The industry is fast expanding & evolving, states TalentWala as it celebrates its first anniversary!

by  EVENTFAQS Bureau Industry Watch | March 16, 2023 | Interview

TalentWala Anirban Adhikary Abhijit Dey Angel Jose

Founded by the unified visions of 3 extremely different but equally passionate professionals - Anirban Adhikary, Abhijit Dey and Angel Jose, TalentWala is an emerging start-up dealing in various entertainment sectors ranging from Talent Curation, Celebrity Coordination, Influencer Fulfilment, and Event Services.

During the 1 year tenture, they curated 4 big music festivals across the country, ended up doing 763 artist bookings with 150+ unique talents, digital and influencer campaigns with 500+ unique influencers and content creators.

Currently, the team is thriving with 45+ team members and an overall 60+ employments in the last year. The company exclusively represents the work of 25+ unique artists and talents across the country including Samir Kochar, Fossils, Euphoria, Hriday Gattani, QK, Underground Authority, Antara Mitra, Rakesh Syam, Annanya Chakraborty, to name a few. Over the last one year, the company has worked with bollywood artists and celebs like Sonu Nigam, Jubin Nautiyal, Amit Trivedi, Salim Suleiman, Kailash Kher, Farhan Akhtar, Rashmika Mandana, Tisca Chopra, Benny Dayal, Darshan Raval, Papon, Javed Ali, Nikhita Gandhi, Ash King, among others.

In an exclusive interview with EVENTFAQS Media, the Founders of TalentWala Anirban Adhikary, Abhijit Dey and Angel Jose share insights on the journey celebrating the company's first year anniversary, importance of talent management, future initiatives and more.

Q. Celebrating the first anniversary of TalentWala, take us through your journey of how the company has grown internationally in just one year.

Anirban Adhikary: When we first started off a year back on 16th March,  we wanted to focus on every minute detail and specification about talent management and artist curations, as the name TalentWala suggests. We got tremendous support from artists and agencies alike, in the industry and the team started curating entertainment for clients across almost every city in India. Our work spread overseas where we got artists in Vietnam, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Bangladesh, Thailand, Nepal, Singapore, South Africa etc.

The team sizes increased and we soon shifted to swanky offices in Kolkata, Mumbai & Surat. Bangladesh as a country was absolutely booming in the entertainment and digital space and we capitalized on that, by building a proper structure and filling the voids. That's how our first International office came up in Dhaka, Bangladesh in January 2023. Our Bangladesh and Indian teams work hand in hand now to help brands and clients in terms of their end-to-end entertainment and digital services. Overall, the journey has been fascinating so far.

Q. Why is talent management so important in today’s scenario? Name a few of the talents that you manage exclusively.

Angel Jose: Today, talent management is no longer about just artist bookings. You need to upgrade yourself from a booking agency to a proper management agency who can take care of the artist touring, the logistics, hospitality, overall production, technicals, show flow, show design etc. Besides, we also focus on helping our artists build content, engage with brands and media houses and design a proper social media calendar. Our separate units in the different departments are striving constantly for this. We have been fortunate enough to be trusted by a number of keynote talents across the country.

Some of our exclusive artists are Samir Kochar, Fossils, Euphoria, Hriday Gattani, Antara Mitra, QK Aarya, Underground Authority, Ananya Chakraborty, Mentalist Rakesh Syam, Sauraseni Maitra, Alivia Sarkar, etc. Apart from trying to do justice to our exclusive talents in terms of overall management, we also help curate entertainment nights for our clients with other Bollywood and International artists, filler acts, etc. A lot of work also happens in the digital space for brands with influencers and content creators. 

Q. What are the current challenges being faced by the Indian music and live entertainment industry today and how can these be eliminated?

Abhijit Dey: The pandemic has opened up a lot of eyes for everyone. But the post-pandemic times have also created endless opportunities. We believe that challenges remain in every field, but nothing is impossible to overcome with adaptability, creativity, and innovation. One area where we would like to stress on still is proper artist management in an event, be it live or virtual, which is still lacking among many organisers, particularly in areas or towns which also face infrastructural challenges.

TalentWala is a member of EEMA and AMAI and both these bodies carry out extremely important and relevant sessions to guide everyone on the Do's & Don'ts of Artist management and Event management. One of such initiative is the EEMA Artist Committee, a group of enthusiasts dedicated to guiding the amazing talent in the live entertainment & event industry. We also feel that collaboration is key in today's world. Clients are having dedicated agencies to execute their works who in turn have production partners and different levels. It is an absolute high time that people start onboarding artist management agencies on a retainership model to distribute the workload and curate their entertainment requirements smoothly for all parties involved.

Q. With some of the recent incidents where artists are hurt during live shows, how do you as a Talent Management and Artist Curation company take precautions for your artists?

Abhijit Dey: We all know and have been extremely saddened and equally alarmed by back-to-back unfortunate incidents in recent times, involving KK, Sonu Nigam, and Benny Dayal. I am sure many more such incidents happen with artists at different levels, in different parts of the country, which do not even make the news. Some of them happen accidentally, some because of casual loopholes. As a Talent Management & Artist Curation agency, we focus strongly on artist security and maintain 100% hospitality riders of the entertainment acts we curate.

We also make proper contracts with our clients which have strict cancellation clauses mentioned for security reasons and non-fulfillment of riders. There are limits of liabilities mentioned in the contracts which help and we often had put our foot down to ensure absolute safety and comfort for the talents in an event. Some events also require proper recces beforehand. On the other hand, our on-ground team always remains calm yet agile, and they are our pillars for executing any event flawlessly. 

Q. What other future initiatives are planned through TalentWala? 

Anirban Adhikary: The industry is fast expanding and evolving and we see ample of opportunities for everyone. The hustle has to be on, we learn, gather experience, and better ourselves every day. Hard work & passion coupled with technology and innovation is what we constantly strive for - to stay ahead in the game. TalentWala has achieved significant numbers in the last one year with 763 artist bookings involving 150+ unique talents, influencer campaigns involving 500+ unique influencers, and having serviced 70+ clients regularly. While growth involves expansion in volume, we are also strongly focusing on improving the quality of our work and services, curating unique entertainment experiences globally, and creating a niche in boutique talent management in the Music industry. The days ahead look bright and happy and we thank our gods, our stars, the universe, and all our friends, colleagues, and stalwarts in the industry for their continued support! Together, upwards and onwards!

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