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Decoding Bollywood : Stories of 15 Film Directors
Some like Farah Khan and Zoya Akhtar had sterling antecedents but it took a tough childhood and intermittent assignments on film sets to win the box office with Om Shanti Om and Zindagi na milegi dobara, while Ashutosh Gowarikar auditioned for folk dances and failed with his debut film, lagaan created cinematic history and Anurag Basu had to first dance as a background extra and later overcome cancer to witness barfi win hearts and awards. These and other hitherto unfamiliar stories of directors belonging to the "100 crore club" like Rohit Shetty and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, the adventurous Kabir Khan and the maverick, Mahesh Bhatt take us through the unusual lives of 15 filmmakers of extraordinary films. Sonia Golani achieves the incredible by sitting each director down to candidly discuss the hype around the Oscars, the exclusivity of the "100 crore club", effect of corporatization and much more. Decoding Bollywood is more about demystifying the "world of Bollywood" than a mere decoding of 15 directors who have created benchmarks in their respective genres for generations to follow.
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My Life, My Rules: Stories of 18 Unconventional Ca
Rahul Akerkar has a Masters in Biochemical Engineering from the US but is better known as a celebrity chef and owner of Mumbais fine dining restaurant, Indigo; Manohar Parikkar went to the prestigious IIT, Bombay but makes headlines as the honorable Chief Minister of Goa; Harsha Bhogle is an alum of IIM Ahmedabad but is a world renowned cricket commentator and Rashmi Uday Singh was once the Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax but is widely known today as Indias famous food critic. These and 14 other fascinating stories feature in this book, My Life, My Rules: Stories of 18 Unconventional Careers, exploding every conventional myth about professional choices of a cross section of people. From a Doctorate in Environmental Toxicology who chose to be a musician: Rahul Ram of the Indian Ocean; an alumnus of IIM Calcutta with a successful corporate life who was inspired to write and became one of Indias bestselling authors with the Shiva Trilogy: Amish Tripathi; to a woman who gave up a highly paid and exciting life in advertising to work with an NGO: Ingrid Srinath. This book seeks to inspire every working individual from young professionals to senior level managers to opt out of the rat race, chase their dreams and pursue a profession of their choice for inner happiness, success and a long term career.