We got in a stimulating chat with the entrepreneur, documentary filmmaker and co-founder of Match My [Talent] Sonia Swaroop about the entertainment industry, its changing dynamics for the stake holders and evolving audiences. Here are the excerpts about her vision, insights and projects.
Welcome, Sonia! What had inspired you to come up with a unique platform like Match My [Talent]?
Well, it was actually the idea to build a technology based ecosystem that allows networking and access to performing artists. We paired it with another vision of ours of building an ecosystem for ventures too to continue being scalable and keep giving enhanced value back to its customers.
All this put together has inspired Match My [Talent] with an inherent culture of research, innovation and customer centric approach.
Innovative and relevant indeed! Please tell us more about the USPs of this platform.
Match My [Talent] is unique for being a two-way digital platform and search engine letting producers, directors or managers look for specific artists, and also giving the artists a stage to exhibit their talent and enjoy expanded visibility.
Secondly, it has a winning combination of online + offline resources together by merging the phenomenal reach of internet and irreplaceable value of direct human connection. This saves you a lot of efforts when you begin to search for that ideal artist.
And thirdly, it aims at filling the 'entertainer' requirements mainly for independent, foreign and regional filmmakers, event planners, ad filmmakers, music industry and theatre in its various forms as it is a globally available search engine.
Speaking of music industry and projects, what has been your vision behind forming The Maitri Project?
The Maitri Project was founded during the distressed and socially distanced days of the Covid19 lockdown when we had wanted the stage to stay alive for both the artists and audiences.
It was born under Match My [Talent] as a digital prime time virtual show bringing independent artists' works from various categories to a mature and appreciative audience in the safe environments their homes, and letting the artists too reach their existing as well as new fans.
What are the kinds of entertainment genres, shows and artists that you have brought to the stage with The Maitri Project by far?
The Maitri Project brings LIVE virtual shows of established as well as fresh artists belonging to a wide range of genres. We have showcased celebrity guitarist Susmit Sen and we have showcased young talents like the versatile vocalist Sanah Moidutty too, for example.
We have created a virtual stage and community that embrace both popular as well as unconventional entertainment genres celebrating independent artists for their originality like emcee and urdu poet Aisha Ghani’s original urdu poetries, Milind Tulankar’s Jaltaran music, Ragini Rainu’s sufi songs, Soumitra Thakur’s sitar terrific tunes and a lot more. We have done 45+ shows under it with 56+ artists by far.
Amazing! Can you tell us about the other interesting projects too of yours?
One of Match My [Talent]’s recent projects is ‘Malhaar Virtual Video Festival’. It brings the works of established and amateur filmmakers depicting the emotions, experiences and observations captured during the lockdown days in both fiction and non-fiction categories.
By far, we have received 407 entries in 12+ languages from 22+ countries. The objective here is to build a collective consciousness around the pandemic and lockdown experience.
Before we let you go, we would love to know your opinion about the future of entertainment industry and how it might change in the coming years.
Well, you will see increasing content dissemination on virtual platforms in particular.
It is not going to remain the way we have known ‘entertainment’ thus far and digital arenas are certainly going to be the next big thing.
Disclaimer: No Deccan Chronicle journalist was involved in creating this content. The group also takes no responsibility for this content.
