Creative industries and cultural policies-

I am an employee of Tata Consultancy Services, India from Jan 2012 (graduated in 2011,
discipline - Information Technology). For my love of the field – Films and media, I took 1
year leave from my job and studied Post Graduation Diploma in Community Media (School
of Media and Cultural Studies) from one of the leading social science institutes of India: Tata
Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). I am determined to shift my domain from technical to
media as you could notice, hence, applying for this masters course (M.Sc in Creative
industries and cultural policy) in this prestigious university.

I solemnly aspire to pursue ‘Film & Media’ arena post my masters and this course will give
my career the much needed dimension that I wanted. Coming from a software background
and dealing with clients has given me a sharp edge on my understanding different business
perspectives as well as handling clients. I want to combine my 4 years of knowledge on
previous working space with the knowledge that I have acquired in recent times in the
domain of new age media to reach greater heights in the coming years.

As this university offers one of the reputed Creative industries and cultural policy (in Media)
in UK, I would like to seize this opportunity for the qualitative research methodology along
with the hands-on working approach (that this course would provide) to acquire a position in
an academically inclined media research practitioner in the media policy advisory sector. The
thing that draws my attention is the perfect blending of media, cultural policy, law,
management, economic and cultural composition under one course structure and how it
would help to navigate the young minds from all over the world to excel and contribute in
this critical section called ‘Centre for Cultural Policy Research’. This course has the
essential core and optional modules that would help me to understand the ‘crafts &
aesthetics’ of media and the law/policy associated with it. How we could collectively analyse,
manage in the long run (and for the long term) for the benefit of the diversified cultural
landscape- worldwide. Furthermore, the integration and synthesis of critical media praxis &
Management studies will bring together, weaving different concepts and pedagogies of space,
time, gender, class, caste, politics, laws and policies regulating the body of film and media
worldwide, and how globalisation has its effect on this.

As my background in founding a solid base in TISS (from School of Media and Cultural
studies) has broaden my horizons and introduced me to different methodologies and
ideologies of this arena through its diversified course-structure (consisting subjects like:
Understanding Community Media, Research Skills & Research Project, Community Theater,
Radio Production and Programming, Video-Production, Information-Communication-
Technology-for- Development, Writing for Print, Visual Design, Community
Radio, Community Video, Media Project, Block Fieldwork) I would like to take forward my
love for Media and cultural studies by becoming a Cultural policy research practitioner (in
economic and cultural media studies) after this masters course.
This foundational course in TISS has helped me to understand that a certain media and
cultural studies is not only about film, and television & media, but it is a way lot more than
that. It’s about society, eco-geo-socio-politically intertwined structures, anything and
everything in the worldly-view. It’s about human race and where we belong- as a particle and
as a community. Because it’s one sphere which is free and is definitely a power fool tool in
itself. I want to combine the independent ‘thinking do-er’ concept into the critical analysing
part of media consciousness to work on a path which eventually will help me to rebuilt the
concept of managing media (or it’s associated regulatory body) of mine and in this vision, I
definitely see a place like this prestigious university (which hold onto the originality through
the universality) to ignite the fire within, to re-shape and re-design my future.
As a student of TISS, I interned with a newspaper named 'The Sabha'- a field action project
of TISS, Mumbai, Centre for Criminology and Justice [ http://www.thesabha.org/about-
us/the-sabha/ ] for nearly two and half months. As they were a small team, so we managed to
do all kind of related works from reporting to editing, from distribution, publishing to account
management. The works published in print media (The Sabha) are:

 http://www.thesabha.org/community_newspaper/mumbai/matangs-agitation-for8-
reservation-within-schedule-caste/
 http://www.thesabha.org/community_newspaper/mumbai/cut-in-student-filmfestival-
2015/
 http://www.thesabha.org/community_newspaper/mumbai/students-on-the-
roadoccupyugc-feesmustfall-millionstudentmarch/
 http://www.thesabha.org/community_newspaper/mumbai/seminar-on-policereforms-
human-rights-at-glc/
 http://www.thesabha.org/community_newspaper/mumbai/ambujwadi-marchesfor-
water-bmc-arrogance-causes-traffic-jam/
 http://www.thesabha.org/community_newspaper/mumbai/pijratod/
 http://www.thesabha.org/community_newspaper/mumbai/mosaic-tiss-indomyanmar-
relations-and-northeast-india/

Also, as a part of our course structure, we collaborated with TISS field-action project
(Koshish: to know http://www.tiss.edu/view/11/projects/koshish/ ) in sem 1. It deals with the
subject beggary legislation act in India and how this law can criminalise anyone who if seen
with no visible means of substances of existence and it is high time that the old policy of
1959 should be revamped. We did a series of Public Service Announcements (both audios
and Videos made by our batch in groups).
My work link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDJoT7qqFV0)

We again collaborated with another NGO (Malvani Yuva Parishad, Mumbai) in sem 2 to do
the community video production with and for them. The theme was: the dire need of land
entitlement and schooling systems in the lives of people, especially the children of Malvani
slums.
Myworklink-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV2wfkSwLDo&list=PL1VLec7jLD_bdCm1YbysCNuu
ptKUgC5Px&index=3

We also did our class video and audio projects which involves a great deal of imagination,
brainstorming, ideation, writing, shooting, editing, and working in groups. The theme of our
class projects in Sem 2 were:
1. Migration and Mumbai (unorganised labour sectors in any big city and how economy plays
a big role in discriminating and marginalising a certain section within a society)
2. The notion of documentary films in common man’s point of view & if they have access to
this section of the films. Also the laws and cultural policies, regulatory body, limitations
associated with broadcasting of the documentary films.