M&E spotlight: 88 Pictures

The firm started a training institute called Gurukul, which offers people from remote areas the opportunity to train for three months. 

“I came from a humble beginning from a small town, and I’m the product of opportunities that were available to me, but not everyone gets those opportunities,” Shinde says. “We find students from remote parts of India, where they don’t have a lot of infrastructure, but they do have a lot of curiosity and a lot of innate skills. We bring them to a city like Mumbai or Bangalore, and we incorporate them into our system.” 

Trainees are assigned “buddies” and given simple tasks to start, with project complexity growing as they develop their skills. Shinde says the program is “very successful,” with some students learning the skills they need to work on productions in just six months.

This philosophy of continuous learning extends to the firm’s leaders, as well, Shinde says. “For example, our leadership team has to have good presentation skills that include language skills, so language training is very important,” he notes. “These are all upskilling experiences that help develop all-round talent, rather than just helping somebody become a better modeler.”