One of the most renowned names in Hindi & Punjabi film industry, Rajit Kumra is a senior Talent Agent with an experience of more than two decades in talent management, business development of films, television and advertising.
His real life story is almost as good as film story in itself ! He began his career very early when he was just 16 as a Stage Anchor and also conceived annual fashion shows for INIFD in Chandigarh where he was born and brought up !Soon after he ran off from his hometown and moved to Mumbai in the year 1999-2000 to pursue his dreams .
'The 1st person who believed in me and taught me how the film fraternity works is Sushmita Sen - Ex Miss Universe / Actress ' . She offered him to work with her as her Personal Assistant . As any young teenager , who was confused about what he wants to do with his career at that stage and with no guidance he experimented with many jobs before he found his true calling as a Talent Agent!
From 2001 to 2002, he worked as an entertainment reporter for Star Plus which was followed by doing post-production programs for B4U channel.
Besides this, he also has been an assistant director to Arjun Sablok for ' Naa Tum Jaano Naa Hum '(2002) , Naresh Malhotra for 'Dil Ka Rishta' (2003), Farah Khan for 'Main Hoon Na' (2004) and Anees Bazmee for 'Welcome' (2007).
He also worked as a costume stylist for the comedy show 'The Great Indian Laughter Challenge' in 2007 where he discovered he has an eye for styling as well and from there on has styled each of his talents that he has worked with till date.
However, by the end of 2007, he realised what he wanted to do. That's when he independently started working as a business manager to fashion designer Neeta Lulla and makeup artist Cory Walia. He recalls , ' MADHUR Bhandarkar's Fashion was one of the films I managed for CORY and gave a great exposure to film set ups ! If I am not wrong I even feature in a miss n blink scene in the Film '.
Rajit handled endorsements, films, shows and events for them which included services for brands like Lakme, Pantaloons, Absolut Vodka, Tata Sky, Dabur to name a few .
After working for around 4 years, he was offered a job with Yash Raj Films Talent Management Division where he worked as an associate head talent management from year 2010 to 2011 where he managed Actor -Rani Mukherjee & Shraddha Kapoor .
From 2011 to 2015, he worked as a talent management and business development head at Talent Mantra where he managed accounts of Aditi Rao Hydari, Shruti Haasan, Abhay Deol, Chitrangda Singh, Ali Zafar, Huma Qureshi and many other celebrities.
After working for so many years in Hindi film industry he realised that he needs to push talent from his own region and contribute to the region he belonged i.e. up north - Punjabi Film Industry ! He soon started working as an independent talent agent and setting up films as a consultant for Punjabi Film Industry simultaneously. In the interim he represented well known actors from north region like Sonam Bajwa, Kulraj Randhawa , Dolly Ahluwalia , Wamiqa Gabbi , Mandy Takhar & Parul Gulati along side consulting with Hindi mainstream actors like Shraddha Kapoor & Diljit Dosanjh.
'I feel today whether it's Actor , director , producer or for that matter any talent, they all need Professional representation in a form of Agent, to streamline their respective careers , strategise and do image management for them ' .
Being a strong leader with motivational management style, Rajit has an excellent track record of completing projects on schedule taken up by his talent. Right from pitching, planning strategies, imaging and locking projects for films, television and advertising campaigns; this man has established a good rapport with everyone in the industry. Moreover, he has played a key role in recognizing talent and bagging films for them .
'It's very easy to take the onus for any Artist's hard work and say I helped them achieve XYZ or the Artist to say I achieved success single handedly ! But the truth is it's the team work of both Talent & their Agent which creates history together & it's their equation that finally shows fruitful results'.
Along with feature films, Rajit Kumra also over looks PR for his talent so that their is a certain image that goes out to the world and is celebrated in the form of various cover stories of the top magazines & publications.
He has also done marketing and PR for Punjabi films 'SardaarJi 2' and 'Channa Mereya. ' I still fell Punjabi film fraternity has to come a long way in terms of professionalism but they are getting there.'
' I was last working with Film Maker Anees Bazmee for whom I set up his production house and am looking forward to his next release 'Pagalpanti' which I have literally seen come together
right under my eyes in my tenure with him '.
Last year he got Leading Film studio Viacom 18 to venture back into punjabi films and got a popular punjabi film franchise - Nikka Zaildar 3 which they ended up co produce with its original makers!
He also writes blogs on Punjabi Film fraternity and reviews their films from time to time . ' I like to give my 100 per cent to whatever I do, since I was working with Anees Ji last full year, my focus was setting up stuff for him & his production house and with limited time on hand I could not review many punjabi films in the year gone. Another reason is that so many times these punjabi movies do not get released in Mumbai where am based now. But I try my best to catch up on them when they are released online or I Am travelling to Punjab. Next I see myself doing a chat show with the punjabi Mainstream singers/actors getting them to talk about stuff they have never spoken about '.
He does so many things, so how does he manages to maintain the correct balance ? ' You do not ask this to a celebrated actor or Film Maker if he/ she does all of this together and rather call him /her bundle of talent ! Why can't a person with no film background or connections do the same and yet be considered extra talented ? I feel if I can do everything that I do by giving my 100 percent that's all what I need to prove to the world around me!My honesty, dedication and perseverance towards my job are the only talking points for me for any talent to believe in me '.
Working closely with the top names of tinseltown, Rajit Kumra has truly established his relations with the key players, strategic partners and top directors and producers from the Indian film industry.
Any bad experiences ?
'There will have to be some hits and misses in every ones career otherwise it will never be as challenging a job that it is, so I take all the bad experiences with a pinch of salt accepting them to be lessons learnt and find good ones as memories that will always remain with me '.
We hope that he finds more of such talent who can bring a significant change through films.
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