Produced by Guest blogger
Be persistent and consistent. That’s the advice of a BU graduate who now works for India’s largest media conglomerate.
After graduating with an MA in Broadcast and Film Management from BU, Vidyut Patra has worked with some of the leading companies and brands in India’s media and entertainment industries. He is now Vice President for the Content Studio at Worldwide Media, the magazine group of Times of India – India’s largest media conglomerate. “We have home-grown brands, as well as international brands like Hello, Grazia, Top Gear, Lonely Planet and some of the BBC brands that we represent in India,” said Vidyut. “I am spearheading these brands as they foray from traditional magazine into video content.
“We’re creating a lot of web series, television shows, pivoting the business towards creating a lot of video content, rather than being restricted to a magazine brand. That is the business I am leading at the moment, setting up an entire content studio that looks after all this for them. It is a lot of work, but I am enjoying it.”
Vidyut came to BU from his home town of Pune, in India. “At that time, back in India, there weren’t any courses that specialised in broadcast and film management, and I think this course was perfect,” he said. “I think it gave us insights into the business side of how things worked, but also helped us to tap into the creative side. It was exactly what I was looking for, and gave me all the skills I needed at the time, and allowed me to get back into the workforce.” He added that the exposure to cultures from around the world was one of the things he enjoyed most about his time at BU.
“You suddenly realise that your way of doing things isn’t the only way to do things, things that are considered wrong in your context is right in a lot of the rest of the world, and vice versa,” he said. “So your definition of wrong and right changes depending on how you see things and you become a lot less judgemental, which I think is really good.
“There were about 200 of us from around 70 different countries and just being in the midst of so many people from different backgrounds, being able to understand them and socialise with them, hang out with them – I think that was the best memory I have going back, that is the one memory that stays with me and I look back on fondly.”
After graduating from BU in 2005, Vidyut returned to India, working with brands at several prominent television channels, including MTV, before heading up India’s largest radio station Red FM.
