Meet Village's new entrepreneurial culture kid Anmol Chhabra linking the community with cinemas and RRR.
As a child, Anmol (26), born in New Delhi, India and came to Melbourne at the age of eight, and was fascinated by the art of dance as it gave her the ability to express her feelings and emotions. She recollects her trips to India during summer breaks that deepened her roots. Looking back, music and dance were an inspiration that sparked her interest in the Indian culture.
Eighteen years later, with that spark, a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in marketing from Deakin University, she sets herself as Village Cinemas Marketing Coordinator for Communities presenting Melbourne with blockbusters from all across India, especially with the anticipated movie RRR (Rise, Roar, and Revolt) premiered in Melbourne on the twenty-fifth of March.
Having two years of experience with Village Cinemas, Anmol majorly handles Asian and Indian cinema, marketing and film content. She also looks after Brand Purpose of Village Cinemas.
Owing to her father's entrepreneurial skills and being involved in volunteering, such as the Australia India Society of Victoria (AISV) and other International relief events, she strived to stay connected to the community. She found this is what gave her that boost of confidence for this role.
"Before COVID we almost had two hundred Indian films release at Village Cinemas", says Anmol. Summing up the community not only with Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Indonesian films. Eighty per cent of the content or the area of focus for her is Indian content.
Coming out of lockdowns, the ratio of films from South-Asia is anywhere from between ten to fifteen a month.
Nicolas Robin, Executive General Manager, Revenue and Growth at Village Cinemas is delighted to be bringing a vast array of rich content to the big screen. "We are beyond passionate about sharing the joy of cinema with the community and are honoured to be celebrating Indian cinema at this scale. Through the power of storytelling, each title will uniquely connect Indian audiences to their roots", Mr Robin said.
The magic of Indian cinema has already come to life on the big screen from Friday 25 March to Monday 25 April as RRR, Lekh, Galwakdi, and K.G.F Chapter two.
The opening night was a blast with the screening of the much-awaited period action drama - RRR. The highly anticipated film stars N.T. Rama Rao Jr, Ram Charan, Alia Bhatt, and Ajay Devgan tells the story of two legendary revolutionaries and their journey away from home. The makers of RRR are now a proud enterprise and not complaining when it's breaking their Baahubali record at the Box office.
As for Anmol, it is a proud moment to be a part of this milestone when the idea was to connect the Indian festivities with Indian cinema. Further, to be inclusive of the diversity of all cultures.
From Anmol's perspective, she thinks the visibility of Indian cinema is showcasing different films from different regions of India, especially the way the content is coming through with films like RRR is above and beyond, showcasing the box office.
"Indian cinema is getting bigger and better on a year-to-year basis. I think that sort of visibility in that sense is there for Indian cinema" Anmol added.
The way how the box office is behaving with the release of RRR is a sheer result of the way the community is engaged. The premier of RRR saw people jumping on their seats, chorusing with Naatu the song, whistling, dancing and giving the eardrums a good run for their senses. As if one is sitting somewhere in India munching away each popcorn in anticipation for the next scene, and by in large, it's a three and half hour total paisa vasool moment.
Pioneering her belief in the community Anmol has created an enterprise within an enterprise as Village Cinemas, where a marketing coordinator has the liberty to give the audience what they're craving. Reading the audience's mind is a talent that Anmol has in plenty and we see this young woman soaring heights making a name for herself.
We at G'day India and the Indian Weekly are not only enthralled with RRR but also with this budding new talent Anmol, as unique as her name translates.
A great reminder to all of us that age is no bar and moving in with time is the essence of the community and its audience, as it's not about an individual but it's about the public. With that thought in mind, we couldn't help quoting, Steve Jobs - "Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do."
By Nandita Chakraborty