Sonia Golani - DECODING BOLLYWOOD: STORIES OF 15 FILM DIRECTORS

westland ltd

Decoding Bollywood

Sonia Golani has a BA (Hons.) in History from Lady Shri Ram College and a Masters degree from the University of Delhi. An entrepreneur, she manages her firm, Management Consultants Group which specializes in recruitment of professionals (MBAs and CAs) for Banking, Financial Services, Insurance and FMCG sectors.

She had the distinction of securing a second rank in Rajasthan State in class X Board exams. Later while pursuing ISC from Maharani Gayatri Devi Girls School, she topped her school. In college, she was elected as Treasurer, Students Union.

Her second book, My Life, My Rules: Stories of 18 Unconventional Careers was published to much acclaim in 2013. Passionate about life and its nuances, she plans to write several books, play golf, help people make better careers for themselves and hopefully do all of this with equal fervour!

Praise for My Life, My Rules: Stories of 18 Unconventional Careers

At the outset, let me congratulate you on bringing out an inspiring and very important book - My Life, My Rules (though what made me pick it up a couple of days ago was the catch phrase: Stories of 18 Unconventional Careers ). Please do keep writing and continue to do so in the easy, free-flowing style that you have.Subramanian Kalpathi,|Associate Partner, Memcorp Learning and Performance Solutions

Good Read. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Very inspirational. Learned a lesson that age, education is not a barrier if one decides to do something. Akhila,
on Flipkart

A must buy for everyonestudents, professionals, women, aspiring entrepreneurs, businessmen, etc.just on the last couple of chapters of this book.the author has done a great job and picked right people which perfectly matches the title of this book. Gaurav, on Flipkart

A good book is one that makes you think. You read it for a while. Some lines of it strike a chord inside you and you sit thinking about the lines and the ripples it created within you. You start reading the rest. Some line hits you. You start thinking again. This happens over and over until you finish the book. It was really rare that you find such books. Bhanu, on Goodreads

Reading your book My Life, My Rules Greatwant to meet. Kavita Seth, playback singer

westland ltd

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93, 1st Floor, Sham Lal Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110 002

First published by westland ltd 2014

First e=book edition: 2014

Copyright Sonia Golani 2014

Illustrations copyright Ahlawat Gunjan 2014

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-93-84030-30-8

Typeset: PrePSol Enterprises Pvt. Ltd.

Due care and diligence has been taken while editing and printing the book, neither the Author, Publisher nor the Printer of the book hold any responsibility for any mistake that may have crept in inadvertently. Westland Ltd., the Publisher and the printer will be free from any liability for damages and losses of any nature arising from or related to the content. All disputes are subject to the jurisdiction of competent courts in Chennai.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, circulated, and no reproduction in any form, in whole or in part (except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews) may be made without written permission of the publishers.

For

Mr M. V. Golani

(1931-2013)

We miss you Papa; You will live forever, in our hearts!

Contents

Acknowledgements

To Dilip Golani, my husband and Varun, my son: I dont have the slightest hesitation in reiterating many times over that its a true blessing to have you both in my life. Thanks for all your love and encouragement, Dilip and for letting me follow my heart and instinct. You are the rock, I am like the waves; your ocean-like serenity, the perfect foil to my swirling temperament.

Varun, my son, I am so proud to be your mother! I see the making of a man in you, having the same dedication and clarity of thought like your father. I draw my energy and motivation from you and Dilip and all that I wish for is Gods blessings to keep this circle of positive energy going.

My parents, H C Motwani and Subhash Motwani from whom I learn what everlasting companionship means and what good parenting is all about. I fall back on you for inspiration all the time, mom and dad!

My mother-in-law, Radha Golani for whose unconditional love for the family, I have immense admiration. The unflinching care she gave to my father-in-law, M V Golani for long years before he passed away in August 2013, makes me bow to her and put her on a pedestal. She is a true beacon of inspiration for us all.

To all my family members and friends whose endless love and support and the entertaining exchanges through all the possible mediums bring so much energy, vitality and the most valued zing to life: Madhavi & Anil Advani, Prashant, Priya, Vikram & Muskaan Motwani, Ashok, Madhavi, Mahesh & Bhavana Golani, Tara & Anil Ruchandani, Pushpa & Jai Vidhani, Anupam & Shubhra Verma, Jyoti & Sanjeev Singh, Rajiv & Sangeeta Sabharwal, Aparna & Maninder Juneja, Manjiri & Girish Kamat, Sonia Gauba, Harsharan Sabharwal, Disha Nawani, Arti Punjabi, Ame Rungta, Nivedita Goel Agarwala, Priti Singh, Priya Singh Aggarwal, Deeptha Venkatadari, Vandana Modi, Kusum Suresh, Reenu & Praveen Sharma, Devyani & Vivek Sehgal, Arti & Vivek Sood life seems so exciting with you all there Thanks for making it so beautiful!!

My deepest gratitude to all the participants in the book for sharing their precious time and experiences with me wholeheartedly. A special mention for Mahesh Bhatt and Prakash Jha for their affability and graciousness which helped the book to get a wonderful start.

I can never thank you enough Mahesh ji, Prakash ji, Rakeysh, Ashutosh, Rohit, Balki, Anurag, Farah, Zoya, Kunal, Nagesh, Nandita, Vipul, Kabir and Sudhir ji for taking me on a journey through your lives. I will cherish the interactions forever and I do hope that well meet again at different points in our journeys as they unfold from here on.

Tani Basu, Naresh Tandon, Srikant Velagaleti sincere thanks for all your support!

Thanks, Jaideep Varmayour film, Baawra Mann on Sudhir Mishra gave a good glimpse into his life.

Amarjeet, Mr. Nair, Sanobar at Lowe Lintas, Sunita at Kromakay, Harshit, Preksha, Aashin Shah and Sujata Jadhav from NCPA thank you!

Thank you team Westland: Sudha Sadanand, the Managing Editor without whose conviction in the concept, this book would not have become a reality.

Gunjan Ahlawat & Nitesh Mohanty for designing the beautiful cover and sketches for this book as well as for my earlier book, My Life, My Rules: Stories of 18
Unconventional Careers.

Anushree, Sarita, Avani, Satish, Krishna Kumar, Rajaram, Navin, Sankar, Gururaj, Satheesh for your incredible support.

Last but not the least, THANK YOU Gautam Padmanabhan, the captain of the ship, for inspiring the team to remain so driven, motivated, warm and friendly which makes every interface with Westland a pure joy!

Authors Note

It gives me great pleasure to present my third book, Decoding Bollywood: Stories of 15 Film Directors. After having written about two themes close to my heart viz., women in leadership positions covered in my first book, Corporate Divas and following your heart covered in the second, My Life, My Rules: Stories of 18 Unconventional Careers, I decided to write a book on Bollywood, the most popular name for the Mumbai film industry (even though unacceptable to many), which touches the lives of millions through one way or the other.