At the 24th MMA All-India Management Students’ Convention, Mr. Bharat Bala, acclaimed Indian film director and producer, shared his four-decade journey through filmmaking, emphasizing the power of collective rhythm and youthful energy in shaping India’s creative future.
My name is Bharat Bala, and I wanted to start today with a film that holds special meaning for me—a film about the boat races of Kerala.
Why this film? Because it represents something profound about who we are as a nation. In these races, you see 90 to 120 people on one boat—not professional athletes, but fishermen, school teachers, farmers, carpenters, plumbers, shopkeepers. They are diverse, like you and me. But when they sit on that boat together, somebody sets a rhythm. And if all these people find that rhythm, if they synchronize, they win the race.
This is the metaphor that drives everything I do. We are so diverse, especially as a country like India. The opportunity before us is this: if we find and resonate with a rhythm—a talam—within us, as individuals and as a nation, we will win. Success isn’t just individual; it’s collective. When we talk about winning, it’s about finding that common rhythm together.
Four Decades of Storytelling: From Analog to AI
I’ve been in filmmaking for four decades now, not three as they mentioned. I’ve journeyed from traditional analog filmmaking to digital, and now to AI. This vast canvas of content creation has given me phenomenal opportunities, but here’s the key: the storytelling remains the same. We just use new tools and become part of the innovation as it happens.
Despite these four decades, why did I get excited to be with you today? There’s something called youth—javani—that I’ve retained within myself. That’s what drives me. I wanted to share with you how this fire got ignited in me and how it stays alive even after all these years. You have the opportunity right now to retain something precious that you have and keep it as a constant factor as you go along. That energy will define you and sustain you throughout your journey.
Let me share an interesting way someone recently interpreted the alphabet for me. We all learned A-B-C-D as children, but think about it differently: B stands for birth, and D stands for death. Both are definite—birth has happened, and death will happen. But in between is C, which represents the choices we make. The choices we make will shape us.
For me, those choices have been about creativity, courage, and compassion. I’m filling my space between B and D with creativity and courage. When I say courage, I mean seeing opportunities and taking risks that might seem unconventional.
Thinking Different: The Early Years
I didn’t go to film school. I studied zoology at Vivekananda College in Chennai, wanted to pursue medicine but didn’t get in. So I accidentally got into filmmaking and became very successful in my advertising career early on.
What drove me was thinking differently. In those days, the hub of Indian advertising was Mumbai—Bombay at that time—and coming from Madras was considered somewhat backward. But I wanted to change that conversation, that dialogue. The world, to me, was an opportunity. I wanted to collaborate with creative minds from anywhere in the world.
For my very first series of commercials, I worked with cinematographer John Mathieson, who later went on to do Gladiator and Phantom of the Opera and was nominated multiple times for an Oscar. He set the ball rolling for me when we collaborated on the MRF commercials—”The tires we raise are the tires you buy.” That collaboration opened up a whole new world.
Vande Mataram: Creating an Idea for India
In the mid-’90s, something happened that changed my life’s direction. My father, who was part of the freedom struggle, called me one day. He was a Gandhian living in Mylapore, and he was frustrated. In that era of MTV, Levis, and Pepsi, anything India was not cool for young people. He saw that nothing was firing up young minds for this young nation.
He said to me: “In advertising, you create big ideas for products. You make commercials. You create emotions that consumers buy into. My son, can you create an idea for India? Can you create an idea that will bring fervour to young minds and create momentum and passion for this country?”
He talked about Vande Mataram, and on that very day, I stopped doing advertising. I was doing so well—I could have continued—but I said I would create an idea called Vande Mataram instead.
I reached out to my friend Rahman—we went to school together, he was my junior. He was Dilip then and became Rahman later. At that time, he had done over 100 TV commercials before he did Roja and was very successful with music for cinema. As an artist, he had made soundtracks for movies but had never made an album for himself. So I said, let’s create an album called Vande Mataram.
That decision set me free in my imagination and innovation. I was working on two things: creativity and filmmaking. I didn’t change my profession, but I interpreted it and opened up new ideas. It wasn’t just about business—though business happened—but first, it was about commitment and the courage to create a big idea.
The Largest Energy of Young Minds
We are a young nation with 30 crore young people. Again, I come back to talam, to rhythm. Imagine if we, as the largest energy of young minds, find our rhythm together—we will rock this world. We will deliver. We will write history. This is the opportunity before us, and that’s what excites me.
That’s why, even though you might be much smarter than me in AI, I feel I have the same enthusiasm as you. Definitely preserve and cherish this moment. It’s an opportunity that is calling you.
Virtual Bharat: Preserving Our Cultural Heritage
Growing up, I kept hearing from parents, teachers, and elders that India is rich with culture, rich with heritage. But I could never feel it, see it, embrace it, or immerse myself in it. I thought that was an amazing opportunity to do something different.
That’s how Virtual Bharat was born. We decided to create a big idea for India. In the next four to five years, it will be the largest repository of stories about India. We are creating 1,000 films on India—short films, 10 minutes each, but everything cinematic. Because we are nothing without culture, and culture isn’t just speaking our language and eating our food. There’s so much more to get inspired by in the diversity of this country.
We’re making these thousand films in all the languages of India—from Nagaland to the Rann of Kutch, from Sambalpur in Odisha to Kulasekarapatnam in Tamil Nadu. We’re preserving it in the cloud. We call it Virtual Bharat.
The Human Connection: Lessons from Munsari
Let me share a personal story. I lost my mother 20 years ago, but while doing stories in remote places across India, I’ve met families everywhere. I now have at least five to ten mothers taking care of me, calling me from the remotest corners.
One such example is near the China border in Uttarakhand—a place called Munsari. I went there to make a film called “The Women of Munsari.” They’re a hardy lot with tough lives but are incredibly courageous women. There were no hotels, so we stayed in people’s homes. I stayed with a lady called Hadidi.
Every day, she would make me munda ki atta—a millet roti cooked on a chula, everything farm to table. I loved it and kept eating the same thing for six days. When I said goodbye and landed in Mumbai, I opened my bag and found a big bag of the atta. She had packed it for me because I loved it so much. She treated me like a son.
Whatever is said and done with all the technology and innovations, what drives us is emotion. That’s the most important thing. Emotion shapes us, makes us feel, makes us do things that help us live as a better society.
AI with Emotional Intelligence
At Virtual Bharat, we’re using a lot of AI, but in a very smart way. We use it to understand and make films in multiple languages more quickly. It helps us in sound design and in what’s called previews—before we go make a film, we’re able to visualize it using AI. Then we use our own human intelligence and human creativity to create it.
These are great tools to engage with and experiment with. Our interaction with AI has been purely through creative intelligence and emotional intelligence, because every film is an emotional medium. We don’t want cold films to watch.
I have a lot of young people in my team—everybody is under 30 except a few. We research together and see how different people are prompting AI. We find that the more you embrace it, the more you push AI with an emotional prompt, the better and closer you get to what you want to present creatively. It’s a learning curve for me too, and that’s an opportunity we need to embrace.
The Road Ahead
I’m working on my next film where we’re making AI part of the storytelling itself. I can’t say much about it yet, but it will come soon.
I want each one of you to be part of this greater community we’re building—one that will preserve, celebrate, and share our culture. Do watch, embrace, and discover this great country of ours through Virtual Bharat.
Even after 30 years since Vande Mataram, I think it still resonates and keeps me young. It has given me shape and form. It’s important that you find your shape and form at this very important time in your life.
I’m still young enough and excited to do a lot more filmmaking. Let’s make this country an exciting place. We have a lot of opportunity. The most important things are commitment, focus, passion, and energy. Just drive yourself and don’t waste any moment.
This is your time. Let’s go for it.
