-Richa Khandelwal Bhat , Founder Keshava Productions
It was the winter of 2006, sitting alone in my one-bedroom apartment on a chilly winter morning, I was reminiscing. It had been a year since my arrival in Canada. With the freezing weather outside, surrounded by the white walls of my room, I felt lost and alone as I thought about what I was doing with my career.
Having come from Delhi, where I worked as a news anchor, a prime-time bulletin reader, and a reporter, I feared that my career could be coming to a standstill. In the hope of kickstarting my career in Canada, I had applied to several jobs, only to not receive even a single reply to my applications.
I had no local education or job experience for someone to offer me a job in the field of journalism. Standing in the kitchen that day, with no opportunity knocking my door, I decided to stop waiting and create an opportunity for myself.
At that very moment, Keshava Productions was born!
A little while later, we moved to New York with our baby and there the baby-steps in forming and registering this company were taken.
Today we are at a place where we are working on creating an opportunity for hundreds of people across the country in media-related projects. My dream has now grown.
The dream is to give employment opportunities to thousands of people in the field of arts and entertainment. We want to reach out to the remote corners of the country where many talented people do not have an opportunity to showcase their talents – a feeling I am familiar with.
My husband, Ullasakrishna Bhat and I decided to start Narayana’s Atamnirbhar Bharat Foundation, a Social Enterprise, to give these talented people an opportunity. My Parents have been partners in our business and the guiding light for us all through.
Our vision is to be a major change-maker in the entertainment industry. We want to take the entertainment business to the people in the remote villages of the country so that they can explore their talent and make a living from it without having to move to the major cities to find work.
During the pandemic induced lockdown, I did not let the negativity outside affect me. Instead, I shut myself in and started writing, recreating my storyboard for my own life and my business.
The results of the streamlining of thoughts and creative work during this period are now manifesting beautifully. I want to put all my knowledge and learnings from my past, be it my experience in journalism or working internationally for a production house, into just one thing – Make India Atamnirbhar!
I am putting all my efforts in finding ways to provide income opportunities for artists across the remote areas of the country and help them become self-reliant through their art.
The inspiration for this vision came from my trips to Badrinath that allowed me to meet countless selfless artists who lived for things greater than themselves. Surviving on a monthly salary lesser than an average uptown teenager’s pocket money, I observed that these shining stars led happier lives than we ever could.
I want to create a platform to bring these talents to the national and international stage through a self-sustaining business model.
Currently being assisted by 51 Management Interns from the vastly reputed IMT Ghaziabad, we now have a team member in almost every nook and corner of our glorious motherland.
I am also grooming my daughter to take over our children’s unit called “Creative Shaala”, where we are training kids to become future leaders of tomorrow.
Every day, I attempt to be a selfless individual, fulfilling Lord Narayana’s mission on this planet. And to me, there truly is no better honour than that: leaving this world a little bit better than it was when we arrived.
-Richa Khandelwal
