Meet The SHEROES - Aleya Sen

It is a busy morning in Aleya’s life. I call to interview her at 8 am; she has already wrapped up various important things at work, home and sent her young son to school. All this is happening while she right now busy directing her first Bollywood feature film. Here is a master juggler, who is an champion at all her acts.

Aleya, 38 years, is a Music video, feature and ad film maker. In 2004, Aleya along with Amit Sharma and Hemant Bhandari co - founded one of the leading and biggest production houses in India, Chrome Pictures. Today their turnover is of 80 Crores, has 65 employees and an exemplary CSR wing, Phool Versha Foundation.

Initially she and Amit worked as a directorial team and then took on as an independent director created advertising films for leading brands like Wagh Bakri, Godrej, Rasna, NDTV, Idea, Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), McDonalds, 18 Again & Sadev, etc. 

She has been awarded the Asia Pacific AdFest, True Awards, ProMax Asia, BDA World Gold Awards and Dada Saheb Phalke Film awards in 2013 for Salaam Bombay Foundation’s Anti-Tobacco campaign and Best film award in 2015 for Wagh Bakri. Her critically acclaimed work has been featured in Luerzer’s Archive for “Hanes’, “18 again” and UTI year over year.

In 2011, she co-directed and produced the Silent National Anthem – a distinguished public message video featuring students with hearing and speech impairment ‘singing’ the National Anthem in sign language. It won the Bronze medal at the Cannes Lion and Gold in the Goa Film Festival.

Currently she is directing her first full length Bollywood feature film. A love story to be released in 2017.

How do you map your journey so far?

It was always there in my blood and gene, from the very beginning. In my case from a very young age, I was trained in classical music and dance. I was exposed to the world of advertising as my father came from the same industry. He used to take me on advertising film shoots with him. In college I went on to study “Fine Arts” from, Delhi College of Arts. Just after that, I attended a film appreciation course in Pune.

Organically, it all fell into place for me, I understood how I wanted to shape my professional life, choose what to study and knew what was meant for me and my calling. I was clear in my head and I ended up working with Pradeep Sarkar.

Today all this adds up to my technical prowess, creative sensibilities, how I express myself and do what I do at work.  

I assisted Pradeep Sarkar for 5 years and at age 25 started my own company.

Besides being a creative person, there was always an entrepreneur in me. I believe if one has talent and knowledge, it is important to move ahead and scale it up. This is your identity. You must be a master at it and the world should get to see it.

As a director things moved really fast for me, within a year for our company, we got awards and we became one of the significant productions house known in the industry.

What is the secret to Chrome Pictures success?

Firstly, we started young and there was this adrenaline rush in all three of us and we were super driven. With that, we had zero doubts and it never crossed our mind that we will not be successful. There were no second thoughts about failure and any fears/inhibitions/cautions or blocks. 

Secondly, by nature we are workaholics and super proud of that fact. And by that I mean, if we have a free day, we create more work for our own selves. Like personally, if I am not at work, things don’t remain positive for me. That’s how much it means intrinsically to me. I don’t remember for the longest time going for a vacation because I extensively only travelled for my work. That’s how I have always loved and wanted it. I feel fortunate that I can eat my breakfast while standing on a railway track or dinner middle of busy highway while I think about how to incorporate the place into my film. This completes me.

Thirdly, Apart from being a supremely talented team, we are very honest with everyone in the industry. It is believed that if you tell one lie, to cover it up you have to tell hundred other lies. And there are 100 agencies in the industry, so we never lie. We give each project of ours the utmost best and this has built our goodwill. Goodwill is key in this industry for success.

Has your gender ever been a barrier for you?  

Considering the fact there are times I am the only woman on a set, it has never even occurred to me as an issue. ‘How good I am at my work?” is the only thing that matters. There have been times, when I have been shooting abroad, other people at work especially women have come to me and told me it is so laudable, how I hold so much authority over my work.

What has been the most challenging thing for you at work?

My biggest challenge has been my move from ad to feature filmmaking. I desperately wanted to make a film which I had written, but because the industry dynamics are different it didn’t happen that way. I had sleepless nights then. When you are at a peak to move from there to the higher peak is arduously more challenging and testing. Today, I feel blessed, as I met wonderful people through that process of waiting for few years. The people I am making a film with finally, I feel very happy and fortunate about it.

What is been your biggest milestone achievement?

I am just half through my journey. I am raring to go, in fact it is faster in my head right now. I have this greed to do more and more, especially when I have already conquered so many peaks.

How is your directorial debut as a feature film maker coming along?

Currently, I am still shooting. This time the story which I usually tell in 30 seconds, I am telling it in 2 hours. The scale is very big, it gives me great freedom and I love it. I am trained to make every frame matter in those 30 seconds. Ad film making requires being extremely detail oriented and efficient. This training and knowledge works to my advantage while I am working on my feature film. I do everything in the same detailed way, which not necessarily is done in features by others. It is being appreciated in my case.

Do you have any messages for younger entrepreneurs and filmmakers?

To entrepreneurs, I want to say that yes you need knowledge, passion and talent and it is extremely difficult to get a break in your life. But that is not the toughest thing to do. It can still happen and you can be successful.  

But the imperative thing is when you reach your peak, to be able maintain it and move to further higher ground. Success doesn’t remain so, if it is only for a short period of 1, 3 or 4 years. You have to have the substance to build and renew yourself. That is the only way to win.

For filmmakers it is important to understand this is not just about passion or livelihood. One will have to throw themselves into extreme situations and circumstances. It will be dangerous and difficult. It will make you sick or break you, but you still keep going on. That is what makes you powerful and successful.

What is your life motto?

Off the sets, people think of me as this tiny, docile and soft spoken person. When I am on my set of 500 people I am a fireball; radiating and lighting things up like the Sun. My clients ask for monitors 20 feet away from me. I have the power to deal with my niche client, vendors and team on my set of hundreds of people simultaneously with different sensibilities and demands, to align them all together to fulfill my vision.

I have sense of mad love for my work and that is what makes me good at my work.

I am a fireball; radiating and lighting things up like the Sun - Aleya Sen