Today, Sahithya has three years of filmmaking expertise and manages the entire production process, from pre-production to post-production. She has produced and directed a Telugu movie, which is currently in the post-production stage while acting as the primary producer at Magic Lantern Studios.

About the venture

Magic Lantern Studios is a creative marketing and strategic advertising agency with pan-India operations. They develop, curate, and put into action marketing plans to connect with the target market while connecting the client’s brand with the digital world.

Their mission is to take ideas and turn the goals and objectives of their clients into tangible results that advance brand development. They strive to be always well prepared – with a bunch of crazy people, endless cups of chai, and beautiful hideouts in Hyderabad. Sahithya and her team at Magic Lantern work very passionately for the brands to stand out.

Inception

Reddy says, “While working as a doctor, I attended a few theatre acting workshops and auditioned for a few roles.” She continued to advance her acting career, but God had other plans. A worldwide pause was brought on at that time by COVID-19.

It was then that she remembered the words of her father, that “every hill appears clean and smooth from a distance”. At a time like that, his words pierced something in her, and she realized she had to do something to transform her aspirations into something tangible. But her determination also entailed a series of challenging events. She says, “Because of covid, all film production had ceased, and I only had a little time to prove myself to my family, and society that my decision was correct.”

Sahithya knew that time was running, and she needed to do something right then and there. Her mind was racing, and she experienced flurries of ideas and thoughts of all the possible things she could do.

Reddy believes that when people say that if you work hard and are motivated to achieve something, things finally fall into place, and this is what happened with her as well. Following the

event of initial panic and frenzy of not knowing which course to undertake, she entered a short film contest and was chosen in the “TOP 13 OUT OF 9000” entries, which gave her the confidence she needed to assure herself that she was on the right track.

However, Sahithya did not want to sit around hoping for things to fall into place on their own. She toiled and strived to create opportunities for herself. So she produced, wrote, directed, and acted in a film with the support of her close friend Amarnadh Bommisetty, who has been with Sahithya at every step of the journey for the last three years.

Things learned

Ever since Sahithya Reddy began filming, she has learned a lot about herself and knows what she is capable of accomplishing. During the time she filmed the shoot, Reddy oversaw the entire pre and production process with a crew of 5 people because they had very little budget for the film. Her journey was rewarding, but not without its share of hurdles. With a small team, cracking shoots was challenging because they had to get up early to prepare meals and do everything else by themselves.

Sahithya says, “The film’s post-production is still ongoing, but via it, I learned how the industry operates, how to interact with people, and how to expand my network. I’ve met hundreds of people, and the outpouring of love from everyone has been overwhelming.”

Achievements

With the expertise she garnered in her career, she finally decided to open her own agency and partnered with Amarnadh, who has 10 years of experience in film and media.

She is confident of her accomplishments and even though they have just been in business for a year. Sahithya is already glad to claim that they have done commercials for large brands like Audi, Himalaya, Amway, Power gummies, IRA Realty, Skinkraft, Bolt cold brew (coffee), Super K, Riverscape Ventures, and many others. The agency’s effective marketing strategy is effective when one looks at how they have helped Super K supermarket to expand from 30 stores to 100 in a span of just six months. Moreover, within one year, they have had 25 recurring clients.

With all the accomplishments under her belt and the lessons she learned over the years, today, Sahithya can proudly claim that she is a doctor, producer, director, actor, and entrepreneur.

Future plans

Sahithya and her team at Magic Lantern Studios are currently working on a few tech-driven solutions that are still in their embryonic stage. Since no one has used this strategy before, these solutions are original and novel in the advertising industry. In a chat with Entrepreneurs Today, Reddy shares that three years down the line, she wants Magic Lantern Studios Advertising Agency to be one of the best ad agencies in India.

MyProBuddy, which he established as a Pro Bono initiative primarily focused on building a sustainable student start-up ecosystem, was bootstrapped back in 2017 when Amrish served as the CEO of his university’s Incubation cell “Intonovus” during his undergraduate studies. During this time, he facilitated funds of up to 2 million rupees to over 10+ idea-stage start-ups of his peers, while empowering his college students with timely updates on various opportunities such as hackathons, Pitch fests, B-school events, and so on.

After graduation, Amrish went on to work as a digital campaigns manager at Zoho for 2 years, managing the entire global market for 14 SAAS products. However, when the 2020 Covid lockdown created a global unrest among young collegiates, he was struck by the overwhelming sense of uncertainty and knew that MyProBuddy was needed more than ever to guide and support them. In 2021, he quit his job at Zoho to dedicate his time towards empowering the college students with constant mentorship.

In the past 2 years, apart from mentoring the college students in devising persuasive pitch decks along with effective Go-to market strategies, MyProBuddy has also focused on mentoring millions of college graduates to achieve their dream jobs and empowering higher studies aspirants to achieve admission in their dream universities.

Amrish’s efforts were recognized and he was titled as the Innovation Ambassador for Institution’s Innovation council by the Ministry of education, government of India. He was cordially invited as the chief guest for multiple government-run hackathons across the nation, an opportunity he seized to foster young minds with intuitive ideas to build their own start-ups. He has mentored over 70+ student start-ups so far, through the Institution Innovation councils across the nation.

MyProBuddy now provides mentorship over Career Counselling, Job opportunities, Interview Prep, Higher Studies Counselling, Updates on potential hackathons, scholarships, and to raise Funds for Idea-stage start-ups.

Vaibhav is a business management specialist having 20+ years’ experience in Investment Promotion, New Industrial Cities, International Trade & Development, Location Advisory and, Developing & Promoting large format Integrated Cities & Industrial Clusters as ‘Preferred Investment Destinations’.

Vaibhav has extensive experience of work with leading global & Indian infrastructure development groups like Mahindra Group, Ascendas-Singbridge (now CapitaLand), China Fortune Land Development (CFLD) and GMR as their Industrial Marketing & Investment Promotion specialist.

He is an active member of various multi-disciplinary organisations. He is closely associated with industry bodies like CII, FICCI, ASSOHAM, Naredco as a key member of their various task forces. In his private capacity he has been a founder co-chair and past chair of CII-Young Indians Jaipur Chapter as well as its National Governing Council member. He is a member of Ananta Aspen Centre, an independent organization encouraging dialogue on India’s development, foreign policy, strategic affairs and national security. He is also a member of Young Professionals in Foreign Policy (YPFP), a global organization of 20,000 professionals from 80 countries having interest in international affairs and foreign policy.

Vaibhav has completed his graduation in Commerce and holds an MBA in Marketing & Finance. Additionally, he has completed a two years Post Graduate Diploma in Global Sales and Marketing from NIS-Sparta and executive programs in ‘B2B Marketing’ from ISB, Hyderabad. He is a pass-out of the first class of ‘India Real Estate Strategies’ from Harvard University, Mumbai Study Class.

To achieve these goals, 360 SCM has expertise in devising customized supply chain management solutions for diverse business objectives. They optimize the value chain for the business and map it to enhance performance, efficiency, and workflow. To create and implement cutting-edge solutions that help clients’ businesses adapt and increase their bottom line, 360 Degree is dedicated to fully comprehending their needs. “We are a company formed by experts with extensive backgrounds in strategic alliances, brand development, commissioning, management, and operation of effective supply chain infrastructure and setups for numerous international brands across industry verticals. They are dedicated to thoroughly examining the customer’s needs and developing creative solutions with solid planning that will allow the client to respond to shifting markets and increase profitability”, explained Soumya Putatunda, Co-Founder, THE GO TO MARKET COMPANY

Seamless Solutions with Countless Services

As an implementation-focused consulting firm, THE GO TO MARKET COMPANY provides end-to-end solutions for all supply chain management issues. They created a SPOC (Single Point of Contact) for all queries and concerns. It will make it easier for clients to reach out to the company and ensure that there are no gaps whatsoever. Besides this, THE GO TO MARKET COMPANY offers the SNOP process a path towards profitability by mapping the value chain to improve processes, efficiency, and bottom line. The firm follows agile processes that help them to conduct a detailed review of clients’ business before pitching the development plans. They also generate dashboards that analyze and summarize brand health. Also, accurate demand planning and forecasting help them to optimize their resources and deliver solutions that reduce stock-outs and working capital. “Automation and Machine Learning are the future of all business processes. They help you integrate innovative mechanisms and merge them with analytics to deliver constant feedback and course correction capabilities. They deploy efficient warehousing and distribution to reduce costs to serve and improve business profitability, ” added Soumya.

Furthermore, THE GO TO MARKET COMPANY supports numerous companies with such top-notch services. They began as vendor flex partners with Cloudtail, a division of Amazon. Other Amazon sellers began to use THE GO TO MARKET COMPANY services when they gradually learned about them. Homelane, an Organization into End to End Home Interiors, is yet another name connected to the business. THE GO TO MARKET COMPANY  is the largest Supply Chain Partner for the Organization. Similarly, they manage the complete Fulfillment department for BIG MUSCLES Nutrition, a leading Brand into Sports Nutrition.  Additionally, they  conduct Ecommerce Business with Evenflow Brands Private Limited & IKAIASAI Brands. In addition, the business provides supply chain management services in conjunction with Muscle Tech Company, the second-largest brand globally. They are proud to be the Supply Chain Partner for LEAP INDIA PVT LTD , the leading Brand in Asset Pooling.

THE GO TO MARKET COMPANY was founded in 2019 by Mr. Avik Sanyal, Founder and Mr. Soumya Putatunda Co – Founder, and haven’t looked back. They thrive across all areas, whether in supply chain or e-commerce. They ended Last Financial Year FY 2021 – 2022 at 16.85 Cr. While their goal is to reach 100 cores by 2026. Topline Target for FY 2022 – 2023 is  around 35 Cr.

They also launched their Global Footprint in

• Dubai
• Canada

They are into Sales and Distribution of Sports Nutrition, General Wellness & Mobiles Phones into Canada & Dubai.

As a young college student in the UK, time was always short, and the chores are forever piling up. Taking the garbage out was one task she disliked to the core. Blame it on the nippy outdoors, but that pile of thrash got her thinking there had to be a better way to reduce the global impact of waste generation. She did not want to be a keyboard warrior and wanted results at the grassroots. Hence, she crafted her waste management methodologies and systems after thorough research and extensive industry insights. Cut to seven years as Founder and Managing Director of Ocean Recycling LLC, and she created gold out of garbage. 

And then the Covid-19 Pandemic changed the world as we knew it.

Among many restrictions, the monitored grocery shopping drove home the necessity of food security, particularly in harsh environments. Amidst this uncertainty, she realised humans would realign their needs based on the available resources, but what about the animals?

The UAE does not have arable land being a desert region. And so it imports over 90% of its agricultural produce to meet its demands. That’s how Al Aliyo Hydrofarms, UAE’s premier industrial scale hydroponic fodder company, was conceived to relieve the dependence on imported animal feed by promoting sustainability and self-reliance.

Over the years, livestock farming has remained one of the most pollutant and unsustainable forms of agri-farming with no standardised parameters. Al Aliyo Hydrofarms is changing this equation by providing fresh, green fodder of barley, corn, and wheat. Our ready-to-feed fodder mats require no mixing, chopping, cutting, or other manual processes before feeding.

Hydroponics is an ancient Greek concept where plant production occurs via water, in a monitored sterile environment sans human interference. Al Aliyo Hydrofarms has been at the forefront of this revolutionary agriculture method. The produce is grown in temperature-controlled environments with regular watering that propels a healthy crop. Furthermore, there is no usage of any chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides or artificial nutrients in the growth process.

They aim to bridge the UAE import gap and reduce the carbon and water footprint in the food sector. Their objective is to contribute to the UAE government’s food security efforts by providing top-notch green fodder to farmers at an affordable price.

They  have reimagined innovation to combat climate change and are on the cusp of a livestock farming revolution, one feed at a time. Al Aliyo Hydrofarms has gone from an ‘idea’ to an ‘idea that works’. Even as we are poised to upscale, we are now thinking, ‘What next?’

Shivendra was recruited as one of the youngest employee in 2019 at Merkle Sokrati, which is now Dentsu. Despite him perusing his graduation at that time and was in second year of his college, the company made an exception to hire him as a Consultant.

He initiated with hyper local project for their client which is one of the largest automobile players in India. Interestingly the client is one of its kinds, with extreme ambiguity at each process and so got a chance to work across four teams – Website development -> QC & Training -> Process & CRM -> Reporting Automation.      

Slowly things got streamlined and he was moved into Paid Media section and joined the nascent and newly formed Omni channel team looking into Google and Facebook ads catering to SMB clients. His hands were on 10+ accounts starting from Account Manager to eventually rising to a Strategy Manager in the span of two years. With successful planning, strategizing and engagement on the accounts he was able to scale clients at multiple folds. 

Highlights- 

• Scaling India’s leading fast fashion brand by 5x in span on nine months.
• Getting appreciation from CMO of a long standing and said to be one of the toughest clients to wow in span of 7 years of engagement.

His expertise includes

1. Growth Consultation that consists of creating Value proposition, product offerings Recommendations, competitive landscape USPs, Hygiene checks- Media integration CRM, Data Attributes, Expectation setting
2. Amazon Capability building- Solving for Client churn rate by Creating Sokrati Differentiator)
3. Turnaround of Code Red 
4. Marketrix- Planning a Growth Marketing program for a Growing client. 
5. RFP Creation

Post his successful stint in Media section, he was moved to the New Business team where he loved to play the Client Solutions role. At present, he leads the team of solutions for Merkle Sokrati wherein the task of the team is to ideate and identify the core problem, solve them and strategize these problems by leveraging the service capability on the basis of the use cases.

Simultaneously he is also working  with the Capability leads of Google, Meta, SEO, Affiliates, Programmatic, Marketplace, Tech, Loyalty & CRM.

Sasikala Chandrasekar, Founder of Thiran Traction Infotech comes with high experience in IT recruitment. She has worked for companies across globe and has an excellent track record in finding a niche talent to her clients. One fine day when Sasi searched a solution for her problem of getting restricted in implementing her ideas, she felt being an entrepreneur is only the best solution. That’s how Sasi and Thiran joined together.

When people start believing your thoughts and ideology that’s when you start tasting your success. Kavitha Mohankumar, who believed in Sasi’s ideology  joined hands with her for creating a brand “Thiran Traction”. These two amazing ladies wanted to create a beautiful world that has high respect for its clients (IT company and IT Professionals). When you start understanding and respecting your customer actual need, then you all set to taste the success.

Now that Thiran Traction is awarded as a Promising MSME, its path towards its goal of achieving high Customer satisfaction and empowering women who is in need of career building.

They are proud to say that Thiran Traction is a company led, managed and run by only women.

As a matter of fact we all have our share of predicaments in our professional journey, Mr. Piyush too had them. But his determination and indomitable spirit to excel made him stand apart and overcome all the impediments. His future plans include his personal growth, improvising his skills and associating with Fortune 500 clients to continue learning with precise strategic planning for their respective marketing campaigns.

Having done successful outdoor campaigns which included planning & execution for FMCG, FMCD and banking sector, Mr. Piyush has proved his mettle in the industry. His experience ccomprises Trade marketing, 360 integrated brand Communication brand activation, Rural Marketing , Advertising & Sales, Business Development, ATL & BTL. He has effectively carried out  Pan India campaigns and  handled clients in all different sector FMCG , FMCD , Automobile , Banking ETC .

Currently he is associated with Excellent Global Endeavor LLP, as a Media Director – OOH, DOOH, Airport.  As a result of his diligent attitude and dedication, Airport has been promoted in a short span of time with his strategic buying & planning skills along with the Team Development process.

Being a quick learner, he adapted the skills of Airport & DOOH advertisement along with the development of whole new Division at the organization. He is thankful to the mentors & supporter for their continuous motivation in his professional life. His life mantra is “Always good think out of box to create a huge impact campaign which customer or target group can feel“.

As per Dipen, “We can never undermine the importance of Training & Development of team members. Whether technical or soft skills, coaching your team will consistently aid the effective achievement of professional goals at an individual as well as company level. In addition to that, recognizing and rewarding good performance is a catalyst in the team’s sentiment and ultimately performance” 

Dipen is a specialist at identifying talent and is a keen promoter of lateral growth, creating synergies in the workforce. His revenue based incentive structure has helped organizations amplify their sales growth.

Dipen believes in pinning trust in his team rather than micro-managing the team performance to create a performance oriented and self-motivated adept team of individuals who work cohesively.

Dipen’s sound knowledge of the Real Estate Market behavior and his skill to align Strategy as per market sentiment is the driver of his professional excellence. Dipen can indisputably claim the credit of driving and eventually doubling the sales numbers of emerging firms using his rich, practical industry experience.

Mr. Saurabh says that, “we are surrounded by data, but starved for insights.” And as responsible Data Leader, their contribution towards data community is much larger than what meets the eye. Data has the power to understand and influence consumer behaviour in ways that cannot only uplift consumer’s lifestyle but also bring about societal change. Having realized this early in the days, he has played multiple roles in designing, planning, and executing Big Data Lake strategies across industry verticals like Consulting , FinTech and Retail etc. Not just that, he runs his own huge opensource data community (hadoopadmin.co.in) where almost 400K followers are following him across the globe. He is one of the young Influencer leader in India’s Data society.

With the eye of a Data strategist, the depth of an analyst and passion of a techie, it is his sheer hard work, coupled with opportunity and excitement to drive change in Data Society, which has helped him exceed in every checkpoint of the process. Mr. Saurabh played a key role in accelerating the portfolio development of cross-domain data tools and technologies which helped the  data platforms in collecting, transforming and serving data assets in a unified and secure way.

With rich 12 years of experience spanning a successful history of leading seamless data transformation for various enterprises, right from building solutions in Risk Analysis to pioneering the cloud migration journey and establishing a data foundation and data lakes in Lowe’s, Mr. Saurabh’s adept in enabling new-age analytics and complex data science use cases to architecting the innovation charter. He is always focused on creating the larger business impact and emphasises on the importance of a purpose-driven teamwork in achieving success.

His strong leadership abilities combined with deep knowledge of analytics, scalable platforms and experience in managing diverse teams have helped him transform the data strategy and charter for different enterprises.

With having led more than 70 team members before turning 35, he has won many group awards for his contribution, 4+ individual industry recognitions to the tune of ‘Hadoop Master in 2015’, ‘Data Champion in 2017’, ‘Thought Leader of the Year-2022’, ‘Young Achiever of the Year-2022-2023’. among others – Saurabh’s contribution to the Data industry has been immensely impactful.