It is a fact that Pallavi Mukherjee, the sole founder, and creative head working behind the scenes of this company, has brewed quite the storm with her company, in the industry. From starting out at such a young age to making a mark in the industry without connections or investments from big resources; Pallavi is truly a remarkable personality to have achieved this feat in less than four years!
Now, from Ayushmann Khurrana, Ananya Panday to Dharma Productions and YRF, major celebrities as well as biggest influencers have come to recognize this company and praise it for its creative ideas and outputs.
Well, this isn’t all, the company has a very interesting founder who’s got an eye for skills and a brain full of revolutionary content ideas, here are some snippets of conversation with the lady behind this successful endeavor, below:
What’s the story behind the startup of Popdiaries Media Company?
Well, they say somethings are better unplanned and so there was no real plan in place, it was created out of love for good content. Started doing what I love the most and Bollywood is something that runs in my blood, so yeah, that love for good content and Bollywood created PopDiaries and that’s what is helping me run it until now.
What was one of the biggest challenges you had to face when building this company from scratch, without even financial assistance other than your own initial investments?
When you start a business, the money does matter but what matters, even more, is the efforts you put in. When I started PopDiaries, I knew I had to create a mark and give my audience something that will connect to them. I worked on the content, the photos, the graphics and presented the audience with the packaging of their daily news and updates in a manner they will like and, it won’t be negative. This helped me make my mark, once you make your mark, I believe money also follows. I still believe your growth will be slow without an investor but it will be the best kinda growth with your own creative freedom.
Ironically, the media industry has a lot of prejudice, judgments, and critical eyes towards the females taking over a business and making it successful in the industry. What are your thoughts on the same?
Sexism exists everywhere, the media industry is more male dominant and for me that was not a major roadblock cause I am very secure about my gender. I have been raised to believe that as a woman I hold greater strength than men and therefore when the so-called insecure men pass a sexist comment or do something out of insecurity, I feel they come from a place of weakness and out of pity I let that pass. On a good note, I have met some incredible men who have supported me in my journey and, I am thankful there exist such men in our world.
What were those personal experiences that helped you shape up as a strong, independent, and successful entrepreneur, today?
I have met so many people in the journey of entrepreneurship but it turns out that not everyone comes with good intentions. In the business world, no one is your friend and not everyone is your enemy, believe only in self and try to always be cautious about every smallest thing that’s happening. You should even know what your interns are doing, you should even know what your managers are doing. Employees are your biggest support system, treat them like your family, don’t believe in the worldly facts of distinguishing and differentiating your employees just because you are the ‘boss’. I believe that people who are helping you build your dream are at least better than traitors you might deal with in the form of a friend. Just be yourself, everyone’s journey is not the same.
What’s that one advise or lessons of life that you’ve never forgotten, and want to pass on to other women entrepreneurs trying to achieve something in their lives?
People will judge you no matter what. If you go for that party and network, people will think of you as a charmer who is using her looks/body to get through. If you stay aloof and be cold, people think of you as manipulative and cold-hearted, so no matter what, you will be judged. Be yourself, wear your heart on your sleeves, cry if you want to, laugh if you want to, and more importantly shout if you want to, you are the boss and you are here to rule.
Lastly, how are you planning to bring about a social change through Popdiaries Media Company?
Right now we are constricted to just news and updates and good funny content but with PopDiaries I wanted to change the face of media reporting news to people. I don’t wanna boast about it but from the time since we were in the market, we created our niche with a positive way of reporting news, we broke the norm of putting sleazy, cheap headlines to grab eyeballs and following our footprints, major big portals have done the same, ever since then people can compare, there is hardly much cheap gossip headlines.
We are here to appreciate art and cinema and do healthy criticism and so we are doing that. We have introduced concept interviews and now every media channel is following it. So yes, in the future I am planning to talk about social issues in a positive way to influence masses to take up positivity in dealing with extreme negative situations and express anger or criticism in a healthy way.
Well, it seems like Pallavi Mukherjee is indeed the perfect example of intelligence and hard work, she knows the in’s and out’s of this industry and, while facing a lot of hurdles, she’s determined to set PopDiaries on a higher pedestal soon in the future! This creative genius is something to watch out for, and definitely someone who will bring quite the change in our media industry.
Follow her work and her passion through her own social media handles and you can go follow her creative space that’s PopDiaries Media Channel here https://www.instagram.com/ipopdiaries