An Interview with Sucheta Shekhar from ‘Banana Boat Entertainment’
On the evening of August 20th, we were joined by a successful and talented media professional, who from conceptualizing an event to executing it with finesse has it all figured out.
With over 20 years of experience in the field of advertising and marketing, media relations, artist/celebrity management and event management, Sucheta Shekhar is an assertive, confident and passionate entrepreneur who is unapologetic about following her dreams.
The founder of ‘Banana Boat Entertainment Network’ Sucheta along with her team strives to provide result-oriented media development, public relations, deployment strategies and marketing designed to meet their client’s objectives.
As someone who enjoys learning and growing further in various spectrums of the industry, we were delighted to host her and hear her insights on the topic of discussion.
Her Journey
It’s been a long and exciting journey for Sucheta from starting her career in the space of advertising and marketing to today having her own event company. Before moving to Dubai where she went on to work with Land Rover, Sucheta spent a good few years teaching marketing and advertising courses at some of the top universities in the country.
Her experience working with Land Rover in Dubai included various in-house and international events on a large scale.
Wanting to start her own company, Sucheta moved back to India and founded Banana Boat Entertainment in Bangalore in 2014 and has not looked back since.
Over the years of running her own company, she has had the opportunity to interact and work with some of the most influential and reputed members of the event and entertainment industry including Prakash Padukone, Deepika Padukone and Farhan Akhtar to name a few.
She goes on to share her experiences working with both actors and the effort, time and commitment required to pull off an event of that magnitude.
Sucheta strongly believes in the mantra of ‘doing what you love’ and is confident that if one enjoys the work he does, the success and money is not far to follow. She is thankful and appreciative of the connections and relationships that being in the industry has led her to develop and enjoys every moment of getting to be a part of the dynamic environment that is the event industry.
What other kinds of events does her company cater to?
Over the years, Banana Boat Entertainment have done a lot of work with musical concerts, have associated themselves with many local malls, organised concerts and fashion shows and taken the liberty to explore various other avenues within the industry.
From team and brand building events to other corporate projects, they have contributed immensely to the space of advertising and marketing. Today, they are exploring the digital space and doing their best to reinvent and adapt to the changing times.
How has the pandemic affected their business?
Having affected the entire event industry, the pandemic has been difficult on everyone at Banana Boat Entertainment. In spite of being at their lowest economically, Sucheta is not disheartened as she believes that we as a community are together experiencing the same thing and that we are unconsciously already fighting the pandemic unanimously.
She has spent her time in lockdown bonding with her family, enjoying the down time while gearing up to start right back on track when the situation is under control.
Virtual Events
As someone who enjoys experiencing the thrill of organizing a live event first hand, Sucheta has come to accept the concept of virtual events as the need of the hour rather than something that she wishes to take up on her own.
Having said this, they have conducted a few corporate events on a small scale but connectivity and other technical issues continue to pose a threat to the space of virtual events.
Parting thoughts
“These are challenging times and similar to what we are often faced with within the industry. This should however not hold us back from following our passion and achieving what we set our minds on ”