To the moon Read online

  SIDHARTH TALWAR

  Partner & Co-Founder Lightbox Ventures

  MissMalini is a media powerhouse today. But that wasn’t a part of the plan at the outset, particularity when I invested. They were a media brand that realized that India had a huge, untapped market that no one was adequately addressing – millennial women. Admittedly, a tough market to take on for a small, inexperienced team. However, at a time where traditional publications are struggling to make ends meet, MissMalini’s growth is very impressive. Their brand recall is even more impressive. And the reason is that they understand their readers better than anyone else and this has been their strength from the start. That’s why I invested in the beginning.

  As they continue to grow, they will need to continue to evolve. Just as their readers will, and as the community around them will. If they don’t evolve, there is a danger that they’ll fall into the same traps that more traditional content businesses have in the past. Judging by experience, I’m sure they’ll be just fine!

  STEVEN LURIE

  Ex General Manager, Zynga, venture capital fund founder

  I am honoured to be an investor in MissMalini for the past several years. I invested because the founders are great (Malini, Nowshad and Mike are creative and smart people who get things done) and they have built a world-class team, company and culture. It is amazing how much they have done with few resources. I’m a full-time venture capitalist in San Francisco with many investments and several start-ups I’ve helped grow and I’ve never seen a team get so far with so little capital raised. MissMalini is building a unique and valuable brand in India and I’m glad to be an investor.

  SAKATE KHAITAN

  Senior Partner, Khaitan Legal Associates

  As angels, we invest in the person. When I think of Malini, the adjectives that come to mind are innovative, powerful and sexy. To top it all Malini being the little sister of a close friend and colleague, investment was a no brainer.

  Success comes from consistent hard work, striving for excellence and a voracious appetite to learn. One therefore must be constantly vigilant of overestimating one’s ability, underestimating competition and becoming egoistic, all of which are impediments to growth and success.

  Wish you all the very best.

  ASHISH LAKHANPAL

  MD of Kismet Capital, LLC

  In looking at India going forward, there is no doubt that interest in Bollywood, music, fashion and cricket will only increase among the youth, given the influence of online and offline media. We see an investment in MissMalini as a great way to tap into the passion Indians of all ages have for the intersection of entertainment, fashion, and music industries. India’s role as a global influencer will only increase in the years ahead and we believe MissMalini will be the premier channel, which people from India and around the world connect with to better understand and participate in emerging trends originating out of India.

  In terms of advice, it may sound trite but never lose focus on who your core customers/constituents are and always ensure the content (also events and product placements, etc.) provided is curated and tailored to meet their needs and wants.

  AYUSH PHUMBHRA

  Co-founder at Nectar, Previously Co-founded $CHGG, Entrepreneur, Angel Investor

  Malini, who started blogging as a hobby, has become one of the leading influencers in the world and MissMalini Entertainment has the potential of being a global digital media house. Stay focused and keep it classy!

  REHAN YAR KHAN

  Angel Investor, Orios Venture Partners

  Advice: keep doing positive media like you have been doing. Also, somewhere along the way, try and find a cause, something dear to your heart.

  Business: have the ambition to build something big, very big. You are giving your youth to this company, make it count.

  RAVI VISWANATHAN

  General Partner, NEA

  We at NEA are thrilled to be partnering with Malini and the team at MissMalini. Malini has touched on several key themes of interest to us – the power and emergence of the millennial demographic, and the rise of the Indian consumer – to create India’s preeminent millennial media network.

  Our advice for Malini and her team is for them to continue to focus and maniacally execute, as they’ve been doing, to create an iconic platform that marries content, media, social, community and commerce.

  SUJAL SHAH

  Former Chief Strategy Officer of MME, Founder BOHOSTAR, Early Investor/Advisor

  MME was building a consumer interest destination well before many of the ‘me-too’ portals. It delivered relevant content to an audience which was desperately looking to satiate their need for entertainment and information. related to their biggest passions in the India landscape – Bollywood, fashion and beauty. I saw the opportunity to help take the business from a small mom-and-pop blog to a multi-million-dollar consumer interest portal delivering content and commerce to a very large, engaged mobile audience in India.

  Be humble. In a growing business, one has never ‘arrived’ and must continuously look for ways to deliver greater value to its consumers. Listen to and know your consumer, don’t assume to know what their ever-changing preferences and needs are. In the growth phase, it is equally important to surround yourself with talent that will challenge the norms, act quickly, take chances and run a business with clear goals towards success. Don’t be afraid of failure, be afraid of complacency. As Thomas Edison once said, ‘I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.’

  As your company grows and brings on investors and shareholders, don’t forget your commitment to all of those who have invested in your dream. Strong leaders and successful businesses will understand the importance of being confident enough to take criticism and understand the context of that criticism to mine the underlying opportunity for improvement. Don’t let personal preferences and ego deafen your ability to take counsel from those who are also committed to your business success.

  ‘My dream is to fly over the rainbow so high.’ – Yves Larock

  Blog #36: A Word About Trolls

  Back when I was growing up, trolls were these ugly mythical creatures that hid beneath bridges and jumped out at innocent people who tried to cross them. Now trolls live all over the internet and spend many their waking hours posting hate messages or flaming anyone that happens to hit their radar.

  If you live online like I do you, you should very quickly make your peace with the fact that you will be trolled, if you haven’t already. You have to grow thick skin and resist the urge to cry, rant or lash back in return. You must learn to be the ‘bigger’ person.

  Remember how mom always told you, ‘Sticks and stones can break your bones but words can never hurt you.’ Well, let’s be honest, words can do a fair amount of emotional damage in a thapad ki goonj sort of way. So here are a few ways to deal with the murky world of internet bullying and staying above the fray.

  Ignore them. First and foremost, its best to just ignore trolls till they get bored of talking to themselves and move on to their next target. You know who you are, the people who matter do too, so what difference does it make if some stranger halfway across the world doesn’t like you?

  Listen. In some cases, a troll is making a valid point, but just doing it in a really terrible way. Try to strip the message of its caustic coating and hear what they’re trying to say. Maybe there is some merit to the ‘mad-ness’ and an opportunity for you to improve.

  Kill them with kindness. This won’t always work, but I have found that trolls tend to be lonely people, just looking for a little attention. So, sometimes if you just reply saying, ‘Hey, sorry you didn’t like my post but thanks for stopping by!’, they are taken aback enough to suddenly come back from the dark side and say something nice. (I’ve seen it happen many times.)

  Use humour. The key to life on the internet (and probably in general) is to not take yourself too seriously. If you feel compelled to reply, post a humorous response that might sh
ut up your bully or at the very least earn you ‘clever points’ with the rest of your audience. My mother does this often on my behalf and I think it’s both hilarious and awesome. One time, someone commented on my looks and said that I look older day by day. To this, my Mom wrote, and I quote verbatim, ‘Who doesn’t? Are you growing younger every day…will become a baby, then what?’ #GoMom

  Block and report them. I very rarely block people, but if they are hampering your content by spamming the comments or in other ways, sometimes its best just to cut them off. All social media platforms have a block and report feature, which you can use to expose and report trolls.

  Funny story, but I’ve been trolled by the occasional celebrity as well. I should tell you this one because it came totally out of left field, but taught me something about human psychology.

  I was hosting the red carpet at a major awards show in New York and about four hours in was exhausted. My role was to identify 8-10 major Bollywood celebrities and ask them a few fun, rapid-fire questions on the red carpet, take pictures or boomerangs of the rest and let them be on their way. At one point, a crooner came up (whom I genuinely didn’t recognize, but would probably have done the same if I did) and I asked her to please pose for a picture. She immediately retorted, ‘Aren’t you going to interview me?’ to which I was a little taken aback. Anyway, she kind of huffed off and I thought that was the end of that, but apparently not. The next day I saw a series of tweets from her lashing out at me for being a ‘wannabe’ for only interviewing Bollywood celebrities who are in front of the camera. I replied nicely saying I was sorry she felt bad, but it was kind of the producer’s call whom we interviewed that day, but I’d be happy to do an interview with her at the MissMalini HQ whenever she was free. Her response was that she would never do an interview with me if her life depended on it. (I thought that kind of defeated her cause but anyway…)

  The tirade didn’t stop there and several other singers that she had tagged jumped on the bandwagon of how they are under appreciated and I was a terrible person. Initially I felt bad, irritated, defensive even, but then I realized it wasn’t about me at all. It was obviously a raw nerve with playback singers in the industry who probably don’t ever get the spotlight they deserve. Although I don’t know if I should have felt obliged to interview her on the red carpet that day, I do see her point (albeit cloaked rather harshly in criticism). Maybe there is something to be learnt from the occasional trolling as well?

  The other time that stands out in my memory is when a B-list-ish actress was severely offended that we had fashion policed her for carrying the same Chanel bag that had been spotted with Kareena Kapoor and Deepika Padukone. I felt that in this case she was justifiably upset because there’s no rule that only one celebrity can ever carry one bag otherwise the entire luxury industry would be in serious trouble today! I apologized and edited the article to say she had also been spotted with the popular accessory and wasn’t copying anyone’s style. It took her a while to cool off, but eventually she did.

  The most worrying thing about internet trolling, in my opinion, is that it’s also led to a change in millennial behaviour. Pre-empting trolling means putting all your pictures through severe scrutiny yourselves. It leads to low self-esteem and insecurity clinging to Instagram filters for protection against the world’s evil examining eye.

  When I asked Deepika Padukone what she thought, she said, ‘See, it’s a little tricky for me. I’ll tell you why. I also work in the mental health space, so I know what it does to people, but then I also know the fun side to it, so it’s weird. Let’s put it this way, I think as long as you don’t get carried away by your social media image and you are aware of who you are in reality and you’re grounded and know that, I think it’s fine.’

  In the spirit of supporting Deepika Padukone’s stance on mental health, I’ll tell you about a wonderful chat I had with a therapist I met once and a lesson she taught me that I will carry far into my future. She said, (and I’m putting it in my own words and understanding here) ‘You must try and approach the world, and everyone in it, with a shield of empathy and kindness. Not for them, but for yourself. Because when you approach others with empathy, you will realize that whatever they might be doing that’s making you feel hurt or sad, is not about you. It’s about them, and perhaps at that time all they need is your kindness to live with themselves.’ Boom.

  What’s the moral of the story and the golden rules of dealing with internet bullying?

  Approach the world with a shield of empathy and kindness (especially when it comes to trolls)

  Remember that often, it’s about them, not you.

  Take the opportunity to learn something from it, or let it die its natural death like all anger does.

  It’s never too late to say you’re sorry, Justin Bieber.

  Did you know by the way that the opposite of love is not hate? The opposite of love is indifference. So, if you’re eliciting a response of any kind you’re still winning. And if you’re a troll who’s reading this book and gagging to post a mean comment about it online, thanks for buying the book! xoxo

  Blog #37: A Lesson from Karan Johar

  (+ 4 Really Inappropriate Questions to Ask Celebrities)

  While shooting the first season of MissMalini’s World on TLC, I had the opportunity to interview Karan Johar for the very first time. It was awesome and since he is the best at goading out celebrity secrets, I thought I’d ask him for a tip. He said the key is to have a conversation with your interviewee. You may go prepared with twenty questions, but it’s quite alright if you don’t ask even one of them. Unless you have a real conversation with someone, the interview will always feel forced. You should listen and then ask the next question, so it makes sense in the flow of things. You must make a genuine connection while speaking to people. I thought this was brilliant – and yes, quite simple now that you think about it – and since then, I have always tried to apply that to all my celebrity interactions.

  I was petrified to interview Amitabh Bachchan, for the movie Pink in a Facebook Live. I started off with a nervous, ‘Alright guys, I have the one and only Mr Bachchan live with us…’ He interrupted, ‘Why did you say guys? You should say girls.’ And there ensued one of my most awkward interviews ever. Until I pulled out my ace in the hole. See, as it turns our Mr Bachchan’s father, Shri Harivansh Rai Bachchan, had been a professor at Allahabad University while my father was a student there (I’m talking 1960s). In fact, my father was his best student and thus had earned a hand-written letter of commendation from Senior Senior Bachchan, of which I had a copy. When I told him this story, he warmed considerably and asked if he could keep the print out (which I had initially hoped he would sign as a memento, but hey, if Big B wants a copy, you give the man the copy!) He then said, ‘Thank you for this. I think I will ask everyone who has letters from my father to send me copies and maybe I’ll compile them into a book.’ Bam. Go Allahabad! you came to my rescue when I needed it most.

  But that aside I’m going to go ahead and add an addendum to Karan Johar’s advice; something I think should probably be solved by having a conversation instead of an interrogation. Always ask yourself the questions you plan to ask during the actual interview before you go rogue in excitement. Very often you might think you’ve come up with this clever Q&A and can’t wait to blurt it out like, ‘Hi Mr Khan! If I gave you a penguin and a typewriter, what would you do with them?!’ (Chetan Kapoor and I know that the only answer to this question is ‘pass the soap’, but that’s a whole other story.) You need to think about the fact that if you were asked this very same question, what would you say? Especially in the 5 minutes you have to finish fifteen media interviews and take 189 fan selfies. It’s annoying. I’m not saying don’t think outside the box, but try to stay on the planet.

  Also, try not to be a d*ck about it. I’d almost allow the penguin-typewriter question if it meant that you solemnly swear to steer clear of the wildly personal and utterly inappropriate questions, just t
o get a 3-second reaction for your viewing pleasure. I’ve seen this happen so many times that sometimes I feel embarrassed to be called a ‘Bollywood journalist’. Here are four actual incidents I witnessed first-hand (well one second hand) and I would love to know if you would ever answer such a question yourself.

  1. CAN YOU PLEASE RE(TWEET)PEAT THE QUESTION?

  During the interviews for Happy New Year, Shak Rukh Khan and the rest of the cast were doing a mammoth day of interviews at the Red Chilies office before they took off on a world tour (of sorts). So obviously – as with all things – everything was running a little behind. Okay, a LOT behind. Ironically it was Independence Day and we sat in anticipation for our 7:30 p.m. slot to come in Waiting for Godot style. Hours passed. But I knew, that no matter what, I would not and could not leave, even if my entire crew upped and left. I would hold fort and do my interview! Anyway, by 2 a.m. I was in too deep, I wasn’t going anywhere. I was prepared to wait till dawn and just shy of 4 a.m. it was almost our turn. There was however another Bollywood gossip website scheduled to go right before us and this lanky boy, who had been waiting a good 9 hours now went up to SRK tentatively, stuck a small recording device in his face and said, ‘Shah Rukh apke baare main jo Salman ne tweeter [yes, tweeter] pe bole uske bare mein apko kya kehna hai?’ Translation: Shah Rukh how do you feel about the comment Salman Khan made about you on Twitter? To which Shah Rukh put a hand on this poor boy’s chest and said something to the effect of, bro don’t meddle in things you know nothing about. Interview over.

  Luckily for us we had come armed with cupcakes and a bowl of chits for them to play charades and while Shah Rukh Khan acted out Bluffmaster for Abhishek Bachchan – visibly lightening the mood – I thought to myself, you waited 9 hours to piss off Shah Rukh Khan?

  PS. This was also the interview where Shah Rukh taught my husband the famous Raj ‘air hug’. #livingthedream