, where artists, visionaries and trailblazers, along with esteemed figures from royal families converge. From the glitzy glamour of the silver screen to the soul-stirring melodies of the music world. Hello request to editor news 18 India and news 18 Punjab Haryana Jyoti Kamal to welcome our panelists for the first session, rethinking luxury. Janita Doda, actor and fashion designer. Siddharth Daspa, designer and founder of Daspa House, Jodhpur. Born in Chandigarh actress, Janita Doda made a name for herself in Punjabi, Hindi as well as Tamil cinema. She is the co-founder of Chandigarh Fashion Week through which she is promoting talent, accessibility and the rich heritage of India. Thakur Siddhar Singh of Daspa is a designer and the founder of beautiful Daspa House. It is a century old family home in Jodhpur which he has converted into a getaway. So let us begin with the first session, rethinking luxury. Over to you Jyoti Kamal. Thank you so much Arshi. So we started off this whole last period last year in fact and this is the second time that we are doing it in Chandigarh. We did another session in Udepur. So the idea is that we talk about as India is progressing, as things are moving forward, as people are kind of wanting the finer things in life, we talk about luxury, we talk about experiences, we talk about very kind of discerning kind of things that people have started expecting. But along with it we pause and kind of take a look back because you are people who have lived it, who have seen it all, that when you started off what was your perception of this whole thing and as you now look back at it, what is your perception now? And as insiders, how do you kind of really look upon all of this? So the idea is that we kind of explore this whole field and we try and figure out how things are in terms of aspiration, how things are in terms of India moving forward, how things are in terms of reality, how things are in terms of fantasy and then how all of this actually leads to ambition which drives a lot of people forward. So Jonita starting off with you, you're born in Chandigarh, you have acted in movies, you have kind of done Saman 3D which was like a 3D movie which was a romantic movie when normally it doesn't associate a 3D movie with things popping out of it to be a romantic movie. You would rather expect it to be an action movie or you would rather expect things to be kind of really flying out of the screen. So what was that about? Why did you choose to do that and what was that whole concept about and how did that whole thought process happen and why did you choose that? You know so first of all thank you for having me and you know putting up this great initiative you know. We are living in a world which is you know in a continuous process of flux you know. So you know to talk about aspirations, luxury you know all is like really imperative. About Salman 3D it's like you know I have always you know so again I think it's about aspiration. I was you know a while growing up I always wanted to be part of something that's India's first you know so I thought I was kind of manifesting that you know I should mean something which they would say Jonathan Oda in India's first blah blah and when Salman happened so it was the first time that you know they were making a love story you know a drama in 3D because as you said we only see you know the action thrillers and we have seen you know the avatars and all of that. So yeah it was like interesting to do that and you know to shoot normal emotions when you have to be technically a little more you know perfect about and you know take care of the angles of because it's a 3D thing so how you know to get the impact in the 3D vision. So it is more than just acting you know but you have to also take care of the technicality. So I think yeah that was that was inspired me to take on Salman. Yeah like but you were just talking about the fact that it's a different platform in that sense when you do a 3D movie. So what's different about it like you were just pointing out a little bit that it's about the angles it's about a little bit more but like what's different do you act normally is it just about the cameras or do you also have to worry about how you are kind of really working for those cameras. No so no so technically it is like yeah technically it is different because the cameras are different they're not the normal cameras they're 3D cameras. So and for you as an actor basically you're just acting but then even if you have to go back and like you know check your shot at a monitor so you just can't like go and see you need to have your 3D glasses otherwise you can't see what's happening right. So that is like a basic difference and as an actor what adds up to the difference of shooting for example like if like you know I'm just doing something where I just do this. So I will have to make sure that you know the you know whatever is in my hand the object should fly in that particular direction because only then in a 3D it will have that impact for the audience you know they're going to feel it's coming right on them. So yeah then that is an added thing as an actor otherwise it's normally acting like how you would do in a normal camera a normal film. Yeah so Jonathan you come from a business family and so what was it that really triggered you that this is the domain that you want to get into what stage at what point did you decide okay this is what I want this is how I want my life to pan out. When does that happen? Does it happen like in pre-teenage years? Does it happen during your teenage years? When does it happen in college? How did you really define it? I think I kind of never planned that I'm going to be an actor. I always say that you know I'm an actor by default possibly God wanted okay she should be an actor. I was still in school when you know there were these ads you know they were making this ad for some Hollywood product I mean Hollywood production house and you know they offered me that and I was like oh okay I mean at that time I had absolutely no idea that I want to act and it was like a pricey little princess okay all right I should try and that's how it began and then it's absolutely you know the love for cinema that grew and I knew that okay I want to be an actor but so for me you know it started then there was a break and I got back to my studies because I really believe that education is very important it's vital and then again yes then I was like okay this is something that I would do tell stories you know would be something really beautiful. You're from Chandigarh but you have always found the southern movie scene very exciting yeah and you even kind of really like say Mamuti or Mohanlal the Malayali actors so what's it that kind of really fascinates you about the southern film industry and how do you kind of discriminate between distinguish rather between their working style and the working style that you see here did you find any noticeable difference in how the southern film industry works? Yeah you know so I think southern industry is very more professional I mean we are definitely getting there though I mean I made my Punjabi debut opposite the legend Gurdasman you know so like you know I have my fair share here as well but southern industry is definitely very very more professional and you know it's like if you would know that you know you'll remember even the Hindi Bollywood movies initially they used to have their entire post production work happening in you know Madras when it was Madras because they were technically way ahead of us I mean I'm talking Bollywood Punjab like you know we kind of grew in the last 10 years is like you know in the Punjab industries like really come up and is doing well for itself but yeah I think that was another thing that you know kind of attracts me to South cinema is the way they tell their stories I mean they are open to innovation they are open to different concepts you know they were not stuck to or like they're not sticking to like just one thing they are open to experimenting and one another thing that I really like about them is that the people the audiences they are very loyal to their you know movies and I think that plays a major role that is something that gives producers the liberty you know the makers that liberty to you know try and do something you know new to try some you know you know it is scripts you know because they know that their audience are gonna like kind of you know you know they'll have the back and you know they'll come they'll watch the movies which kind of lacks here and I just hope and I you know I always tell the audiences like you know if you want your children to come up you know if you want to see more stars you know from amongst yourselves you know you have to start watching your cinema you gotta like start supporting your cinema that's like you know when the makers will have that you know thing to bring in new people bring in new subjects and yeah help everyone fantastic in fact we have Shabnam ji the you Raj Singh's mother also joining us thank you so much for joining us today yeah thank you so much we'll just go to Siddharth I'll come back to you for the Chandigarh fashion week that's an initiative that you started but Siddharth Daspal just to talk about the fact that you have created a very eclectic experience in Jodhpur you you are from Mayo and then another classmate of yours also from Mayo you went and studied in Milan Italy and then you decided to come back and have this very eclectic experience that you would set up one normally sets up a restaurant or one kind of gets into music or one gets into art or one gets into curation but when you kind of put it all together you have Daspal house so where you get everything so which is basically that if you have to kind of have a meal then that whole kind of feel has to be an experience it's not just about the meal it's about that whole ambience it's about the music it's about the curation it is about the meal also why did you think of this concept and what is the kind of audience that you're catering for and where did you sense that there could be a demand for something like this so I think design I'm straight I'm a train designer so I think design has a big role to play in it when I shifted back to Jodhpur we were renovating the house and we didn't want to kind of run a you know very conventional hotel so the whole idea was to have a space wherein design meets hospitality in all forms so being it could be uniforms it could be curating tables and at the same time giving a platform to your regular art culture around the state or the country but in the real sense which is relevant today so giving it a more interactive a more like a more profound way of understanding what the artists are doing and in terms of you know having the right mix of art and when I say art it could be art in all forms it could be cinema we do we showcase like documentaries it could be bar takeovers so you have different bartenders coming on board at the cocktail bar and making some amazing cocktails there there is of course music that's something which I personally really enjoy so so most of the things which happen in the house is is what we enjoy doing and that's what kind of translates to a to a better show which you can kind of put together and also to kind of make things a little exciting for your team essentially because obviously with like your regular operations in a hotel I'm sure people get bored right so it's just exciting for the team to kind of see exciting things happening every month and it's the back of house maybe your kitchen team comes in front and kind of sees what's happening so sometimes small things like those keeps like the team energetic and it's just exciting for everybody to work you know you know like an innovative friendly environment but it's a lot of hard work I mean you could set up a restaurant you know that here is my set menu and this is how I'm going to play it out here is the interior designer who's done it all up and that's about it thereafter it's just going into a repetitive mode in terms of the meals that you serve but in your case you have to continuously innovate because it's continuously got to be an experience so you've got to keep kind of rejigging rethinking redoing renovating so isn't this like strenuous and do you think there is going to be a phase where there's going to be a burnout that okay I've had enough with this let me go back to a regular restaurant and kind of have a set menu and that's about it I think so how difficult is it or do you enjoy the process I think it's the other way around I mean if I'm doing the same thing every day I'll get burned out so you'd rather kind of do something exciting which would you know keep you going and just stuff like having your your your team or your guests kind of come in and have an experience which is which is very immersive to kind of because like we were talking before like you were saying before like luxury the definition I think changes every every day what people expect I mean it's got nothing to do with wealth I think it is first time experience of maybe going to catching a bus and going to a place back in beyond in Jaisalmer and spending a night under the stars so it's basic stuff like that which can kind of be called luxury and it's for that individual to go back home or wherever that individual is from and tell that story to friends family that's what I think luxury is for me so but what is the kind of clientele that you see there because you've started this concept called soapbox also which is where you kind of experiment with different kinds of music also and people who are kind of invited to come and perform there so you kind of tried a jazz experiment there so how did all of that pan out and what is the kind of kind of clientele that you're catering to and especially when you look at Jodhpur is it the people coming from abroad and now that you have set this up are you looking to taking this out from Jodhpur or is that way you're going to keep it our audience typically would be I mean I don't want to put my audience in a box for sure so somebody I'm sure like curious travelers yes somebody who is creative and appreciates all forms of art for sure and taking this entire idea away from Jodhpur and kind of doing a newer project is in the pipeline so we're kind of looking at something in Goa we're looking at something in Rajasthan so it'll be like a similar project but obviously stay true to I mean if you're doing something in Goa so it'll be true to the roots of Goa and not kind of replicate Rajasthan to Goa right right Jornita in fact coming back to you India is changing Punjab is changing Chandigarh is changing you see all these new malls coming up the whole airport road is coming alive with I don't know how many malls are opening up so there are there was once upon a time when Elante mall had opened up and there was this whole feel that it's going to be swamped by people coming from rural Punjab and then it's not going to be an experience but even then at least I used to kind of discuss with my friends it has people come in and when they see what's going on they'll get exposed to it they'll take some of those thoughts back with them something will change there they'll come back again see something go back that's how development happens you can't have development happen on its own it will happen in pockets and then it'll have ripple effects and spread across so that's how things move and now you see that people are changing the way they're dressing up the way they kind of look the way they want to kind of see things you see people kind of you see men buying coloured pants which earlier didn't used to really happen it used to be generally greys and blues and blacks but things are changing so when you see all of that and when you see your kind of initiative which is Chandigarh fashion week what is it that you're trying to do there what is the bridge that you're trying to create there you know so with Chandigarh fashion week like you know as you said I am from Chandigarh and but I live in Mumbai I love the city and you know there's a vibe you know we the Chandigarh against like you know we really know the vibe that the city holds and I think you know there's so much that the city has to offer and it's not just Chandigarh in itself because you know when I say Chandigarh I feel Himachal Punjab Haryana you know Punjab they're they're all connected you know everyone's like you know they're in Chandigarh so you know the idea for Chandigarh fashion week was to have a platform you know where you know which is open to innovation which is way more inclusive you know and a place where you know talent is nurtured and gets a chance to flourish you know it's like you know we of course have the best of the designers coming in the best of the models the super models the top show directors coming and then you know have a platform where the artisans the handicraft industry and you know people who possibly do not have those resources but they have the great amazing talent you know they can come in and how we are different from like the other fashion week is that you know we are an e-commerce platform so it just doesn't end with one event like you know so for anyone for the artisans for the handicraft industry the people you know it is it is like a year-round thing so once it starts it's there you know so we can you know it's like a way to go global and I feel you know these are the times you know when we need to aspire and grow together it's not just about me myself it's about us you know I mean it has to be about my happiness but how my happiness can also add some smiles to the world that's what I believe and I think that's where the idea of Chandigarh fashion week came between me and my brother and yeah taking it forward yeah in fact when you talk about the different lines like one has to wrap one's mind around these words also like something like auth kutcher which is essentially made to order something that you kind of really yeah which is which is supposed to be high fashion which is made to order which is how things were in India all around all along because everything was made to order then came the Pradaporte kind of lines where it's ready to wear so now again things are going back to auth kutcher once again kind of really kind of taking a step up so how do you kind of switch back and forth between these two ways and how do you kind of decide that what's going to work where um I don't know I think you know I have always believed kind of you know that um I always wanted to do what I want to do at that point of a time right so it's it's more about you know again it's it's a very personal choice it's about like you know what I feel like you know what brings happiness to me at that point of time so there has to be like a blend of you know a perfect blend between the luxury between what you aspire to your dreams and how your dreams are going to actually transform in you know today's scenario you know we are in a world which is like so ever evolving you know every day there's something new and we are living in times that is like so social media driven like I'll you know I'm little drifting from the topic I would let you like you know right now I've also made a documentary which is on you know the natural disasters and you know the environment and all so which is absolutely totally different from my being me being an actor director and you know fashion and like someone asked why oh I mean how can Jonathan you think of you know you know something as thing as a disaster so I was like because you know we all of us you know we really need to know what is happening around us you know it is it's these are the times when we really need to be much more aware about our surroundings and you know we really have to give back to you know what we are doing around so yeah so I've started working on that as well fantastic I think it's just that the number of opportunities have increased there's a space for everything now there's definitely you had you had kind of absolute made-to-order happening which is still happening all across Punjab you go to smaller towns it's all made to order and then you have the ready-to-be at the Zara's and everything as you come to the malls and then as you kind of step up you again get into made-to-order but then that's a different order altogether see people love customization now you know it is always a feel-good feeling you know when you have that extra touch of like you know when he's saying you know when you do that you know something extra you know you you definitely love that yeah so that and like you were saying there is all extra against and then you want to give back to society so I think it's just that opportunities are opening up for a lot many things happening and I think that's a sign of progress yeah but Siddharth coming back to you for a quick question you have also kind of now delved into another experience in your eclectic mix which is that you find people who do absolute traditional cooking or could be from some family kind of cooking style and you get them to come and then they cook their style of cooking and then it's an experience for the people who are banning in and then they also hear the stories of how that particular food was cooked why it was cooked that way so it's a very different take again moving away from standardization to very specialized customization and that also variable all the time which is a different experience altogether so again how did you think about it and then is it all based on reference because there has to be some sort of equality control because it has to be somebody telling you that okay try this out or you would do something and how would you innovate so again what was thought behind that why don't we see more of this happening all around so it's like the short story to this is getting something which is made at home right in a commercial kitchen is really difficult firstly so you need to kind of understand if you're cooking for 10 people in a commercial kitchen it's always going to be difficult so the whole idea is to make this experience more exciting so you would rather do like a chula outside and have whoever's kind of come in to cook for you to have him cook out him or her cook for the guests right there so this is one of those things you learn on the go so if you're kind of looking for a real jungly mass for example you won't find the authentic one in a hotel you'll find a similar tasting recipe but like the real stuff is which is made in homes in Rajasthan or around the country similarly what you what we also do is we we don't have a spa in the hotel right so if there is like a demand that somebody wanted to kind of get a spa so there used to be this barber who used to kind of stay or used to come for our haircuts and gave used to give us a chumpy so a chumpy is something we kind of included in an experience for our guests so that's something so unusual for somebody who's coming from elsewhere getting a chumpy with a Navratan tail and that entire vibrator thing happening in his head they kind of lose their plot so it's it's things like those which are small but that's what makes the difference yeah it's just thinking and taking it by the day and just thinking a little out of the box it's it doesn't have to be something very very very you know it's not rocket science yeah yeah i mean you almost have a business model there it's something like a home stay and then home cooked food you kind of get that but then this is about real kind of a culinary experience that a household offers which can almost kind of be something that could really take off because there was once this old talk that people would get invited to somebody's house you kind of buy a lunch at somebody's house you kind of go and then eat what is cooked there you kind of get to meet the family and you kind of get to save up whatever is happening let's see how that takes off so but i think you're kind of sowing the seeds there so thank you so much for that thank you so much jonita for being a part of this the idea was that we kind of explore the wide variety of things that people like you who are kind of blazing trails are doing and that we kind of see more of that happening thank you so much for participating in news 18's la aspiration thank you so much thank you thank you jonita thank you siddharth thank you jyoti kamal please stay on the state i'll now request editor news 18 india and news 18 panjapriana jyoti kamal to felicitate our panelists jonita doda mithakur siddharth Singh so luxury means different things to different people and it is about creating experiences which people will cherish siddharth Singh thank you jonita thank you siddharth jyoti kamal please stay on the state and with this we'll now move on to our next session reviving tradition i'll i'll now request editor news 18 india and news 18 jk lh jyoti kamal to welcome our next panelist on the stage shan bhatnagar artist collector and a maximalist interiors architect shan bhatnagar is a painter curator an interior designer whose vibrant artworks are a distinct take on the traditional temple art of pitchway he's also a conservationist working to save the dying crafts of the country and actively helps to incorporate crafts and interior projects and collectibles he has worked with royal families of rajasthan to design and run away spaces let's begin with this session we welcome you sir over to you jyoti kamal thank you urshi thank you shan for taking the time out and being with us here at laspiration this is the second edition that we are doing in chandigarh so i'm starting off right away pitchway painting that whole style that whole art that you specialize in that you're a master of what is it about well first of all thank you so much for having me here it's very special to be in chandigarh because i actually grew up in chandigarh and i used to study at the vivek high school and i think that being here and seeing the homes of beautiful homes that exist in chandigarh and how proud people were of the homes and the gardens that they had here has shaped me into who i am today so i'm very happy to be here in chandigarh and thank you for having me speaking about pitchwise i find them very aesthetic i find them very regal you know they have lots of lots of stories they've they are these wall hangings that are hung behind in nathwara at the temple of shrinaji and so the word pitchway really means something that hangs behind pitch means behind and why means a textile so the textile that hangs behind shrinaji is called a pitchway and why i got interested in it is because i was studying i was studying in germany and i studied art appreciation and part of my program was about the indian traditional paintings and i chose pitchway as my theme so i feel that you know it's got great meaning great stories beautiful subject very ornate and they're made in different parts including germany so some of the net pitchwise were actually made in nottingham and germany so it's you know spread across the entire world almost so you started in chandigarh that's an interesting thing that you just told us about again when did you kind of really think that okay this is something that i would like to kind of take as a profession because you have made a name for yourself your paintings are absolutely sought after they are kind of hung in the best of places their alliance foundation has them so it's it's something that is in huge demand but was it a point at which you decided okay this is what i want to do or did you kind of follow through with a traditional kind of learning course and then said okay let me experiment with this and then the experiment turned into a profession how did it go actually it's all by default i think um i was studying something totally different but i was always interested in it um and i think reading about it learning about it that kind of got me more interested in painting actually i don't do the pitch why i i'm my own take on the pitch why so these are oil on canvas and then i embellish them i stitch on them and it's it's recreating the darshan that i've had at natuara so whatever i mean just to kind of add to the fact that you're saying that it's a different take instead of using the natural dyes you use oil paints and secondly you don't just kind of use natural dyes and kind of create a painting you actually embellish it with rajasthani jewelry borders motifs so it's actually got a 3d feel to it it's not a flat painting it's got elements to it so that's something that you've added to it which has made it very unique and a very collectible item because of what you're kind of putting in there yeah i mean i don't intend it to be a collectible i get so attached to all my paintings that are you don't want to give them away i don't want to give them away but um what i've tried to do is to recreate what i've seen and for me i think that's most important and if people love it and people like it and i think that's even better so i think the whole process is really a lot of fun the reading the knowing the you know getting to know the stories finding out you know various mediums that i can work with i think that whole process is most interesting and that's what i look forward to rather than the finished work and and then i get very attached to them but you know that's an interesting thought that you just kind of um kind of spoke about that as a creator as an artist as anybody who kind of puts in a lot of effort to make something you get attached to it in the process of making it and as you get attached to it you kind of form a bond with it in a way and as you form a bond with it now you don't want to let go of it so how does that then turn into a profession because you have got to create this thing build an absolute bond with it and then at some point in time decide to give it away i think that's where the value in art also comes in probably the more attached an artist would be to their art i think the more valuable that piece of art would also be i don't know just exploring that is is how would you want to give away your art because you would form a bond with it yeah initially it was very hard but now it's okay um but i don't i mean forming a bond is really with the process i feel the finished work is fine it's hanging in beautiful homes and i like to see them sometimes in magazines and sometimes otherwise when i visit but i think it's not about how the investment has grown and how valuable they are but i think the whole idea of sharing shri naji or sharing my love of pitch y with others and then i also do these workshops and talks and i'm writing a book right now on shri naji so that younger children can understand this art form better so i think that sharing it with others is more of you know something that gives me a better you know gives me a high actually to really share it with others and i think that the bond is with the process and i feel that this is the only time i'm going to do it or i'll be able to do it but it just grows and grows from there shri naji is the balkrishan so is there a spiritual angle to your paintings also or is it is it a professional angle or is is there a certain spirituality that you sense because the images that i saw of your paintings they are they've got a very distinctive style even to the eyes like you make them in that fish style of eyes and then the colors that you use are bold kind of you would have a painting made with absolute black kind of shades also gray shades so is there a spiritual kind of connect to what you're doing or or i mean what is it i think spiritual is the right word i wouldn't say religious but i do feel that there is a spiritual connect if you talk about religious then i'm not really a textbook version of because i do whatever i want to do and i don't really want to follow any rules but spiritual definitely does connect me to another greater self and while i'm painting the whole you know while listening to heavily sanghita or talking about it it really does connect me at another level of spirituality we're talking about luxury here we're also talking about absolute high-end art and art that takes a lot of effort so even the last time round when we had this kind of lie aspiration the first round that we did so we were trying to understand what does one really mean by luxury what does it really mean it's it's not what one traditionally thinks it is that you spend money you buy something expensive that's luxury because luxury at the end of the day something which is very exclusive something which stands apart and by the mere fact that it's exclusive and it stands apart it has to be rare and if it has to be rare then it has to be built with that much effort and thought going into it whether it's thought whether it's effort whether it's materials whether it's craftsmanship whether it's the idea and that's what sets it apart and that's what gives it gives it its value so is that how you define luxury how would you kind of rate because i would say even a temple which is made with huge elaborate kind of efforts is luxury in a way because you could have made it simpler but the very fact that you put in so much effort into building it the kind of engineering cuts that you made to it the whole effort that was put into it would kind of put it in a different category how would you like to look at this if you had to add to the exploration of the word luxury yeah luxury i think is a state of mind it's not how much work one has put in i've seen you know beautiful temples that are very simple but aesthetically pleasing and i've seen new constructed temples or you know buildings that have taken a lot of time but are very ugly so you know and probably a lot of money but they're extremely ugly and they're not inspiring at all so i think luxury is really just a state of mind it's aesthetics it's something that pleases your senses it's something that you know gives it so it doesn't have to be expensive it doesn't have to be just rare but something i feel that more to it something that is balanced aesthetic gives you a sense of pride a nice feeling when you see it i think all of that you know buying an expensive bag for example can be termed as luxury but that may not always be true so i think that some things can be very ugly and still be expensive and i you know luxury is not really how much time one has spent on it but what it gives you back the stock market the stock market is something that people invest in people invest in a lot of other things you invest in property you invest in the stock markets suddenly there is this whole trend of investing in art now one is seeing a number of new in fact digital initiatives which talk about fractional ownership of art that you don't have to buy something worth a million dollars you can probably put in a thousand dollars into it and then expect that as the value of the art rises to two million dollars your thousand dollars become two thousand dollars so how do you look upon this whole idea of art as an investment and are you seeing this trend pick up are you seeing are you seeing people queue up to kind of invest in art it's very limited at the moment i think it's only for the masters some of those artists are not even alive anymore so i think it's something that doesn't affect artists who are living and working at the moment investing in art is a very different the people who are investing in art may not be art lovers they're just investing in an object and i think that yeah it's great for an investor but for an artist who is working currently or an artist whose you know works are very good but hasn't had the platform to show them i think that it makes zero sense for people investing in art because i think they're really investing in an object for example just for just for an example they may be buying a suzer or buying a raza some of these artists not live and and that value keeps growing and the same painting will keep coming in the market or paintings of the same artist but that's really not doing anything to the world of art per se shan before we kind of end just to kind of completely change to a different side that not just art you also do interior design and you do something called maximalist interior design what does that mean maximalist interior design either these are terms that we've created minimalism maximalism but india is all about surface decoration right from mohan judaro to the rajput palaces the mughal palaces the temples it's always always been about surface design there's always been carvings or even if it's a small even if it's something that will go on the elephant that cover that goes that velvet cover that is you know used to decorate the elephant has such intricate embroideries you know and even something that will get missed has or something that will be behind for example the pitch white which is behind the deity or she not even that has so much detail so i think that india is well whether you want to call it maximalism or minimalism india is about surface design and i think that when they say god is in the details i don't think god is in the detail of a very minimalist plain white and white so far and you know it's really just very plain not and also that maximalism or minimalism it depends on the place that you're living in also i think the the climate of that place is very important so in india most of the havelis used to have a courtyard in the middle and it was open to sky and then the rooms would be around the courtyard and i think that is conducive to the environment conducive to the hot weather in in india in the plains of india where you know there'd be circulation of air the lattice the jollies that were intricately carved would trap in cool breeze so that you know of course it pains taking leak out jollies but they would add to the beauty but also it had a purpose it wasn't just there to add beauty and aesthetics but it had a purpose also so i think that those things have remained as part of our culture today when you go to any of the forts and palaces especially because i'm from jaipur and we have lots of palaces and lots of forts and all of them are beautiful you know frescoes on it surface decoration lattice jollies and things like that so they always they were of course aesthetic but they also had a purpose and meaning to everything there's a raish there's this form of plaster that you know takes a long it's a long long process and it's about three and a half feet of skirting around every room and the floor it's made of marble dust and seashells and the whole process of making it is very tedious but it it was not only was it beautiful and they had frescoes painted on them but it also served as cool surfaces to work on in a hot very hot rajasthan desert you know state so i feel that maximalism or surface decoration is part of our culture it's something that we don't have to think i think you force yourself nowadays a lot of these homes are clones of western homes and i think the glass and steel why do you want to trap in most sun when it's already very hot so you know the glass and steel structure is very uninspiring if you ask me and the plain white interiors don't really inspire me much but i i feel that it's part of my culture always been part of my culture india's an amazing country in terms of kind of traditions and options that exist here i mean you have traveled all over the world so you would have you've studied in the u.s you would have seen like in the nordic countries they're very minimalist oriented in fact the more minimalist a thing is the more valuable it would be and for a maximalist it's in fact strange to find something made very simply being very expensive but then their society's orientation is towards probably simplifying things because work at home if like is available in india wouldn't be there so you would generally want things to be kept clean needs simple rounded edges and everything so minimalism there and maximally but it's an interesting thought nonetheless thank you so much shan for kind of taking the time out and joining us here and we'll come back to chendigarh you studied here good to have you here thank you so much thank you for having me thank you shan thank you jyoti kammal we request you to be here on the stage for the felicitation shan bhatnagar thank you shan i'll request jyoti kammal to please stay on the stage now we'll move on to our next session redefining royalty i'll request jyoti kammal to welcome our panelists for the next session alia sultana babi dinosaur princess from dujral her as she's known as doctor dinosaur and malika singh dunlore from baisa's adventures princess alia sultana babi the dinosaur princess is the daughter of the late navab of balasinore who has been advocating for the protection and preservation of the rare dinosaur fossil site in riolly near balasinore converting her family home the royal palace in a heritage home stay she has been successful in bringing recognition for the site and daughter of the royal rajput family malika singh leads marwadi horse safaris in the shekhawati region in rajasthan the indigenous marwadi horse was revived by her father in 1985 by starting the horse safaris and she took it a step ahead by founding baisa's adventures let us begin with the session over to you jyoti kammal thank you ashi thank you so much alia starting with you an unknown fact or maybe some people know it pervim babi is from your dynasty the famous actor and your dynasty of course comes from afghanistan and then kind of the babi's settle down in this area of northwestern india and kind of made their strongholds there how did you kind of really go from being somebody associated closely with royalty to actually making sure that dinosaurs in india get preserved because in balasinore that area that you come from riolly that village there is this anecdote that is often recounted that you were kind of passing by and there were these flavorsome aromas coming from a hut there and you kind of go in and there is this one lady who's known for her cooking who's cooking something really yummy out there and then you look at a mortar and a pestle that she's using to kind of grind the spices and then when you look at the pestle you see that it's an odd shape it's like oval and it's got dots on it and then you suddenly realize that it's probably a dinosaur egg and you wanted that but they wouldn't want to part with it till the time that you had to exchange a royal utensil with them and then they gave you that egg in return and that's how you kind of got that dinosaur fossil with you and this is the rajasaurus namadansis that kind of is in that area but how did you kind of traverse this journey of being a princess to actually making sure that dinosaur fossils are preserved in the balasinore area of gujarat where you come from first and foremost good evening namaskar thank you news 18 for having me here our pleasure yes i come from balasinore which is one of its kind dinosaur region and it is considered to be the world's third largest hatchery so we are in the top three which for us Indians it's a very proud moment and how i came about in it is also i was pushed into it by one of my media friends that you must do something for the preservation of these fossils because india has a lot to offer but we indians are not aware and this is what i wanted every indian to know what all india has to offer and today um after a long and arduous struggle of more than 27 years we have a fantastic museum solely for dinosaurs in a tiny little village of ray yoli which was not even on the world map and um when we have tourists visiting our place you ask any child what's your favorite dinosaur they say t-rex because they have been exposed to the world of t-rex through the movies the bollywood the hollywood movies but do any one of us know that there are indian dinosaurs with indian names i'm sure none of you know that but there are more than 30 dinosaurs from india one is named after abindranath tegar one is named after the kota formation of rocks and the tiny little of tiny little village of ray yoli also has a dinosaur named after it called ray yoli sorris gujaratensis so it has ray yoli as well as gujarat in it and the king of all the dinosaurs in india is the rajasaurus narmadensis which had a horn on its head which looked like a crown so it's just a wee bit of an effort that i made to popularize the dinosaurs in india because i felt yes today's generation needs to know about it and um uh i wanted to create something called dino tourism you know you have temple tourism you have beach tourism you have wildlife tourism and especially after these movies i created something called dino tourism and today the dinosaur museum is visited by thousands of people from all over the world and i'm very proud of what i have managed to achieve for the tiny little village and more um i'm proud because i through the gujarat tourism we have managed to give employment to the local people so that i feel is my biggest achievement and when you come back to the egg the interesting story yes um i found this egg with a village woman and she was using it to grind her masala little did she know that in reality it was a dinosaur egg because even today when you go to the rural areas you don't find mixes and grinders in most of the homes they use a mortar and a pestle silbata and this egg particular egg was covered with chilis so i very lovingly gave it a name masala anda which is in my possession and um smithsonian did a fantastic story on the fossils that i have the fossil site and about my family so what was this rajasaurus a big dinosaur because i've seen images of it it looked like a tyrannosaurus but a smaller version of it um we uh we call it the indian cousin of the t-rex um it had a horn on its head which was the most distinguished distinguishing feature um it was approximately 30 feet in length and weighed approximately 4 000 kilos but the recent research says that it had a more ferocious grip much more than the t-rex so it was an ambush predator so yes when the tourists visit the museum and they do a tour with me i definitely managed to change the mindset of the children and instead of loving the the t-rex they start loving the rajasaurus great and in fact the name itself is the royalty of dinosaurs rajasaurus probably because of the crown that it had for two reasons first inform was because it came uh i had a horn on its head which looked like a crown and secondly possibly i'm not too sure about that but i would like to say because it came from the princely state of balasinor and that is why mighty king of the narmada but um scientifically speaking every naming of a prehistoric creature has a significance the region it was found or who founded it right i'll come back to you for another bit of kind of dinosaur trivia that's there in that region which is a snake that was also found which used to kind of eat up dinosaur eggs and like that was a non-dinosaur snake predator predator of dinosaurs some indicates i forget its name but i'll come back to you for that uh going to malika malika the most yes good evening and thank you so much for i mean a very different outfit in terms of what you do in terms of preserving the marwari warhorse the most famous of them all of course is chetak when we kind of talk about absolutely a warhorse in india it was chetak maraja prataps marana prataps warhorse and eventually they kind of started losing their kind of value in folklore and journal presents till the time that your father really decided that the war horses had to be kind of preserved and that's when the tourism started that's when the safari started yes what kind of a warhorse was the marwari or is the marwari war horse okay so khamagani to everyone and thank you for having me here so the marwari horse is i'm not too loud right because my voice is already husky okay so the marwari horses are very well known as war horses but as you said after the britishers invaded and you know a certain time they were sort of getting lesser known and they yes they are very much read by our children and by all of us when we were in school in the history but people started knowing more about polo and the thoroughbreds and at some point you know the marwari horses were not known and i would say even now the journey carries on in 1985 my father decided to revive the breed it was actually just out of his passion he bought a batch of 25 horses which was in jaipur it was in an ancestral home known as dunlod house and those days you know there was some information about it in south africa that safaris like this take place so he thought that why not take this forward so we started doing horse safaris which was a way for equestrians from all over the world to come in experience india mounted on the horse and of course it it was something which you know began as his own passion to revive the breed and then we realized that people from all over the world really appreciated it they wanted to know about the unique war horse and so and so for the you know there were times when we used to be like we used to my father used to be six months on a horse like from all the way to october to march and then we have off season now coming back to me looking at this since i was 13 i guess i would say it also came genetically and when you're around you know a family where someone is so involved in horses it automatically becomes you know a part of your life so yes yeah but when you look at these war horses now they are in this safari that you run and it's an amazing experience that you offer in that whole shekhavati region of rajasthan and people come they do not know riding and then they have to figure out how to ride this horse and then but after they figure it out it's a magical experience of actually going out for two days safaris on horseback how did how did you kind of really make all of this work and are people afraid of kind of learning to ride a horse for the first time these are war horses i mean in one's imagination they come across as kind of war horses really so i mean how how did you kind of blend the two this whole safari thing people not knowing how to ride horses getting them to really mount the horses getting them to form a bond with the horses and then actually taking them out there how does this whole process work like if suppose one amongst us who doesn't know horse riding turned up for your safari how would it work will we get to ride the horses yes yes so there are two things to your question so i'll have to answer it separately firstly when we hear about the marwari horse like we know it's the war horse but there are many more features about it it's extremely sensitive it's extremely loyal and it's very spirited a lot of times people imagine that you know this horse is something which they may not be able to ride so there are two kinds of things when we're talking about long equestrian rides it has to be equestrians which are experienced we will never let anyone mount a horse who does not know riding and that to somebody who we have different levels it has to be intermediate or in advance because you're going ahead you know on you're literally like seven days on a horseback you're finishing 25 to 30 kilometers so that is one part of the business now the second thing is baisa's adventures happened in 2019 because i myself been on horse safaris with my father and i wanted to open the world of marwari horses to everyone it was my wish that you know everyone should experience what we feel and i created this experience called bonding with horses it's something which has really come about well it's about it is all about getting to know the horse in india everybody is very spoiled people come here and they go to a stable and they just mount the horse and go so this is not only for non-equestrians it's for equestrians also how are you going to spend the next six days with the horse they need to get to know you and you need to get to know them so because of that this idea came to me that why don't we create this for people who don't know how to ride so we created an experience where they could come and brush the horse get to know how to put a saddle you know simple stuff a lot of touches involved and everybody who likes animals will love this experience because you're getting also it's very therapeutic it's extremely interesting to be around an animal people do feel that it's a bigger animal so they tend to you know sort of have different ways of dealing with it i just let it go on and carry it on as the comfort of the person who's right there there is no time limit to it there are people who end up wanting to be with the horse for a way longer time there are people who end up saying that look we would just like to watch you know the person next to us could go ahead so you get a basic lesson of how to put a saddle we get you to mount the horse and a basic lesson on the posture and the little start of how it is to go riding i've had people who've come back to me and said that we want to join a club we are going to get to ride now and eventually when we sort of get somewhere we may want to come back to you so this is just a small way to sort of get them to experience how it feels to be with you know a marwari horse and not anything to do with knowing how to ride so that's it thank you so much Malika it's it's so amazing that people like you and alia who have been associated with royalty and absolute high ends of luxury and everything really kind of make sure that those communities where you kind of have your ancestral places where you have your family homes people around are also a part of your initiatives now they become an absolute part of that ecosystem that people like you who have taken the initiative have created you're offering an experience to people and along with it you're offering a livelihood to people who are kind of in that area so alia in fact you have started your own line also called alia so which is got a lot of these people from that area feeding into it so how did you kind of decide that okay this is how i'm going to make it all work together so that it becomes a viable business model for everyone and thereafter you can really focus on what you want to do which is taking care of the dinosaur fossils because a lot of that area still gets vandalized despite the fact that it has such a rich presence of fossils there they're all over literally like like you were talking about smithsonian in smithsonian again there was this description that you actually stand up on a slightly raised hill and then you kind of describe and ask what do you see there so people say that we just see some rocks bushes and stuff and then you say no that's the head of the dinosaur that's the body of the dinosaur that's where the tail starts and goes whatever fragments are available there so similarly there are dinosaurs all over the place and fossils everywhere so do you find it a challenge in terms of how these fossil parks are not really that well cared for there are these fossils that are there you have kind of filled that gap there in that ecosystem that i was talking about that whole business ecosystem which can help sustain and support all of this as i said earlier i created something called dino tourism so actually my parents were the pioneers who started the heritage homestay which is called the garden palace heritage homestay in balasinore so we started with just one renovated room and at that time i think gujarat was not even on the tourist map seeing to our neighboring state of rajasthan where it was like every tourist wants to go to rajasthan but no one wanted to come to gujarat so when we started our place as a heritage hotel what do you offer the tourists of course gujarat is very rich in terms of arts and crafts and all but that is more or less in kutch and the other areas so when it came to balasinore what were we going to offer the tourists the dinosaur site was discovered in 1980s but as i said not much was done about it and the second famous thing of balasinore is the cuisine which my mother tried to revive and this is not maglai cuisine we call it the signature balasinore cuisine so my mother was teaching the cooks teaching the chefs the recipes which she had inherited from her families or from the other families whether they were our own families or the other royalties and she in her own way through hosting food festivals across india in five-star hotels be it the ditaaj or the you know the grand maratha and all she was showcasing the cuisine of balasinore to the world and these were all age-old recipes and the same kind of food we are serving our guest at the garden palace heritage hotel of course now my mother has retired and this the she's passed the baton on to my brother and my sister-in-law and in this way when you try to revive the cuisine you are also giving employment to the locals be it the chefs be it the waiters the head you know the room boys or you get the local musicians so we also played host to maraja's express which is a super luxury train and it came to balasinore for nearly eight years and i think balasinore was the only destination in gujarat and we were giving them a traditional welcome so how were the locals benefited they were the shenai walas they were the dolis so they were getting employment we had the dancers we had the siddhi damal dancers who were performing for them and this is how even this is what is happening today also for any tourist who wants to have this kind of an experience you want to learn cooking as siddharth daspa said we also do that you want to learn a traditional cuisine we will do that for you so this way we are trying to revive our heritage and maintain it for the future generation india is such an amazing country the idea of getting you all to kind of join us for events like this is to kind of actually showcase what always happening in india you you as a dynasty come from afghanistan and you come to gujarat and then you just mentioned the siddhi dancers the siddhi dancers were slaves who were brought in by the portugese from africa and now they have also by the nababs of juna agar yes absolutely they have also become such an integral part of society these africans and royalty from afghanistan and then the maraja express coming in and people so so much is going on in india malika another quick question for you before we wrap up marwari or war horses you are kind of using them or you are kind of really being able to take care of them because they have become a part of the safari tourism circuit there then you have other race horses which are also bred for racing so there are the breeders there are the racers and then there are the safaris so do you see horse numbers in india rising do you see the horse having a good future that will kind of gallop into or do you see horses numbers going down in india in panjab you specifically have the nihangs who really take care of the horses and they kind of make sure that horses in panjab are kept alive but are you seeing numbers increasing dwindling what's happening to horses in india so i very much see that the numbers are increasing i mean i wouldn't have been like to put it like that because there's a whole world out there for marwari horses today and we are proud to say that it's because of the hard work of many of our elders who have been passionate about the marwari horses and that is the reason we are here today it's completely different when we talk about races when we talk about sports when we talk about polo and we talk about safaris each one has its own importance and all i could throw light on is that marwari horses are extremely well known for tent pegging it's one of the sports we take part in we are very well known also for the endurance in fact my first endurance was a 40 kilometer it was with my father we were in a group of four and i got my first gold medal in endurance nationals and i would say it's not because of my hard work i would say it was 20 percent mine and 80 percent my horse so there is a whole world out there where the horses are taking us i would like to personally say that in fact my uncle Colonel Sal Pratap he is here in the you know in the people here and he has a stable called the stables and he is really fiercely you know taking jumping also for the marwari horses and that is something which i'm interested in also i'm also interested in dressage for the marwari horses so there is nothing which is not possible for the horse is just that they are differently trained so you cannot have a safari horse which will also do a jumping but that's about it the journey from here i would say it's just only begun thank you so much in fact you spoke about endurance a little known fact that an animal that can outrun horses in endurance in long distance is the human being so humans can actually run outrun horses on a continuous stretch so that's like a little known fact but thank you so much malika thank you so much alia for being a part of this evening and joining us here thank you so much thank you so much thank you so much alia thank you malika thank you jyothika mali please stay on the state i'll now request news at india editor to felicitate our panelists alia sultana bhabhi doctor dinosaur and malika sing don't load from baisa's adventures thank you alia thank you malika i'll now request jyothika mali to please stay on the stage and we'll now move on to our next session realizing celebrity i'll request jyothika mali to welcome our next guest ahana kumra ahana kumra is an indian feature film and tv actress she's known for her small supreme debut in youth where she played amitabh bachan's daughter a versatile actress she's praised for her character leela in prakash ja production lipstick under my burqa directed by alang krita shrivastava let's begin with the section over to you jyothika mali thank you hersi thank you ahana for taking the time out we were not expecting that you'll be able to make it but here you are so thank you so much you are not somebody who was like born into the film industry you're not like somebody who was from the film industry in terms of family lineage or anything and yet you kind of chose to get into movies and into the whole glitz and glamour of polywood how was your journey because you you had your ups and downs you had your initial pitfalls and here you are an absolute confident poised person now who knows the industry in and out what was your initial experience like first of all i'd like to thank you jyothisa for having me here and thank you net for kateen i'm very delighted to be in chandigar i think i'm back in this absolutely fabulous city after um i think three or four years i came pre-covid because i was doing a show called kalami blue which was with the indian women's cricket team and i was in mogha uh to uh interview herman prith kaur and her family and i was in chandigar briefly because this is where she trained and really happy to be back here so thank you so much and i'd like to say thank you to niharika who's sitting right there she's a friend of mine hi guys um chandigar is a really beautiful city i think one of my favourite cities because it's really well planned and i love coming back here as actors we are very very lucky and very fortunate that we live many lives we travel to many cities we get to meet so many people and i was so happy to see the dynamic ladies who are sitting right here with their absolutely wonderful stories sometimes i feel um i think we're really lucky that we attend summits like these that we get to hear such incredible stories because i think in bombe we live in a bit of a cocoon so it's really nice to sometimes come here and listen to these stories because you actually realize how incredible you know all of india is and what kind of work people across this country are doing uh coming back to my journey so no i'm not from a film family uh my mother's a police officer she's been in the police for 40 years she's dsp up police my father works in a pharmaceutical industry he used to work for lupin laboratories and he lived most of his life in russia so i grew up in a very fiercely independent women oriented home uh i have an elder sister uh who's in equally inspiring and i don't think both of us have ever been brought up like women like girls we were always like literally kicked out of the house and be like jow jacket gymnastics siko jow swimming siko ye siko vo siko so i think right from the word go i was always since a child i was doing things that i think most boys were doing i have played all sorts of sports i was always thrown into the football team or the swimming team or running team so i was always out in the mud fighting the boys um so i think that fierce independence comes from there i came to bombay in 97 when i was in seven standard and uh i finished three years of schooling here and then i joined this really wonderful place i don't know if any of y'all have heard of prithvi theater which is yeah so prithvi theater was my it's my home like my second home and maybe home to many many actors in mumbai because um look jo film family se nahi aate theater se shorwaat karteye toh meri shorwaat theater se hi hui ye and i joined the prithvi theater i met shashi ji there he was the first person who ever felicitated me after a theater workshop of 12 days and i kind of realized i think that was i think i must have been 14 and i was like literally in like these purple color spandex and pigtails and braces and you know not knowing what the world of glitz and glamour is because when you don't come from film families the kind of grooming that i see these young girls these 15 14 12-year-old girls have where mothers are like beta ye mat karo yaa kharot chaa jay ghi ya aise mat karo tum kali ho jao ghi we were never told those kind of things because i came from a family where my masses are all police officers so i've grown up in a kot wali where i saw criminals getting beaten up where i saw people getting jailed where i saw like my mother speaking to a criminal or interrogating people in a way that i think very few so i was never like pampered so i didn't know it better so i think humnur baad dhake khayaan before i really you know kind of jumped into the film world i did theater and i continued to do theater and i was really lucky that my first break was was with with mr bachan and the kind of work that i've been doing so i don't think like i choose films i think the cinema that i've been doing has chosen me you were like you said you were from a family where there were a lot of very strong lady police officers and then you kind of went to poly world you kind of got your big breaks you made it on your own but it wasn't like all an easy ride in terms of the fact that it's it's it's not as rosy or as clean and clear as one would probably imagine and that probably was a bit of a bump for you in terms of how all of that played out were you kind of prepared to handle that and and coming from a police family you must have thought that okay my mom is a cop nothing can ever happen to me and nothing can go wrong with me i mean i can always take her name but it wasn't the case in fact there was a low phase of your life what was that about well i guess nobody's ever prepared especially in the world of glitz and glamour it all looks very nice and beautiful but nobody knows that sometimes we put in 48 hours of work so it's a very difficult world and i wasn't fully prepared for it because i didn't know and i come from a family where everybody's either in a corporate or like is in the armed forces so you know how it is like it was always a set thing so it was a very like straightforward way and you know path for me which was kind of paved by my parents and they had a certain vision for me but when i came to bombay and i started doing theater i think that's when my mother realized key you know maybe this is what you want to do because i never attended a single lecture in college my principal i was like the ghori in the college you know like the one who knows the the winning trophy wali ghori i was like that person you know i my principal my principal indushahani she would like just let me be she i'd never appear in the blacklist because i was always winning trophies for college so i think somewhere deep down everybody around me knew that i wanted to be in i wanted to act does acting mean primarily films or cinema i don't think so i think there's also a world of theater which is what i was very fortunate to have and i still have it because i think even today when i feel very low and i feel like okay you know what cinema is not really doing the kind of work that i want to do or the kind of cinema i want to be associated i go back to theater uh so coming to my uh the phase that you spoke about uh i think all actors go through that because when you have rejections every day of your life when you're told you know what i remember i used to do scenes my actor was told you know things like that happen and you get rejected basis your height you get rejected basis the way you look you get rejected the the basis the way you think or talk if you have an opinion you should keep your mouth shut because sometimes that's not appreciated because they don't want women who are fiercely independent they don't perhaps want women who speak their mind but there was a phase when i felt that i was not getting the kind of work i wanted to do because i did a very very interesting film i did a film called lipstick under my burqa which was my first film and that film is about four women in small towns it was me ratna pataksha conkana sensharma and an absolutely wonderful asami's girl called plavita and we shot in bhopal the film was produced by prakashya and eventually distributed by ek takapur and then we had a very long fight with the supreme court because they had banned the film in india and the film had already traveled to five countries and i went to attend the first premiere in tokyo and i still remember i was at the tokyo film festival we were walking the red carpet and there was metal streep walking right ahead of me which shinzo abe who was the then prime minister and this was the first time i was attending any premiere of any film that i had ever done in my life we didn't even know what clothes should we be wearing at a premiere we didn't have stylists we didn't have makeup artists we did our own makeup we wore whatever clothes that i could get there's a market called manish market in in andheri and if anybody's aware of bombay there's a market called manish market and i still remember i had got a gown stitched and at the red carpet somebody asked me from the tokyo media the japanese media they asked me who are you wearing you know we are not wearing a ritu kumara i'm not wearing a you know a big brand at that time i was just like oh i'm wearing manish malotra and then somebody behind was like malotra and i'm like no no no like manish market you know i got my own gown stitched i think like these are the things that we learn and i'm really proud of the fact that although that low phase was there because i i didn't think i was getting the kind of cinema uh when the film premiered i still remember when the film premiered in tokyo there was spin drop silence so the japanese audience is not like us where we go like roaring laughter you know indians are like they go like they laugh loudly they cry loudly but that's how we indians are and i still remember there was spin drop silence and then there was a long line of these women waiting to take photographs with us so they were taking a photograph and there was this one particular lady who came and she just like hugged my director alankata sarvastava and she started crying and for the life of me i could not understand what is happening and i was like what what is happening why is this woman crying so then the japanese translator told us that that woman told her in japanese how did you know our story i could not believe i had goosebumps here i am in tokyo in one of the most advanced countries of the world and there is this woman who comes to us hugs my director and says how do you know my story our film was made in bhopal in a small town in india how did that story relate with somebody in tokyo that's when the penny dropped for me that the stories of women all across the globe are the same whether you are in america whether you are in england you could be in tokyo you could be anywhere across you could be in island norway the stories remain the same and that's when i realized that you know what i don't think i have a different story i think women across the board across the country are facing misogyny patriarchy in some way or the other and i think that's given me hope and that's given me strength to be i think the woman that i am today fantastic in fact like you had mentioned this earlier also that these are not stories that are confined to india these are global stories and the fact that you highlighted them and that you had a japanese come up to you and say that how did you know our story so yeah of course but but but the fact is that you emerged from all of this you came out much stronger you went through your low phase that's behind you and i mean what would your advice be what would what would be the lesson because when you were in that low phase you would have probably felt that it's just going to be like this forever now am i going to get out of it at some point in time but now it's the past so now now you have kind of moved on to a confident future so when you look back at that what is advice that you would like to give people how do you kind of tell them to hold on how do you tell them to be resilient how do you tell them to kind of make their way out of that phase that phase will be over it's not something that's going to be forever but how do you convey that message through your own experience through your own lived experience i think the one rule or the one thing that i have always lived by is the show must go on and that is something that i think every artist kind of swears by and life goes on and this too shall pass i think these things i learn every day so i'm when i'm i'm here as an actor but i probably will meet somebody who's from like a different industry all together and you know i i learn something from them and i think the most important thing that we don't do in our lives is that we close ourselves to learning we should not stop learning as people as human beings i can learn from an animal i can learn from a person i can learn from somebody who's you know who's really young i can learn from a mother i can learn from a father so many places i can learn from so i don't think we should be close to learning and i think the only advice i will give to anybody who wants to make it in the film industry or to anybody who wants to be in the media industry because this is a very very harsh industry and you may know this because you're in the media and anybody who's in the media knows how harsh and how ruthless and how brutal industries are we should never stop learning and this too shall pass i think i always believe that the next day is going to bring something wonderful and that happens i think you need to just have that faith and kind of hold on to that uh there are many times in our industry when i think we've all also got very lucky with the ott uh yes i think that's something that i was just going to ask you about that that ott suddenly is an option now i think i'm just like yeah and when you look at that kind of business now and you look at that whole opportunity is it also kind of moving into that whole film kind of line in terms of that also becoming selective that also having those same lineages or does it still have that freshness to it no i think when the ott began you're absolutely right when the ott began i remember i did this one very interesting show called chukya giri and that show was on youtube and anand tewari the guys who've made bandish bandits i don't know how many of you all have watched bandish bandits so my friend anand tewari who also is a very dear friend who does theater with me he made this absolutely wonderful show called chukya giri and uh i remember i had gone to baroda for a play and somebody came to me and she was like hey rati and i'm just like i just looked around i'm just like is she talking to me you know and i was like how did you where have you seen this and she's like it's on youtube and i said what really and i'm talking about that time when youtube was not like youtube what it is today uh i'm talking 2016 and and i was like where did you watch this and she was like i watched it on youtube and i was like really is it that popular so i feel that you know when when ott began tvf was really small tvf was just doing skits and today look where tvf is uh we were all doing very interesting shows we were telling very few stories and i am very proud to be a part of the ott because i think i have managed to be a part of some incredible shows like betal which has been produced by mr shahrukh khan and you know and and and the show called marzi which also spoke about uh uh violence against a woman's body and i think it was an absolutely wonderful show it was very ahead of its time so there are many many interesting shows that i did and a lot of my friends did and i and these are my friends who are doing theater like jair deep or for that matter gulshan or for that matter jim sarb you know the guys who all become really popular today rasika duggal rachi deshpande these are the some incredible names these people would have been nowhere had ott not come into being a trial by fire would have not been made today uh deli crime would have not been made today anybody remember shef ali sha from monsoon wedding she was incredible monsoon wedding and then suddenly you see her in deli crime and there she goes to win the emi's and you know and like the show is winning multiple awards you know internationally and then there is a netflix and then there is an amazon and then there is a z and a sony and everything comes into play but now suddenly we see that the same hierarchy that was happening in cinema is happening in ott where suddenly all the film stars have suddenly realized that you know what this is a great comeback for me so i'm going to do a show and that show is going to revolve around me and everybody else is going to be like a second lead or a third lead so i think the same pattern that was happening in cinema is now suddenly happening in the ott so i i do see that but does nepotism kind of bother you or you think that like a business person's child might kind of get into business somebody else can kind of take up that same line so why not in the movie business also why is this kind of critically kind of spoken about each time around what should take on it i mean are you okay with it what do you think should it be should it not be this is a deep question and a very difficult one to answer i think um okay so coming to the fact that when i was small i remember that in my school i was in lamath near girls college and i still remember that in my school whatever my classmates were they were all daughters of doctors and every time i would ask them what do you want to be they would all say doctor and today they are all successful doctors and there are many many like if you come from a business family you can't just leave your business because your fathers your forefathers have taken that kind of pain to become those people to to build an industry to build a name in that industry so i don't see anything wrong with nepotism but does that come in the way of our work yes does that disallow me to put a foot in in the door yes it does does that stop me if i'm going to have a daddy call up a production house or a producer and say hey you know what drop her and take my daughter instead that is a problem i am not at all opposed to the fact that these children should be given opportunities in fact i feel it's tougher for them because when your father or your mother is so successful in an industry that they've probably broken their back to be a part of or be successful in that industry it is very very difficult to be able to build your name and i can tell you at least three or four very very successful film family kids who have not been able to make it in the industry so i feel that opportunity should not be grabbed away from the people who are who call themselves outsiders i still call myself an outsider because i i feel like i'm still trying to figure the industry you know it's it's not an easy industry to to kind of figure out where you want to put your foot but i feel like nepotism is there it's always going to be there i hope our opportunities are not grabbed away by these daddies papa ki paris and you know whatever that i could call them i hope we get equal opportunities and i hope i sincerely hope that the ott really continues to doing what it started out to do give equal opportunities to actors who have been probably standing in the wings for years waiting for that one that one opportunity that's going to let them shine hannah so good to hear your strong story that was so inspiring thank you so much for being a part of the aspiration thank you so much thank you so much thank you so much ahana thank you jyoti kamal ji please stay on the stage i'll now request editor news 18 india and news 18 jk lh to felicitate ahana kumrah thank you so much ahana jyoti kamal ji please stay on the stage i'll now request editor news 18 india to welcome our next panelist nihari ka rai zada who is a scientist and an actor crowned miss india uk 2010 and a runner-up at miss india worldwide 2010 nihari ka rai zada defines herself as a scientist with acting abilities she's the granddaughter of music composer late op naya she has worked in films like masan total damal surya vanshi and so on she still continues with science as well as acting welcome nihari ka so with this we'll begin with this session reimagining talent over to you jyoti kamal thank you so much arsi and thank you so much hrika for taking the time out and being with us at this last variation summit again and like you were saying that you have been a miss india uk you have been a miss india international runner-up and all of that kind of really something that you hadn't really worked for in terms of that being your primary target you had kind of gotten to this whole medical translational medicine kind of a thing and then you wanted to be a scientist you were from a science background how did that kind of dovetail into all of this at what point did you decide okay this is the track that i want to take uh subspecies as recal good evening everyone thank you so much jyoti for having me i feel very honored to be on this platform the talks that you've had are brilliant and it really shows the diversity that india has why did i choose the beauty platform to come up in the glitz and glum world the short answer is it's one of the easiest ways to connect with people from this world that's the short answer and i always knew from a young age that i want to be part of the cinematic world so the beauty platform was one platform which was accessible to everybody there was no uh stereotype there there was no blockage there was no barrier anyone from any background could be a part of that and at the same time if you got recognized on that platform you would be considered you know by potential people who might do cinema and my target has kind of always been cinema why have i pursued academics because i truly believe that one has to mentally challenge themselves and i think that despite having your artistic flair you must have a very strong academic background and it is my family's principle it is our culture that we must educate ourselves and i chose science and i chose medicine and in my family there are many people who have had cardiac ailments so i wanted to specialize in cardiology so i've had two passions in my life cinema and cardiology and i've been very clear about that from the beginning from a very young age the beauty pageants was an easy way to at least get a foot in the door and connect with that world that was the only reason that i chose that platform and you know to represent India in any way has always been a dream of mine so i think to to win i actually won so i was very happy about that you know despite all the odds against me i've had a lot of odds against me my whole life but i still won so it was very good you started in Luxembourg and you've seen the best of both worlds you have kind of seen how education is in the west you kind of acted in western production which is coyotes and thereafter you have kind of obviously worked in India quite a bit how do you kind of compare what it was like in the west and what it's like here and the very fact that you've also been a fulbright scholar so so you you have been really kind of taking academics learning to a certain level you've been exposed to kind of education in the west and now you are here in India how do you kind of see you're bringing all that experience and exposure to India has it enriched you did India kind of help you in terms of your education there how do you kind of now bridge these western Indian influences so first of all i must tell you i have built my life the way i wanted to build my life from a very young age i was very clear that India was going to be my final destination because i you may you know question where these thoughts came into my mind but i truly saw India as a diamond you know for the future i thought that India is going to prosper in every way possible so India was always my final destination by fluke of how my parents landed up in Luxembourg my father worked for the european commission Luxembourg is one of the headquarters of the european commission and we were born there we are three children and we are very fortunate and it's a privilege to be born in Luxembourg it's a very small country very rich country and you know there's so much to learn from there but belonging to an indian family i have a very strict father and a very indian father my father is from up and my mother is from Rajasthan and i think growing up we have always had a very Indian upbringing despite being in europe and i've always missed my grandparents i never got a chance much to stay with them because we were always abroad so coming to india was a must for me on the cards now how i got here i took my last bit of full bright scholarship money and i came with that to india before that because i was miss india i was actually brought when the world cup happened in 2011 as a brand ambassador and again i was introduced to the world of sports life in india and i've been very fortunate i've been now a part of so many different aspects of indian life you know and that's exactly what i wanted i wanted this life you know i wanted to be a part of it it is very different and even the filmmaking process is different because we make films in luxembourg which are government funded and they have no expectation of a box office whereas in india people make films only mainly to make money so that approach towards filmmaking is very different in both countries apart from that i think that the process is the same i think when you go on set when you i've done like you said i've done this french web series show called coyote and it's the same process you go on set camera rolls action happens and then the actor performs so that's not different but the reasons why people make film in europe and the reasons why people make films in india is very different very different you are the opinae's granddaughter you could have chosen something in music although of course you did kind of pursue music also and you have also been a classical dancer but is that something that you think you could have kind of taken forward so maybe my so what are your memories of opinaeji and what is it that you recount you said that you didn't get a lot of time but still we've been brought up on his music cinematic beginning because we were really exposed to that music old memories when we used to come to delhi we would meet you know we have a place in panjabi bag where his sister and him used to stay but my grandfather you must understand he's a very uh alhar and aloof personality i think that uh whatever interaction i've had now are from the people who have interacted with him during my journey here that i've been in india and artists vision is visible in their art you know and if you listen to his music you listen to the way he composed he was very ahead of his time so i think that you can see a lot of a person in their art when you were in luxembourg when you had gone abroad you were very clear that you're going to get back to india because you think it's a diamond that has a lot of potential for the future now that you're back here what's your take on india today and india in the future going forward from where we currently are do you kind of stick by what you thought or do you want to have a second take on that so i have seen the journey starting from Anna Hazare to Modi ji and i have seen a lot of growth i have seen a lot of growth no doubt i am from the medical and health care industry to begin with that is my underpinning and that is my beginning so i would definitely like to say there are many aspects of india where still there's a lot of development and you know especially in the health care industry when i was here too i would always talk about you know research combined with medical applicability i used to talk about that india overall infrastructure has developed a lot it is going to develop even further i'm very proud the way it is growing and i believe that my hypothesis of it being one of the most incredible countries in the years to come is going to come true you know you are like multi talented you have really kind of spanned so many different kinds of experiences you have studied abroad you have been in Luxembourg Luxembourg is one of the richest cities and countries in the world and when you look at Luxembourg and the theme that we are kind of also exploring here which is aspiration the aspiration the aspiration side of life the ambitious side of life luxury when you see what you saw in Luxembourg and now when you see kind of a lot of demand in india because when you look at Punjabi music you see a lot of references to Lamborghinis and gucci and pradas and everything so when you kind of hear all of that what do you what do you make of it because you've seen it you've lived it you kind of can look back at it look you can look forward at it whatever so what do you make of all of this what what stage are we at where are we well that is something which has been seen and I've seen it a lot you know in the past and as you said songs are mentioning it there are so many more references now to luxury brands but I think what is the most important and what really hits home and what hits at an international level is the fact that Indian faces are now headlining and spearheading these brands you have Alia Bhatt who is the face of gucci you have a Deepika Padukone who is the face of tag hoyer you have Shah Rukh Khan you have so many people now who are you have Manushi Chiller who is the face of Estee Lauder I want to be the face of Dior because that's my french background you know and it's my manifestation one day I want to do that because it's my mother tongue and you know I have that Indian background it is my dream you know for example but if that happens before it was not allowed before an Indian face could not be the face of an international brand but today you see a change in that that means that people are looking at India in a very different way in general if you see the statistics the market has grown so much already the consumption of luxury brands in America has been already a billion dollar industry but here it is growing by leaps and bounds you know and they say by 2030 or by 2050 it might be a 9 10 12 billion dollar industry so where there are people there is money and there are luxury brands will see it will see it so India is going to obviously I think conquer the luxury image in that sense and it is not something which is new to us I think that India will always sleep and that is my belief I really believe in that and I am just getting back all that we had before which we are recultivating according to this age so this is fantastic we can't let you go without your kind of multi talented skills and multi lingual skills actually and being opi naiyaji's granddaughter all of that you know where we are going so you can kind of really put it all together and then sing something and then kind of translate it into different languages and let's see how it goes oh that's in French in English where are you going this gaze will return once more that's that's like all the languages to music now I have to sing it yes no all of them in all of them let's see how it goes I'll sing just the hindi version because we're french let's try it let's see I'll sing the hindi version all right fantastic do you want to try that in french and in german try try one let's see how it goes oh how can you put it okay okay let's let's try oh all right thank you so much Harika it was fascinating listening to you and your kind of spanning so many cultures languages fields of study it's just mind boggling thank you so impressive and it's so heartening to see indians like this thank you so much thank you so much for being a part of our show thank you for having me thank you so much thank you neharika thank you jyoti kamaldi please stay on the stage now I'll request jyoti kamaldi to felicitate our panelists neharika rajzada thank you neharika thank you jyoti kamaldi with this the discussions conclude and I'll now request the musicians team to please set up the stage for the performance we'll have a sufi performance after this let us move on to the next part of this evening I'll request the