Have a startup idea but don’t know where to begin? This city firm’s new TV show aims to provide just the platform you need.
Ranjith Royal
Bengaluru :
Whether it’s over coffee or idle chit chat at dinner, startup ideas always seem to be lurking around. However, many a times, while the pitch may sound promising, the idea does not go beyond that conversation. Here is a chance to see those ideas come to fruition.
A new platform, called India’s Biggest Start Up, which was launched on Friday by Bollywood star Sonu Sood on his social media pages, will give a chance to people to pitch their startup proposals and interact with top investors in the country.
It will follow the lines of the popular American reality show, Shark Tank. All entries will be taken through the organiser’s website — kuberanshouse.com. The top 100 submissions will be showcased on national television. Sonu Sood, who will anchor the Hindi show, says he was thrilled with the idea when he was approached by the team around three months ago.
The participants can submit entries in 15 categories in different sectors, like e-commerce, manufacturing, agriculture, fin-tech and biotech. While the first 500 selections will get a fellowship certificate, the final 100 will get a chance to be trained by the judges on board and also get an investor for their project. “Many a times, the reason an idea does not work is lack of clarity or a proper pitch, which makes people lose out on a good investor.
But on this platform, you will not just get a chance to work on your idea but to interact with investors who will provide training,” says Ranjith Royal, the Bengaluru-based co-founder and COO of Kuberan’s House, which has conceived the programme. The show will be produced by DR Talkies, which has earlier come up with Kannada reality shows like Dancing Star, Kick, and Dance Dance.
They have already received over 1,000 entries, and are currently speaking to different business minds to bring them on board. “We are in talks with CEOs of companies like Paytm, Oyo group and Flipkart. These guys have been there long before anyone else, and are good at what they do. So participants can learn a lot from them,” says Ranjith, adding that the whole process will take 2-3 months.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Monika Monalisa / Express News Service / November 21st, 2020
Still reliving the experience of acting alongside Alec Baldwin in his debut film, B’luru boy Rohan Gurbaxani is now looking forward to three more Hollywood releases.
Bengaluru :
Even after acting alongside big names in Hollywood, Rohan Gurbaxani feels shy when people ask him about what it means to him to be living his Hollywood dream. The Bengaluru boy, after all, has shared screen space with Alec Baldwin, Malin Akerman and Bella Thorne in Chick Fight, the action comedy that was released last week.
Ask him about acting alongside Baldwin and he says it was a “surreal” feeling, with him soaking the same excitement that any of the star’s fans would have. “This was my first film, and he has done many. But we had this common ground where he also went to NYU and one of his professors taught me too. That was a nice conversation-starter with him. I, of course, observed him a lot, and learnt from him. He was such an approachable person,” says the 23-year-old.
The newbie is now looking forward to his next film, Knuckledust, which is an action thriller releasing in December. It stars Moe Dunford and Gethin Anthony. The ball doesn’t stop rolling here. In 2021, he has two releases – RED 48, featuring John Malkovich and Tyrese Gibson; and Confession, starring Sarah Hay. Gurbaxani may be currently living the life many dream of, but for him, acting in Hollywood was never the goal. “My initial dream, since I was in Class 8, was to go to New York.
I still don’t know why I picked the city. I never even participated in plays, but it was just a far-fetched dream,” says Gurbaxani, who has a Bachelors in Fine Arts from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He has also trained at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, Stonestreet Studios, and attended the Tisch Stanislavsky and Brecht program in Berlin.
While he continues to revel in the experience, it was not easy for him to live away from home, “in isolation”. Luckily, he says, by the third month, the shoot for RED 48 had begun. “It was an interesting experience as we underwent three Covid tests every week. By the end, I had around taken 10 tests. There were Covid supervisors on the sets,” says Gurbaxani, who was a part-time Covid supervisor as well.
He calls it unsettling to be based in two cities – New York and Bengaluru – but now Gurbaxani is back home after two years and is glad he could spend Deepavali with his family here. And the young lad is all praise for the city he grew up in.
“In Bangalore, I studied in two schools. I initially started off in a public school and then Class 8 onwards, I moved to an international school. I loved to dance and got a chance to join troupes. I don’t think my life would have been the same if any of these things had not happened,” explains Gurbaxani, who is currently also looking at projects back home.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Monika Monalisa / Express News Service / November 19th, 2020
Tanya’s debut pop-rock album ‘Battlefield’ is about teenage experiences
Shanker wrote a song about her mother, ‘Thank You Mum’, when she was 10. It fetched over 20,000 views within a fortnight. Tanya was elated. It was a small validation of the little girl’s talent. Four years later, she has released her first album — another significant step in her nascent career. Battlefield, released on November 14, is about the experiences and emotions that teenagers like her deal with. “The title is a metaphor for the mental chaos and conflicts,” she explains.
Tanya, understandably, is excited about releasing her début album. She started training when she was nine. “My parents were into music. So, I was inclined towards it. One of my early music teachers told me I could pursue a career in music. That is when I entertained the idea. It was crazy to see my single get 20,000 views,” she says.
Tanya now trains with her mentor-manager, Richard Andrew of Moksha Academy. “When I saw her five years ago, I felt she was talented but needed a lot of practice. She has improved a lot ever since. She is one of the few talents that gives me joy as a producer,” says Andrew.
Tanya has performed with several independent musicians, including Girish Pradhan and the Chronicles, Perfect Strangers, Carlton Braganza, and Ritwik Bhattacharya.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Praveen Sudevan /November 18th, 2020
How a hole in a boat led to the emergence of Bridge Man of India.
Gudaari in Odisha
Mangaluru :
For him, it was not a bridge too far. Though a mechanical engineer, he learnt — that too by chance — that one can transform lives by building bridges. In the last three decades, he has built over 130 such structures, the latest one being built in Telangana.
Girish Bharadwaj (70), fondly called the Bridge Man, is seen as a messiah by many villages. His journey started with a hole in the bottom of a boat. For decades, the poor people of Aramburu, a remote village in Sullia taluk of Dakshina Kannada, were dependent on a country boat to cross the Payaswini river to reach the mainland for all their work.
Kanive in Kodagu, Karnataka
But whenever the only boat developed a hole in the bottom, the village used to come to a standstill until it was fixed or a new boat was built. Fed up, in 1989, the villagers decided to find a permanent solution to their perennial problem and approached Girish Bharadwaj, a young graduate in mechanical engineering who was running a fabrication unit, with a request to construct a footbridge to tide over the crisis.
Initially, Bharadwaj laughed at the villagers’ innocent belief that all engineers can build bridges. But he finally decided to give it a shot after the villagers refused to believe that a mechanical engineer can’t build bridges and also seeing their pathetic situation. With the help of engineering friends from other streams and referring to books on bridges, he designed a plan for a low-cost hanging bridge. It was a crowd-pooling project with some villagers even offering ‘shramdaan’.
Apart from other labour costs and sponsored construction materials, the project cost less than Rs 2 lakh. The villagers were immensely happy as the bridge ushered in a new life. Months later, the economical bridge caught the attention of a senior government official who had flown to Mangaluru from Bengaluru on some work and he called him.
After going through the bridge design, the official requested Bharadwaj to join hands with the government in providing connectivity to several isolated villages in Malnad and the coastal region. The journey thus started took him to various parts of Karnataka and even Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha where he built more than 130 bridges in over 30 years and became popular as the Bridge Man of India. His contribution to the rural empowerment was recognised by the government and he was bestowed with the Padma Shri in 2017.
Fern Hill in Ooty, Tamil Nadu
Bharadwaj said he adopted the technology of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and Japan’s Akashi Kaikyo, both suspension bridges and considered marvels of modern engineering, and simplified it to suit the local needs. His suspension bridges are cost-effective compared to conventional ones. Though they are built as a matter of temporary solution to last for 10-20 years, many of them have stood in good condition even after the estimated life. Also, the bridges saw advancements in designs over the years.
With his work, Bharadwaj has also built bridges in the hearts of several villagers as they consider him as a messiah who lifted them from their miseries. In most of the work sites, he and his team of 30-40 workers pitch camp till the work that takes 3-6 months, is completed. While a majority of bridges are government-sponsored, there are a few, constructed with funds pooled by the villagers. For such projects, he offers his services for free. In some cases, when the project could not be completed due to lack of funds, Bharadwaj has spent from his pocket to complete it.
Bharadwaj was delighted when he received an individual letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his support for Swachch Bharat in which he recognised his ‘Sethu Bandhu’ work to have empowered poor villagers and has connected them to the world of opportunities. Bharadwaj says the demand for footbridges is almost nil now as people with four-wheelers prefer big RCC structures. Now, Bharadwaj’s son Pathanjali Bharadwaj, who is an M.Tech graduate, is continuing the work.
FABRICATION WORKS After completing his engineering from PES College, Mandya in mid 1970s, Bharadwaj had dreamt of becoming an MD of some factory. But his father who was an agriculturist, encouraged him to aspire to become an employer and provide jobs to others rather than being just an employee under someone. Thus, he set up Rational Engineering Works in Sullia which carried out general fabrication works and manufactured farm machinery
IN NUMBERS
Bharadwaj has built
95 bridges in seven districts of Karnataka
32 in Kerala
05 in Telangana
03 in Odisha
One more in Telangana is under progress now
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Vincent D’Souza / Express News Service / November 15th, 2020
Editor of Hai Bengaluru, Ravi Belagere | Photo Credit: The Hindu Photo Library
Noted journalist and Kannada writer Ravi Belagere, 62, died of a cardiac arrest in the wee hours of Friday.
Owner and editor of a Kannada tabloid Hai Bangalore, Ravi Belagere was also a novelist and translator. He also started Prarthana, a noted school in South Bengaluru.
Ravi Belagere’s tabloid was widely read for its extensive coverage of the underworld. His columns such as Love Lavike, Khaas Baat and Paapigala Lokadalli were popular. Many of them were brought out as books. Hailing from the border district of Ballari, he also translated several Telugu works.
Ravi Belagere authored over 70 books in all, many if which were best sellers.
Constantly finding himself in the middle of controversies, he was pulled up in 2017 by the Karnataka Assembly for his “defamatory writings” against Congress MLA B.M. Nagaraj and BJP MLA S.R. Viswanath. He eventually got relief by the Karnataka High Court in the case. He was also imprisoned in connection with the attempt to killing of a journalist Sunil Heggaravalli.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Bengaluru – November 13th, 2020
